“Ban-the-Box” (BTB) policies restrict employers from asking about applicants’ criminal histories on job applications and are often presented as a means of reducing unemployment among black men, who disproportionately have criminal records. However, withholding information about criminal records could risk encouraging racial discrimination: employers may make assumptions about criminality based on the applicant's race. To investigate BTB’s effects, we sent approximately 15,000 online job applications on behalf of fictitious young male applicants to employers in New Jersey and New York City…
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Journal Article Jobs and employment are central to the history of discrimination and exclusion in the United States. Even in the 21st century, racial and ethnic disparities persist. This report will show that, in the two recessions of this century, African-American men’s employment rates fell farther and recovered more slowly than did other men’s employment. The effects of job loss linger, too, in the anxiety of people who are working. African-American and Hispanic workers, both male and female, feel less secure in their jobs than do non-Hispanic white men and women. (Author abstract)
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Journal Article Single motherhood has long been linked to the risk for child maltreatment. However, little is known about the role of fathers in buffering mothers' risk for child maltreatment. Using data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, this paper investigates (1) the ways in which non-resident fathers' economic contributions and involvement in parenting may moderate associations between mothers' transitions to being single and the risk for child maltreatment, and (2) whether these processes vary by race/ethnicity. Results indicate that mothers' transitions to being single are not…
This report measures how children from different racial backgrounds are faring in the United States and focuses particularly on children in immigrant families. The data presented are drawn from 2013-2015, and indicate significant racial and ethnic inequities among children, with Asian and Pacific Islander and white children generally doing better in almost every area of child well-being than their African-American, Latino, and American Indian peers. The data also indicate the number of children living in low poverty neighborhoods has decreased across all groups. Following an introduction,…
Brief
Using data from the National Survey of Early Care and Education, this brief reports differences in the child care settings foreign-born and US-born parents select for their young children. The authors explore differences in parents’ child care preferences and perceptions and how being an immigrant and having limited English proficiency, among other factors, might influence parents’ interest in and ability to access different child care. (Author abstract)
Brief
This report highlights the changing socio-demographic composition of program participants for AFDC/TANF, SNAP and SSI between 1988 and 2015 and discusses the importance of addressing the needs of program participants from diverse backgrounds. (Author abstract)
Other
These tables look at the demographic characteristics of the adult population 15 years and older. They describe the current marital status of people in the United States for selected age and earnings groups, as well as living arrangements and characteristics of parents with coresident children under 18. (Author abstract)
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Journal Article Largely overlooked in the theoretical and empirical literature on the crime decline is a long tradition of research in criminology and urban sociology that considers how violence is regulated through informal sources of social control arising from residents and organizations internal to communities. In this article, we incorporate the “systemic” model of community life into debates on the U.S. crime drop, and we focus on the role that local nonprofit organizations played in the national decline of violence from the 1990s to the 2010s. Using longitudinal data and a strategy to account for the…
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Journal Article The benefits of fathers’ involvement in their children’s lives are well documented. However, the effect of incarceration, especially among Black families, has contributed to disbanded family bonds. Spells of incarceration disrupt family relationships and having a criminal record results in formerly incarcerated men being jobless and unable to financially contribute to their families. Fatherhood encompasses more than being the sole household income earner and father involvement is complex, particularly within contemporary family structures (Jones & Mosher, 2013). Incarceration,…
This chapter reviews the literature on fathers and their unique influences on positive child development in minority children in the United States. It begins with an historical overview of the field of fatherhood research that has been conducted primarily with minority (African American and Latino) families in the United States. It then describes the central research questions framing studies on ethnic minority fathers and discusses issues related to measurement and methodology. The majority of the chapter reviews empirical findings on the ways that ethnic minority fathers are engaged with…