red dot icon
Journal Article
Children tend to fare better when fathers are involved in their lives. Numerous studies have shown fathers’ emotional and financial involvement enhances children’s social, behavioral, and academic outcomes. In 2018, the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) undertook the Fatherhood, Relationships, and Marriage – Illuminating the Next Generation of Research (FRAMING Research) project to systematically identify current gaps in the knowledge base for Healthy Marriage and Relationship Education (HMRE) and RF programming. Fathers involved in the criminal justice system often face…
red dot icon
Journal Article
The Building Bridges and Bonds (B3) study partnered with fatherhood experts and practitioners to identify new and promising approaches to supporting fathers working toward economic stability and improved relationships with their children. The study team tested three innovative, interactive skill-building approaches that addressed parenting and economic stability, within the context of existing programs offering services for fathers. The objective of the B3 study was to implement and test these innovative new interventions in the context of usual fatherhood services, and to learn whether…
red dot icon
Journal Article
Background: The role that fathers play in the lives of their families, particularly, the lives of children, is vitally important. Research has found positive associations between father involvement and factors, such as infant cognitive outcomes, children's schoolreadiness where levels of mothers' supportiveness are low, better socioemotional, and academic functioning in children. Black males, many who are fathers, are disproportionately overrepresented within the criminal justice system. High incarceration rates have significant economic and social impacts on families and communities.…
red dot icon
Journal Article
This paper is one of the first systematic assessments of ex-felons’ workplace performance. Using FOIA-requested data from the Department of Defense, we follow 1.3 million ex-offender and non-offender enlistees in the US military from 2002 to 2009. Those with a felony background show no difference in attrition rates due to poor performance compared to those without criminal records. Moreover, ex-felons are promoted more quickly and to higher ranks than other enlistees. At the same time, we find that ex-felons are slightly more likely to commit a legal offense in the military system (5 percent…
red dot icon
Journal Article
Since the mid-1970s the U.S. imprisonment rate has increased roughly fivefold. As Christopher Wildeman and Bruce Western explain, the effects of this sea change in the imprisonment rate--commonly called mass imprisonment or the prison boom--have been concentrated among those most likely to form fragile families: poor and minority men with little schooling.Imprisonment diminishes the earnings of adult men, compromises their health, reduces familial resources, and contributes to family breakup. It also adds to the deficits of poor children, thus ensuring that the effects of imprisonment on…
red dot icon
Journal Article
Prior research indicates that assuming family roles, such as parent or spouse, can aid in the transition from prison to the community and has been linked to positive outcomes after a period of confinement. Using data from a longitudinal study of men returning to the community after incarceration, this study examines how the relationship between fathers and their children immediately after release may impact aspects of fathers' lives that are important to a successful reentry transition in the first year, such as employment, abstinence from substance abuse, and mental health. Analyses show…
red dot icon
Journal Article
Key demographics were recently released from a study of reentry programs under the Serious and Violent Offender Reentry Initiative (SVORI) -- a Federal effort to help States use their correctional resources to reduce recidivism. Aimed at increasing public safety, SVORI is an unprecedented national response to the criminal justice, employment, education, health, and housing challenges that adult and juvenile offenders face when they return to the community. This article summarizes the demographics and responses of the men who participated in the 5-year SVORI program.
