States which have harsher incarceration and less generous welfare policies tend to place more children in foster care.

Across the Unites States, the number of children taken into foster care every year varies greatly. In new research, Frank Edwards take a close look at how this number is influenced by states’ criminal justice, welfare, and child protection regimes. He finds that states with more punitive criminal justice systems are likely to put 4.9 children per 1,000 into foster care annually. States with generous welfare programs, on the other hand, are likely to put only 3.7 per 1,000 into foster care every year.