Geller A, Jaeger K, Pace G. Surveys, Records, and the Study of Incarceration in Families.
THE ANNALS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY OF POLITICAL AND SOCIAL SCIENCE 2016;
665:22-43. [PMID:
34531606 PMCID:
PMC8443078 DOI:
10.1177/0002716216633449]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/30/2023]
Abstract
More than 2 million American children have a parent incarcerated, making the consequences of parental incarceration for families critical to understand. A growing literature documents significant challenges not only among incarcerated men, but also among their spouses, partners, and children. Much remains to be learned about these experiences; however, and the data available for doing so are limited. This analysis takes steps to improve the quality of available data on paternal incarceration by supplementing a leading population-based survey of families with administrative criminal history records from a state criminal justice agency. While this administrative supplement provides only a lower-bound on the extent of criminal justice involvement in our sample, it increases the number of fathers identified with criminal histories by more than 20%. Building upon such a supplement, in our current survey or future ones, stands to improve the identification of justice-involved fathers on a broader scale.
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