Compensation vs. Reinforcement: Experimental Identification of Parental Aversion to Inequality in Offspring
Speaker
Felipe Barrera-Osorio
Associate Professor of Public Policy, Education and Economics
Vanderbilt University
Understanding the Structural Determinants of Population Health: Housing Assistance and Lead Exposure in the United States
Speaker
Andy Fenelon
Associate Professor, Division of Epidemiology and Community Health
University of Minnesota
Rethinking the Past and Future of (Im)migrant Integration
Speaker
Tod Hamilton
Professor of Sociology
Princeton University
Global inequalities in U.S. visa rejection rates: Evidence from the outcomes of U.S visa applications submitted over the past two decades.
Speaker
Kevin J.A. Thomas
Director, Institute of Urban Policy Research and Analysis
Professor of African and African Diaspora Studies and Sociology
University of Texas at Austin
Expanding the field of integrated administrative data: National perspectives and new work in Washington State
Speakers
Jennie Romich
Director, West Coast Poverty Center & Professor of Social Work
University of Washington
Amy Hawn Nelson
Research Faculty & Director of Training and Technical Assistance at Actionable Intelligence for Social Policy
University of Pennsylvania
Race and Childbearing in the US: Infertility as a Pressing Form of Reproductive Inequity
Speaker
Jenna Nobles
Professor of Demography
University of California Berkeley
Seth Pollak, Bascom-Vaughan Distinguished Professor of Psychology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, presents, "Re-thinking Adversity: Early Life Stress from the Child's Perspective"
Discovering the processes through which early life experiences affect children’s development is critically important for developing prevention and interventions for youth exposed to adversity, and also for understanding the basic science of human development and learning. Nearly all research on early experience and socio-emotional development has been anchored on specific events that have (or have not) occurred in a child’s life. Yet, there is increasing evidence that children’s perceptions of their own experiences and the meaning they construe from what has happened to them can deepen our understanding of their behavioral, health, and learning outcomes. How can we better embrace this real, albeit messy, complexity of human development? This presentation aims to serve as a catalyst for thinking about these kinds of new future research directions.
Brittany Street, Assistant Professor of Economics, University of Missouri, presents, "Convictions, Incarceration, and Earnings in an Event Studies Framework"
There is compelling evidence that convictions and incarceration have negative impacts on labor market outcomes. But research also shows that offenders have relatively low levels of human capital even before any contact with the justice system. Thus, accurately characterizing an offender’s employment profile and the plausible impact of the justice system has been challenging due to this population’s non-trivial involvement in both formal and informal sectors and the non-linear relationship between criminal justice involvement and economic outcomes (e.g. the first criminal record playing a critical role in life-long employment outcomes). We use high-quality longitudinal criminal justice records through CJARS integrated with extensive labor market data (IRS W-2s and ACS self-reported work) to examine the effect of criminal justice interactions on labor market outcomes in an event study framework. Employment and earnings are tracked in both formal administrative as well as self-reported employment status in survey responses, providing an opportunity to identify informality and its implications. In this research, we highlight the importance of periodicity of criminal justice events and the role of shifts to informal employment, particularly when using event studies and administrative data.
Sarah Font, Associate Professor of Sociology and Public Policy, Pennsylvania State University, presents, "Is Less Better? Revisiting the Role of Child Protection and Justice Systems within Vulnerable Families"
Over the past few decades, the U.S. has experienced significant declines in involuntary interventions within three major systems that have the power to separate children and parents. Foster care placements in the child welfare system have plummeted in recent years, following longer term declines in juvenile detentions and arrests. Group homes and institutions for children are closing at a rapid pace. Adult prison and criminal justice supervision populations have declined, and states have begun to decriminalize drugs and reduce the use of cash bail. Yet, more recently, there are emerging signals of another pendulum swing, as states struggle to ameliorate social problems through more voluntary or rehabilitative means. Using various state and national data sources, this talk will explore the interconnectedness of child welfare, juvenile justice, and adult criminal justice systems, describe recent and historical system trends, and revisit assumptions about the nature and impacts of involuntary system interventions on children.