The Impact of Incarceration on Food Insecurity Among Households with Children

44 Pages Posted: 7 Feb 2013 Last revised: 15 Feb 2013

See all articles by Robynn Cox

Robynn Cox

UC Riverside; University of Southern California - Schaeffer Center for Health Policy and Economics

Sally Wallace

Georgia State University - Department of Economics; University of Pretoria

Date Written: February 1, 2013

Abstract

This study seeks to determine the role that parental incarceration plays on the probability of food insecurity among families with children and very low food security of children using micro-level data from the Fragile Families and Child Well Being Study (FFCWS). The data set contains the 18-question food security module which allows us to explore the link between incarceration and food insecurity and very low food security among children, families, and adults. The incidence of very low food security in our data is somewhat higher than the national average, but the incidence of other levels of food security is similar to national aggregates.

Since there is likely reverse causality in the relationship between parental incarceration and food insecurity, we employ a variety of program evaluation techniques to identify the causal relationship between food insecurity and parental incarceration. We employ imputation techniques to account for non-response among the food security variables and independent variables.

Our ordinary least squares results suggest that having at least one parent that has ever been incarcerated has a small positive effect (1 to 4 percentage points) on the probability of very low food security among children, adults and households with children, but the results are sensitive to specification and in most regressions, the incarceration variable is not significantly different from zero. Food insecurity for adults and households with children (a less dire level of food insecurity than very low food security) is affected by parental incarceration under most specifications with magnitudes of impact from 4 to 15 percentage points. This research provides some evidence that incarceration adversely affects children and families in terms of food insecurity. Policies to mitigate the impact could be addressed through the court system whereby children are provided with court-sanctioned support to address food needs.

Suggested Citation

Cox, Robynn and Wallace, Sally, The Impact of Incarceration on Food Insecurity Among Households with Children (February 1, 2013). Andrew Young School of Policy Studies Research Paper Series No. 13-05, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2212909 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2212909

Robynn Cox

UC Riverside ( email )

900 University Avenue
Riverside, CA CA 92521
United States

University of Southern California - Schaeffer Center for Health Policy and Economics ( email )

635 Downey Way
Los Angeles, CA 90089-3333
United States

Sally Wallace (Contact Author)

Georgia State University - Department of Economics ( email )

Department of Economics
35 Broad Street, 6th Floor
Atlanta, GA 30303-3083
United States
(404) 413-0046 (Phone)

University of Pretoria ( email )

Physical Address Economic and Management Sciences
Pretoria, Gauteng 0002
South Africa

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