The effect of incarceration rates on mate availability and its effect on the formation and structure of the African American family: a theoretical and empirical analysis

Abstract

A number of scholars have argued that declining mate availability for African American women has had important consequences for family formation and family structure in recent decades (Darity and Myers 1984; Dickson 1993; Guttentag and Secord 1983; Fossett and Kiecolt 1993; Jackson 1971; Staples 1989; Testa et al. 1989; Tucker 1987; Wilson and Neckerman 1986). Discussions of mate availability that exist in the literature consistently stress the disproportionate incarceration of African American men and argue that its impact on mate availability is important (Darity and Meyers 1984; Guttentag and Secord 1983; Staples 1985; 1989). Surprisingly, however, quantitative studies of the impact of changing incarceration rates on mate availability are not available nor are systematic investigations of its potential consequences for family formation and family structure in the African American population. This study addressed these gaps in the existing literature through developing the theoretical perspective that incarceration has direct and indirect consequences on family structure and family formation and that the effects are more pronounced in the African American population.