“It’s Not Really Geared to Include the Father”: System-Involved Fathers’ Narratives of Penal-Welfare Hybridity

Abstract

System-involved fathers face barriers that limit their ability to cultivate healthy relationships with their children. This study examines how fathers describe institutional intersectionality or the hybridity of multiple-system involvement. Focus groups with system-involved fathers (N = 17) were conducted between 2021 and 2022, following completion of the 24-7 Dad® parenting program. Data were analyzed drawing upon a thematic analysis of hybridity. Findings show that the cyclical nature of involvement across child welfare, child support, and criminal justice forms a hybrid cycle of penalization or injustice due to mother-centricity, cultural mistrust, and societal devaluation. Racism and poverty further intensify penalization. A conceptual model outlining pathways of penalization is proposed. Interventions must center father-inclusive practices and promote a cultural reframing of fathers’ value. Future research should validate the model in other contexts.

Keywords

qualitative research father(s)parenting/motherhood/fatherhood family systems and functioning race identity/identities gender disparities/social determinats of health criminal justice/forensic social work ethnicity

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