The Impact of Incarceration on Family Formation: The Fragile Families and Child Well-being Study

SES-0004336 Westerfield研究探讨了监禁对弱势父母家庭关系的影响。虽然服刑人口现在总共约有190万名囚犯，估计有150万儿童的父母一方目前被拘留，但没有全国性的调查数据来研究监禁对家庭和儿童的影响。在脆弱家庭和儿童福利研究的主持下，调查人员将完成一项新的数据收集，以研究监禁的影响。脆弱家庭调查是一项针对新父母的全国性小组研究，收集了有关家庭形成模式、儿童福祉和父母资源的丰富数据。第一次后续调查-直到2001年夏季在大多数地点进行-包括一个刑事司法单元，从男女答卷人那里获得详细的监禁历史。 资金将用于支持在第三和第四波调查中更新这一信息。此外，调查人员将管理就业历史，推理能力和冲动的特殊模块。这些模块旨在测量犯罪行为的稳定倾向，这将有助于控制对罪犯的非随机选择进入刑罚系统。 将对数据进行分析，以审查监禁对男子就业和收入的影响，以及监禁对家庭组成的直接影响。 据推测，监禁对男子的就业机会产生了负面影响，使刑满释放人员对婚姻或同居伴侣没有吸引力。无论他们的经济状况如何，监禁的耻辱标志着不可靠，进一步减少了有监狱记录的男子的婚姻前景。虽然这项研究的重点是监禁与家庭组成之间的联系，但对刑事犯罪者的经济地位、他们的心理健康、参与养育子女、暴力或虐待倾向以及其他广泛主题感兴趣的研究人员将对这些数据产生广泛的兴趣。

SES-0004336WesternThis study examines the impact of incarceration on the family relationships of disadvantaged parents. Although the penal population now totals around 1.9 million inmates and an estimated 1.5 million children have a parent currently in custody, no national survey data are available to study the effects of incarceration on families and children. Under the auspices of the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, the investigators will complete a new data collection to examine the effects of incarceration. The Fragile Families survey is a national panel study of new parents that collects rich data on patterns of family formation, child wellbeing, and parental resources. The first follow-up survey - in the field in most sites until summer 2001 - includes a criminal justice module that obtains a detailed incarceration history from male and female respondents. Funds will support an update of this information in the third and fourth waves of the survey. In addition, the investigators will administer special modules for employment history, reasoning ability, and impulsivity. These modules are intended to measure stable propensities to criminal behavior that will help control for the nonrandom selection of offenders into the penal system. Data will be analyzed to examine the effects of incarceration on men's employment and earnings, and the direct effect of incarceration on family formation. It is hypothesized that incarceration negatively influences men's employment opportunities making ex-inmates unattractive partners for marriage or cohabitation. Regardless of their economic status, the stigma of incarceration signals unreliability, further diminishing the marriage prospects of men with prison records. While the study focuses on the link between incarceration and family formation, the data will be of broad interest to researchers interested in the economic position of criminal offenders, their mental health, involvement in parenting, propensity to violence or abuse and a wide range of other topics.