Paternal incarceration and the family: Fifteen years in review

Since the turn of the 21st Century, research has highlighted the use of the American criminal justice system as a forager of young, low-income, low-educated, men of color, but less is known about how these men exist within such realities and construct meaningful relationships in their families. Research in the early 2000s has focused on how paternal incarceration affects these men, their partners, and their children. However, there is limited research about how these men understand fatherhood and the mechanisms for how paternal incarceration disrupts relationships and exacerbates inequality in the larger family system. Highlighting the consequences to family and child well-being, the incarceration literature is beginning to focus on the variational and complicated experiences that families cope with when a father is incarcerated. This paper reviews the literature since the early 2000s, tracing what is known about incarcerated fathers and consequences for their children and families. In doing so, this paper discusses both the evolution of the literature and how more research about family processes is needed to understand the dynamic experiences of families and caregivers who manage periods of confinement during the age of mass incarceration in America.