Incarceration & Families
This line of research is focused on how mass incarceration, primarily in the United States, has reshaped families. The major works listed below include reviews of research on the ‘collateral consequences’ of mass incarceration for family life and several pieces documenting the relationship between parental incarceration and harms to their children. Papers that are inaccessible because of journal paywalls can be requested directly here.
On the effects of criminal legal system contact for families and communities: Wakefield, Sara. 2022. “Incarceration, Families, and Communities: Recent Developments and Enduring Challenges.” Crime & Justice: A Review of Research (Prisons and Prisoners) 51: 399-434.
On the costs of pretrial detention for family dissolution, labor market outcomes, and recidivism: Wakefield, Sara and Lars Højsgaard Andersen. “Pretrial Detention and the Costs of System Overreach for Employment and Family Life.” Sociological Science 7: 342-366.
On the incidence of incarceration of a family member: Enns et al. 2019. “How Many Americans Have Ever Had a Family Member Incarcerated?: Evidence From the Family History of Incarceration Survey (FamHIS)” Socius 5: 1-45.
Downloadable data and replication files from the Roper Center, Cornell University
On the consequences of American criminal justice for family life in the United States: Wakefield, Lee, and Wildeman. 2019. “Tough on Crime, Tough on Families? Criminal Justice and Family Life in the United States.” Editorial introduction to a special issue of The ANNALS of the Academy of Political and Social Science on criminal justice and families.
On parental incarceration and the intergenerational transmission of disadvantage: Wakefield, Sara and Christopher Wildeman. 2013. Children of the Prison Boom: Mass Incarceration and the Future of American Inequality. New York: NY: Oxford University Press.
On parental incarceration and racial disparities in child wellbeing: Wakefield, Sara and Christopher Wildeman. “Mass Imprisonment and Racial Disparities in Childhood Behavioral Problems.” Criminology & Public Policy 10, 3: 793-817.
On the consequences of paternal incarceration for caregiver-child relationships: Wakefield, Sara. “Accentuating the Positive or Eliminating the Negative? Father Incarceration and Caregiver-Child Relationship Quality.” Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology 104, 4: 905-928.