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The Institute for Policy Research
Presentations and Panelists: “Children
with Fathers in Prison and their Transition to Adulthood”
John Hagan is studying the intergenerational implications of mass incarceration, specifically looking at the troubled transitions of children of incarcerated fathers from adolescence to adulthood. Though crime rates have decreased annually since the early 1990s, rates of imprisonment have continued to climb, exacerbating the social exclusion of fathers in prison and engendering further exclusion of young adults through homelessness, lack of healthcare and health insurance, and political non-participation. In particular, the combination of having a father in prison and failure in school has an increasingly exclusionary effect on children as they become adults. Though Hagan and his research partner, Holly Foster at Texas A&M, find evidence that the effects are mostly gender neutral, they have found one disturbing trend: Teenage girls whose biological fathers are imprisoned are at greater risk for homelessness as well as abuse and neglect by non-biological father figures at home. Hagan’s other research interests include Vietnam War resisters, war crimes, and the International Criminal Tribunal at The Hague. He is a research fellow at the American Bar Foundation, an IPR faculty associate, John D. MacArthur Professor of Sociology and Law at Northwestern University, and the author or co-author of nine books, including Mean Streets: Youth Crime and Homelessness (Cambridge University Press, 1998). “The
Disenfranchisement and Civic Reintegration of Felons” Jeff Manza studies social inequalities in American politics. Together with Christopher Uggen of the University of Minnesota, he has examined the origins, development, and contemporary impact of state laws that bar felons and some ex-felons from voting. Among their key findings: Eight of 400 Senate elections between 1978 and 2000 would have been overturned had felons been allowed to vote, and the disenfranchisement of ex-offenders hinders their chances for successful reintegration. Results of their research have been widely reported in the news media (Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Newsweek, and The Nation), and their findings have been drawn upon by several states in efforts to challenge laws denying ex-felons the right to vote. In addition to a series of scholarly papers, Manza and Uggen are the authors of a forthcoming book entitled Locked Out: Felon Disenfranchisement and American Democracy (Oxford University Press, forthcoming November 2005). Manza is acting director of the Institute for Policy Research, an IPR faculty fellow, and an associate professor of sociology at Northwestern University. “Prisoner
Re-entry: The Problems of Employment” Devah Pager’s research focuses on racial stratification in education, employment, and the criminal justice system. In her study, “The Mark of a Criminal Record,” she sent matched pairs of young black and white men to apply for entry-level job openings throughout Milwaukee to assess the effects of race and criminal records on hiring outcomes. One of the most striking findings from this study was that employers were more likely to call back white applicants with criminal records for interviews than black applicants with no criminal history. The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, and New York Times have reported on her findings. She is writing a book on the subject, The Mark of a Criminal Record: Race, Crime and Getting a Job (University of Chicago Press, forthcoming), and has replicated the study in New York City. Pager is a faculty associate at the Office of Population Research and an assistant professor of sociology at Princeton University.
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