Date of Conferral

2023

Degree

Ph.D.

School

Criminal Justice

Advisor

Deborah Laufersweiler-Dwyer

Abstract

The economic impact of incarceration on minority family units has both secondary and third-order effects on the minority family unit when a family member is incarcerated, which is exacerbated when the incarcerated family member was both the primary breadwinner and a parent. The purpose of this study was to identify the social and economic effects incarceration has on minority families. The study addressed how minority families adjust to changes in organic composition and how the minority family copes with increased debt and loss of earning potential. Further, the study sought to answer how minority families overcome economic hardship when the primary breadwinner is incarcerated. The overall research design is a concurrent nested study with qualitative methods used to support quantitative analysis used throughout the study. There are several data analysis procedures that were employed during this study. The initial data gathering procedure was through the in-person interview approach along with random surveys. The sample size of the survey pool participants was 500. The analysis process incorporated statistics from the Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Bureau of Prisons databases, which provide a cross-analysis of incarceration of groups by ethnicity and gender. Results showed a small demographic of two or more ethnicities that were both underrepresented and studied. The positive social change implications of the study include preventing the economic, psychological, and social transgenerational effects of incarceration from continuing to impact the family unit post-incarceration.

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