Social Workers Apprehend Children

Introduction
When child protection workers apprehend children and youth, it is assumed the children and youth will be placed in safe places, however, incidents of sexualized violence against children and youth in care are happening at alarming rates and is an issue that must be addressed through policy reform. Currently, there is no legislation holding the government responsible when children or youth are victims of sexualized violence. According to Turpel-Lafond (2016) "children and youth in government care are more vulnerable to incidents of sexualized violence than their peers who are not in care" (p.2). One piece of our role as emerging child protection social workers is to critically examine the issues facing children and youth; if we

Moreover, when government agencies are apprehending children and youth, they are presuming responsibility for those children and youth - it is unacceptable that these children are further harmed by the placements that the governing body chose when they had intended to protect them. Moreover, Aboriginal children are misrepresented in today’s child welfare system because it is based upon colonial ideologies that used assimilation and child apprehension as a means to diminish Indigenous culture and to take over their resourceful lands. For decolonization to occur, the government must take responsibility for the fact that while in care, Aboriginal children continue to face violence. According to Turpel-Lafond (2016) "of the victims of reported sexualized violence in 2015/16, nearly twice as many were Aboriginal girls than non-Aboriginal" (p.1). Rightfully so, Aboriginal communities do not trust child protection agencies, and in order for government agencies to begin to build trust, they must address the sexualized violence which takes place while children and youth are in