Unintended Impacts of Sentencing Reforms & Incarceration on Family Structure

PROJECT SUMMARY FOR 96-CE-VX-0015
This project will assess the impacts of incarceration and ì
sentencing reforms on family structure and family stability. The ì
goal of the research is to look at the same problem in multiple ì
ways. This will include investigating the same empirical issue ì
using three different data sets and applying a variety of ì
statistical methods. The objective is to understand the causal ì
relationships between male withdrawal from productive spheres of ì
the economy and the resulting changes that occur within the ì
community and the families that remain behind.

Three sets of overlapping and complementary questions will be ì
addressed in this research project: (1) questions related to the ì
flow of inmates into prisons; (2) questions related to sentencing ì
reforms; and (3) questions focused on family disruption in a ì
single state. Together these three sets of questions will provide ì
a comprehensive and broad-based context within which to address ì
the key concern of whether incarceration and/or sentencing ì
reforms have the unintended impact of destabilizing families or ì
causing neighborhood disruption.