The Effect of Incarceration on Marriage and Work Over the Life Course

“Incarceration often elicits strong feelings of shame and anger for the family and associates of inmates (Braman, 2002; Hagan & Dinovitzer, 1999).”

“In addition, the literature linking marriage to positive outcomes on parole is quite strong, yet data show that few high-risk offenders are married before prison and even fewer sustain marriages following incarceration (Huebner, 2005).”

“The stigma attached to those who have been incarcerated makes them less desirable partners (Wilson 1987) and they have lower marriage rates following imprisonment (Huebner 2005).”

“It is associated with a delayed and disordered passage through the life course (Western, Lopoo, & McLanahan, 2004) and has negative effects on employment (Huebner, 2005), income (Western, 2002), and health (Schnittker & John, 2007).”

“To be sure, strong associations exist between imprisonment and divorce and separation (Huebner, 2005; Western, Lopoo, and McLanahan, 2004; but see Lopoo and Western, 2005), where the likelihood of marital success is diminished when monetary and emotional strains are placed on remaining partners…”

“Effects of incarceration on marriage are important since marriage is expected to yield, for example, better family and social support, better outcomes for children, and less recidivism, among other benefits (Huebner 2005; Clear 2009).”

“The causes of this economic marginalization can be multifaceted, including human capital deficits resulting from being incarcerated (eg, work experience and skill deficits), financial hardship caused by monetary sanctions (ie, court costs, fees, and fines), and laws that restrict economic opportunities for persons con…”

“…opportunities for marriage will be limited . . . [and] the stigma of incarceration makes single mothers reluctant to marry or live with the fathers of their children” (Uggen, Wakefield, and Western 2005, p. 221), with the result that both work and marriage prospects are degraded (Huebner 2005).”

“This finding conflicts with other studies that observe long-term effects (Huebner 2005, 2007; Lopoo and Western 2005; Raphael 2007; Sampson and Laub 1993; Sampson et al. 2006).”

“Imprisonment often reduces opportunities for traditional employment and severs family ties and social relationships (Huebner, 2005; Pager, 2003; Western, 2002; Western et al., 2004).”

“They may also experience trouble forming and maintaining social ties, leading to higher rates of marital dissolution and social isolation (Berg & Huebner, 2011; Huebner, 2005).”

“…continued to show that incarceration has unintended consequences by disrupting conventional achievement prospects that have been shown to lower criminal offending (e.g., employment, marriage; Hagan and Dinovitzer, 1999; Huebner, 2005; Lopoo and Western, 2005; Sampson and Laub, 1993; Uggen, 2000).”

“…sizes are well in line with those yielded by prior research (compare with Apel et al. 2010; ba ak and Kennedy 2015; Fallesen and Andersen 2015; Huebner 2005, 2007; Lopoo and Western 2005; Massoglia, Remster, and King 2014; Raphael 2007; Van Schellen, Poortman, and Nieuwbeerta 2012; Western…”

“…of housing and food insecurity, unemployment, exclusion from social programs after release, and a decreased ability to build or maintain wealth (Huebner, 2005; Maroto, 2015; Massoglia & Remster, 2019; Schwartz-Soicher, Geller, & Garfinkel, 2011; Turney & Schneider, 2016; Uggen, Manza, &…”

“Furthermore, in comparisons between ex-inmates and comparable nonincarcerated individuals, ex-inmates consistently exhibit employment probabilities that are approximately 10–15 percent lower (Apel and Sweeten, 2010; Huebner, 2005; Waldfogel, 1994).”

“Incarceration has been linked with a 10 percent decrease in the likelihood of marriage for men at the individual level (Huebner, 2005).”

“…of imprisonment include a risk of divorce nearly 3 times higher than the general population (Lopoo & Western, 2005), loss of employment opportunities (Huebner, 2005), and high amounts of debt likely affecting ex-prisoners’ ability to find housing on release (Travis, Solomon, & Waul, 2001).”

“Several studies in the field of criminology have shown that imprisonment can challenge prisoners’ employment opportunities, housing opportunities and marital opportunities (see, among others, Fagan and Freeman, 1999; Huebner, 2005; Roman and Travis, 2006).”

“Moreover, incarceration can damage social integration by reducing the likelihood of marriage (Huebner, 2005) and increasing the likelihood of divorce (Siennick, Stewart, & Staff, 2014).”

“…used most often to examine the effect of criminal involvement on marital timing—the NLSY 1979—does not contain time-varying self-reports of criminal offending for most offenses (drug use is a partial exception), only information on incarceration status (Huebner, 2005, 2007; Lopoo & Western, 2005).”

“…opportunities for attaining conventional social bonds, such as employment and marital prospects (e.g. Bernburg & Krohn, 2003; Davies & Tanner, 2003; Huebner, 2005; Pager, 2003; Sampson & Laub, 1993, 1997) and facilitating deviant peer associations (Bernburg, Krohn, & Rivera, 2006; Wiley, Slocum, &…”

“In sum, these studies reveal that spending time in prison can lead to reduced employment and earnings in the conventional labor market (e.g., see Huebner, 2005; Johnson, 2003; Sampson & Laub, 1993; Sampson & Laub, 2003; Western & Beckett, 1999; Western, 2002).”

“…employment, housing, welfare access, and parenting rights on reentry (see Graffam, Shinkfield, & Hardcastle, 2008; Hagan & Dinovitzer, 1999; Huebner, 2005, 2007; Laub & Allen, 2000; Laub & Sampson, 2003; Lopoo & Western, 2004, 2005; Olivares, Burton, & Cullen, 1996; Shinkfield & Graffam,…”

“Analyses of the NLSY indicate that incarceration is associated with a 66% decline in employment (Huebner, 2005), and many men released from prison struggle with finding stable employment because of their low education and job skills, as well as discrimination by employers (Visher, 2003).”

“Raphael (2007) fi nds that having served time in jail or prison reduced the odds that formerly incarcerated people would subsequently marry (see also Huebner 2005, 2007).”

“2013; Huebner 2005).”

“Research readily shows that a criminal label hinders prospects for employment (Pager, 2007), delays the onset of marriage (Huebner, 2005), attenuates the probability of being admitted to a university (Pierce et al., 2014), hampers the likelihood of securing of rental housing (Leasure & Martin,…”

“It has now been well established that a criminal record stigmatizes ex-offenders and that stigma operates in multiple ways to reduce both shortterm and long-term job prospects and income expectations (Holze, 2009; Huebner, 2005).”

“…completion (Aizer and Doyle 2015; Hjalmarsson 2008; Kirk and Sampson 2013; Sweeten 2006), decreased employment and wages (Apel and Sweeten 2010; Augustyn and Loughran 2017; Sharlein 2018), and lower likelihood of marriage (Huebner 2005) and social adjustment (Makarios, Cullen, and Piquero 2017).”

“Second, when investigating offenders’ transition to marriage, scholars have focused on the negative impact stemming from incarceration (Huebner, 2005, 2007; Lopoo & Western, 2005; Sampson et al., 2006; Western, Lopoo, & McLanahan, 2004; Western & McLanahan, 2000).”

“…there is a fast-growing body of literature highlighting that criminal offenders are at-risk for a swath of negative outcomes ranging from health problems and financial difficulties to problems securing housing and finding stable employment (Fernandes, 2020; Huebner, 2005; Kirk & Wakefield, 2018).”

“Indeed, former inmates’ employability and earning power, and by extension their financial resources, remain suppressed for years after their release (Huebner, 2005; Western, 2002; Western & Pettit, 2000).”

“These social bonds also foster attachments that raise the stakes or costs of offending, particularly when the marriage or job is regarded as high quality (Huebner, 2005; Laub, Nagin, & Sampson, 1998; Massoglia & Uggen, 2007).”

“This research includes studies that document the negative effects of incarceration on employment (Davies & Tanner, 2003; Holzer, Raphael, & Stoll, 2004; Huebner, 2005; Western, Kling, & Weiman, 2001), income (Nagin & Waldfogel, 1998; Western, 2002), housing (Covington, 2003; O’Brien, 2001; Travis & Waul, 2003), and he…”

“…permitting scholars to study the incarceration-employment relationship in a representative sample (Bound & Freeman, 1992; Davies & Tanner, 2003; Fagan & Freeman, 1999; Freeman, 1992; Huebner, 2005; Maroto, 2015; Monk-Turner, 1989; Raphael, 2007; Western, 2002, 2006; Zaw, Hamilton, & Darity, 2016).”

“…negative consequences for labor market success and overall wage rates (Huebner, 2005; Pager, 2008; Western et al., 2001), the likelihood of marriage (Huebner, 2005), health (Massoglia & Pridemore, 2015; Massoglia & Remster, 2019) and even recidivism (Gendreau et al., 2000; Spohn & Holleran, 2002).”

“For various reasons, incarceration puts a financial burden on their families, increasing levels of stress on family systems that are already fragile (Dickie, 2013; Huebner, 2005; Wildeman & Western, 2010).”

“…(Gilman et al., 2015; Hjalmarsson, 2009; Loughran et al., 2009), education and employment (Apel & Sweeten, 2010; Freeman, 1987; Hjalmarsson, 2008; Huebner, 2005; Laub & Sampson, 2003; Tanner et al., 1999; Western, 2002), housing (Geller & Curtis, 2011), health and mental health (Massoglia, 2008;…”

“Incarceration is negatively associated with the father’s ability to co-parent, share responsibilities in parenting, and be engaged (Turney & Wildeman, 2013, p. 21), as well as negatively related to the likelihood of marriage (Huebner, 2005).”

“When incarceration is experienced personally, it can reduce the chances of marriage as the “stigma can reduce the pool of marriageable partners” (Huebner, 2005, p. 283).”

“…incarceration, however, has long-lasting detrimental effects on intimate relationships and marriages (Huebner, 2005; Massoglia et al., 2011), social network composition (Kriegel et al., 2015; Zhao et al., 2018), employment prospect (Huebner, 2005), and stable housing (Metraux et al., 2007).”

“A particular aim of this paper is to assess to what extent prohibitive drug policies hamper the management of drug problems from the perspective of young people who have experience of different drug-related interventions, including interventions provided by CJS. Inspired by Baert’s (1991) typology, we distinguish betw…”

“…course disruption For those already on difficult trajectories, incarceration in adulthood often serves to further exacerbate the deviation from a socially defined life course and continues to alter their trajectories and have a negative impact on success in family and work life (Huebner, 2005).”

“…Van Schellen, Poortman, and Nieuwbeerta 2011), intelligence (Sampson, Laub, and Wimer 2006), educational attainment (Goldscheider and Waite 1986; Huebner 2005), family size (Sampson, Laub, and Wimer 2006), family disruption (Sampson, Laub, and Wimer 2006; Lonardo et al. 2010), drug use (Lopoo…”

“Similarly, Huebner studied a male subsample from the NLSY and found that incarceration was negatively associated with the likelihood of becoming married and that this finding was consistent for all races (Huebner 2005 , 2007 ).”

“For example, incarceration alters the relationship dynamics of romantic partners (Wildeman & Western, 2010) and increases the likelihood of marital dissolution (Huebner, 2005; Lopoo & Western, 2005).”

“Ex-offenders are generally less likely to be employed (Huebner, 2005; Jung, 2015; Ramakers et al., 2014; Western & Beckett, 1999) and more”

“Early-onset, and continued involvement in, offending is also associated with persistent problems with marriage, employment, and health well into adulthood (Huebner, 2005; Western, 2002; Western et al., 2001).”

“While incarcerated, they likely will have their social bonds disrupted, they may lose contact with their peer networks, their family members may withdraw from their lives, and the dissolution of romantic relationships are likely to occur (Huebner, 2005; Khan et al., 2011; Petersilia, 2003).”

“A major obstacle to integration is the social stigma that comes with having a prison record, which leads to stress of diminished status (Braman 2004), even among a releasee’s family members (Huebner 2005).”

“Similarly, the evidence supports a negative association between secure placement and employment outcomes (Apel & Sweeten, 2010; Bernburg & Krohn, 2003; Huebner, 2005).”

“Incarceration can impact the life-course and the transition to adulthood in many negative ways (Huebner, 2005; Loeffler, 2013).”

“For instance, high-quality employment is in particularly short supply for adults with criminal pasts (Apel & Sweeten, 2010; Bernburg & Krohn, 2003; Bushway, 1998; Huebner, 2005; Lopes et al., 2012; Sampson & Laub, 1993; Verbruggen et al., 2012).”

“…as not only a loss but also a cost to society through lost taxes based on the wages of these young people and potential costs through their likely future engagement in the criminal justice and public assistance programs (Apel & Sweeten, 2010; Gil-man, Hill, & Hawkins, 2015; Huebner, 2005).”

“They might also have difficulties in keeping a steady job, which in turn impacts on their social and human capital, and their ability to attract a committed partner (Huebner, 2005).”

“However, much of this research has primarily emphasized static rather than dynamic factors (Apel & Sweeten, 2010; Huebner, 2005; Maroto, 2015).”

“This research has explored the negative consequences of incarceration on children’s wellbeing (Murray & Farrington, 2005) as well as on marriage (Massoglia, Remster, & King, 2011), work (Huebner, 2005), and motherhood (Enos, 2001).”

“This process leads to fewer opportunities that may promote desistance from crime; thus, increasing these individuals’ risk of continued participation in crime and of recidivism (Blokland & Nieuwbeerta, 2005 ; Huebner, 2005 ; Moffitt, 1993 ; Piquero et al., 2002a ; Sampson & Laub, 1993a, b ).”

“Incarceration can also affect marriage prospects (Huebner, 2007), contribute to mental health issues (Porter & DeMarco, 2019), and can be hard on offspring.”

“…(Gunnison & Helfgott, 2011; Harding et al., 2013; Roman & Travis, 2006), they are at a significant disadvantage for competing on the job market (Huebner, 2005; Sampson & Laub, 1993), their social relationships with prosocial people have typically eroded (Laub & Sampson, 2003; Petersilia,…”

“…(1998) suggest that the additive effects of ‘large-scale incarceration of men may influence the earning power of the women they leave behind’ due to the cumulative lack of work experience that incarceration creates within disadvantaged areas (462; see also Huebner 2005; Western and Beckett 1999).”