Taking children into account: Addressing the intergenerational effects of parental incarceration

W akefield and Wildeman (2011, this issue) provide compelling evidence that the effects of the incarceration boom experienced by the United States during the past 40 years extend well beyond the individuals behind bars. In doing so, they contribute to a mounting body of research answering the clarion call sounded more than 10 years ago for rigorous investigations into the “collateral consequences” of imprisonment (Hagan and Dinovitzer, 1999). By probing the repercussions of paternal incarceration on children’s well-being, they bring to light the deleterious impact of the penal system on those who likely have never set foot in a correctional facility, or have done so only as visitors of their confined kin. Wakefield and Wildeman find that having an incarcerated father negatively affects children’s behavioral and mental health and that “mass imprisonment might have increased Black–White inequities” in youths’ “externalizing behaviors” (such as physical aggression) and “internalizing behaviors” (such as depression and anxiety). This is an innovative and important analysis of the intergenerational transmission of both class disadvantage and racial disparities resulting from the extraordinary and enormous spread of the penal net since the early 1970s. It enriches a growing literature on the secondary