NCJ Number
217985
Journal
Justice Quarterly Volume: 24 Issue: 1 Dated: March 2007 Pages: 156-183
Date Published
March 2007
Length
28 pages
Annotation
This study compared the effect of incarceration on the likelihood of marriage for a sample of White, Black, and Hispanic men.
Abstract
Although incarceration reduced the likelihood of marriage for all the men, it had a significantly stronger effect on the marital outcomes for Whites. Whites were most likely to be married overall, but incarceration was associated with a 59-percent decrease in the odds of marriage for Whites. For incarcerated Blacks, the odds of marriage decreased 30 percent; and for Hispanics, by 41 percent. The association between incarceration and marital outcomes persisted even after controlling for time-varying life-course events and static individual factors. The findings emphasize the importance of considering marital outcomes by race and ethnicity for incarcerated men. Also, the findings indicate that incarceration is linked to a reduced chance of marriage after release. Studies have shown marriage to be a significant factor in reducing criminal behavior for men. The study used a subset of data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 (NLSY). The NLSY involved a nationally representative sample of young men and women between the ages of 14 and 22 in 1978. The original sample included 6,403 men and 6,283 women; however, women were excluded at the outset of the study because only 1 percent reported being incarcerated during the study period and also because research suggests that women may experience marriage differently than men. The total sample for analyses was narrowed to 4,395 men, of which 443 (10.1 percent) were incarcerated at some point during the study period. The sample consisted of 2,210 Whites, 1,289 Blacks, and 896 Hispanics. Marriage was the dependent variable, and independent variables pertained to life-course events, demographic influences, value orientation, and family history. 1 figure, 4 table, 89 references, and appended description of variables and time constant effects