More than 2 million American children have a parent incarcerated, making the consequences of parental incarceration for families a critical concern. 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. In this article, we demonstrate how the quality of available data on paternal incarceration can be improved by supplementing a leading population-based survey of families with administrative records on criminal history from a state criminal justice agency. This administrative supplement provides only a low-end estimate of the extent of criminal justice involvement in our sample, but still increases the number of fathers identified with criminal histories by more than 20 percent. Building on such a supplement—in our current survey or future ones—could improve the identification of justice-involved fathers on a broader scale.
AlmadaLorenzo N.McCarthyIan M.TchernisRusty. 2015. What can we learn about the effects of food stamps on obesity in the presence of misreporting? Working paper. Available from SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2563822.
2.
AndersenLars H.2016. How children’s educational outcomes and criminality vary by duration and frequency of paternal incarceration. The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science (this volume).
3.
AndersenSigne Hald. 2016. Drinking alone? The effect of an alcohol treatment program on relationship stability for convicted drunk drivers in Denmark. The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science (this volume).
4.
ArdittiJoyce A.Lambert-ShuteJenniferJoestKaren. 2003. Saturday morning at the jail: Implications of incarceration for families and children. Family Relations52:195–204.
5.
BergerLawrenceCancianMariaCuestaLauraNoyesJennifer. 2016. Families at the intersection of the criminal justice and child protective services systems. The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science (this volume).
6.
BramanDonald S.2004. Doing time on the outside: Incarceration and family life in urban America. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.
7.
BushwayShawnBriggsShaunaTaxmanFayeThannerMeredithVan BrakleMischelle. 2007. Private providers of criminal history records: Do you get what you pay for? In Barriers to reentry? The labor market for released prisoners in post-industrial America, eds. BushwayShawnStollMichael A.WeimanDavid F., 174–200. New York, NY: Russell Sage Foundation.
8.
CaspiAvshalomTaylorAlanSmartMattJacksonJanTagamiSteveMoffittTerrie E.2001. Can women provide reliable information about their children’s fathers? Cross-informant agreement about men’s lifetime antisocial behaviour. Journal of Child Psychology & Psychiatry & Allied Disciplines42 (7): 915–20.
9.
ChoRosa Minhyo. 2009a. Impact of maternal imprisonment on children’s probability of grade retention. Journal of Urban Economics65 (1): 11–23.
10.
ChoRosa Minhyo. 2009b. The impact of maternal incarceration on children’s educational achievement. Journal of Human Resources44 (3): 772–97.
11.
ChoRosa Minhyo. 2011. Understanding the mechanism behind maternal imprisonment and adolescent school dropout. Family Relations60 (3): 272–89.
12.
ComfortMegan. 2008. Doing time together: Love and family in the shadow of the prison. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
13.
ComfortMegan. 2016. “A twenty-hour-a-day job”: The impact of frequent low-level criminal justice involvement on family life. The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science (this volume).
14.
FeeleyMalcolm M.1979. The process is the punishment: Handling cases in a lower criminal court. New York, NY: Russell Sage Foundation.
15.
FellnerJamie. 2010. The price of freedom: Bail and pretrial detention of low income nonfelony defendants in New York City. New York, NY: Human Rights Watch.
16.
FosterHollyHaganJohn. 2007. Incarceration and intergenerational social exclusion. Social Problems54 (4): 399–433.
17.
GellerAmanda. 2013. Paternal incarceration and father-child contact in fragile families. Journal of Marriage and Family76 (2): 411–27.
18.
GellerAmandaCooperCarey E.GarfinkelIrwinSchwartz-SoicherOfiraMincyRonald B.2012. Beyond absenteeism: Father incarceration and child development. Demography49 (1): 49–76.
19.
GellerAmandaJaegerKatePaceGarrett. Forthcoming. Using the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study in life course health development research. In Handbook of Life Course Health Development Science, eds. HalfonNealForrestChristopherLernerRichardFaustmanElaine M.New York, NY: Springer.
20.
GelmanAndrewHillJennifer. 2007. Data analysis using regression and multilevel/hierarchical models. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
21.
GlabersonWilliam. 13April2013 (2013a). Faltering courts, mired in delays. New York Times. Available from http://www.nytimes.com.
22.
GlabersonWilliam. 30April2013 (2013b). In misdemeanor cases, long waits for elusive trials, New York Times. Available from http://www.nytimes.com.
23.
GolubAndrewJohnsonBruce D.TaylorAngelaLibertyHilary James. 2002. The validity of arrestees’ self-reports: Variations across questions and persons. Justice Quarterly19 (3): 477–502.
24.
GrovesRobert M.2004. Survey errors and survey costs. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
25.
JohnsonElizabeth I.WaldfogelJane. 2002. Parental incarceration: Recent trends and implications for child welfare. Social Service Review76 (3): 460–79. doi: 10.1086/341184.
26.
KlingJeffrey R.2006. Incarceration length, employment, and earnings. American Economic Review86 (3): 863–76.
27.
LewisRobert (Producer). 14October2013 (2013a). Guilty until proven innocent: The story of a 19-year-old who spent five years on Rikers Island as a pretrial detainee. [Radio Story]. Available from http://www.wnyc.org/story/guilty-until-proven-innocent/.
MurrayJosephFarringtonDavid P.2010. Risk factors for conduct disorder and delinquency: Key findings from longitudinal studies. The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry55 (10): 633–42.
30.
NaginDaniel S.CullenFrancis T.JonsonCeryl Lero. 2009. Imprisonment and reoffending. Crime and Justice: A Review of Research38:115–200.
31.
National Center for Family and Marriage Research. 2012. Paper presented at the Measuring Incarceration in Household Surveys Invitational Forum, Washington, DC. Available from http://ncfmr.bgsu.edu/page106649.html.
32.
New York State Criminal Procedure Law § 170.55: Adjournment in Contemplation of Dismissal.
33.
NurseAnne M.2002. Fatherhood arrested. Nashville, TN: Vanderbilt University Press.
34.
ReichmanNancyTeitlerJulienGarfinkelIrwinMcLanahanSara. 2001. Fragile families: Sample and design. Children and Youth Services Review23 (4/5): 303–26.
35.
RoettgerMichael E.SwisherRaymond R.KuhDanielle C.ChavezJorge. 2011. Paternal incarceration and other illegal drug use from adolescence into young adulthood: Evidence from longitudinal panels of males and females in the United States. Addiction106 (1): 121–32.
36.
RubinDavid C.BaddeleyAlan D.1989. Telescoping is not time compression: A model of the dating of autobiographical events. Memory and Cognition17 (6): 653–61.
37.
WakefieldSaraLeeHedwigWildemanChristopher. 2016. Tough on crime, tough on families? Criminal justice and family life in America. The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science (this volume).
38.
WakefieldSaraWildemanChristopher. 2011. Mass imprisonment and racial disparities in childhood behavioral problems. Criminology and Public Policy10 (3): 793–817.
39.
WakefieldSaraWildemanChristopher. 2014. Children of the prison boom: Mass incarceration and the future of American inequality. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
40.
WesternBrucePettitBecky. 2010. Incarceration and social inequality. Daedalus139 (3): 8–19.
