Reimagining Care Beyond the System: Diverse Perspectives on the Los Angeles Foster Industrial Complex from Lived and Professional Experience

Abstract

This qualitative study examines the influence of systemic violence on LA County’s fostercare system through the perceptions and experiences of professionals working in and those serviced by foster-care. Guided by a decolonial analytic framework, the study draws on interviews with fourteen participants representing multiple roles within and adjacent to the foster care system. Data were analyzed using first- and second-cycle coding methods, with second-cycle analysis explicitly informed by decolonial theory. Findings indicate that harm within the foster care system is not episodic or accidental but structurally produced through asymmetrical authority, fear-based compliance, avoidance of services, system-generated trauma, and the disruption of family relationships. Participants identified community support and family connection as primary sources of safety and well-being, often in contrast to institutional intervention. Data also revealed how the foster care system constrains impact participants’ capacity to imagine forms of care beyond it. These findings challenge dominant child welfare narratives that frame intervention as inherently protective while obscuring structural violence. The study concludes by discussing implications for policy, practice, and future research, emphasizing the need for approaches that reduce coercion, center relational continuity, and invest in community-based infrastructures.