Incarceration without Conviction: Accounting for Pretrial Detention in the Estimation of Incarceration Effects

• In Event: Consequences of Parental Incarceration for Children and Families

Abstract

A number of studies have examined the consequences of imprisonment experiences for a variety of later life outcomes, including earnings, family dissolution, and the intergenerational transmission of disadvantage. Few such studies in the US context can isolate the effects of pretrial detention, however, and many studies comparing incarcerated with non-incarcerated individuals may be misleading due to pretrial imprisonment experiences. Using Danish registry data, we assess the differential impact of pretrial detention (with and without conviction) on later life experiences. In so doing, we offer a glimpse at a form of incarceration commonly experienced but rarely studied.

Authors

• Sara Wakefield, Rutgers University

• Lars Hoejsgaard Andersen, Rockwool Foundation Research Unit