Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Incarceration diminishes the life-chances of adults, but little is known about how parental incarceration affects children. Effects on early childhood aggressive behaviors are especially intriguing because of the strong connections between early childhood aggressive behaviors and future criminality. Using data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, a longitudinal birth cohort study of children born in urban centers at the close of the 20th century, this paper considers the effects of paternal incarceration on children’s aggressive behaviors at age 5. Results show strong effects of paternal incarceration on aggressive behaviors for boys but not girls. Results also show that effects are concentrated among boys living with their fathers at the time of his incarceration. The use of various modeling strategies and alternate dependent and independent variables demonstrates the robustness of the finding – and shows that effects are largest on physically aggressive acts, precisely the acts most strongly connected with future criminal activity. Results also indicate that paternal incarceration does lead to more problem behaviors for children – at least in some areas – and suggest that paternal incarceration may promote the intergenerational transmission of crime and incarceration.