Overview
The term “crack baby” is a derogatory reference to babies who were exposed to cocaine as fetuses, which emerged as part of the general hysteria over the crack epidemic in the United States during the 1980s onward. Some studies then had suggested that those exposed to cocain in the womb would develop severe, permanent disabilities that would compromise their quality of life and become a burden for social services. Later studies contradicted the strength of the claims in these earlier studies, many of which were methodologically flawed and failed to separate a mother’s usage of cocaine from other health complications and managed small sample sizes. Nevertheless, as with many narratives rooted in moral panics that served sociopolitical agendas divorced from the realities of good scientific practices and evidentiary standards, particularly from the peak of the War on Drugs era, the misconceptions were embedded into the public consciousness.