Full Citation

Title: The Socioeconomic Status of Black Males: The Increasing Importance of Incarceration

Citation Type: Conference Paper

Publication Year: 2003

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Abstract: This paper assesses the increasing importance of incarceration in determining the average socioeconomic status of black males in the United States. I document national trends in the proportion of black males that are either currently institutionalized or who have served previous prison time. The paper also documents the extent to which serving time interrupts the potential early work careers of young offenders and reviews recent research on employer sentiment regarding ex-offenders and the likely stigma effects of prior incarceration. Finally, I assess whether increasing incarceration rates provide a possible explanation for the drastic declines in employment rates observed among non-institutionalized black males. Using data from the U.S. Census, I test for a correlation between the proportion of non-institutionalized men in a given age-race-education group that are employed and the proportion of all men in this grouping that are institutionalized. The proportion institutionalized has a strong negative effect on the proportion of the non-institutionalized that are employed. The relationship is strong enough to explain one-third to one-half of the relative decline in black male employment rates.

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Authors: Raphael, Steven; Stoll, Michael; Plotnick, Robert

Conference Name: Berkeley Symposium on Poverty, the Distribution of Income, and Public Policy: A Conference Honoring Gene Smolensky

Publisher Location: Berkeley, CA

Data Collections: IPUMS USA

Topics: Other, Poverty and Welfare, Race and Ethnicity

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