Poverty, Hardship and Families:
How Many People Are Poor, and What Does Being Poor in America Really Mean?

A briefing paper prepared for the Council on Contemporary Families

By Philip N. Cohen, Professor of Sociology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

December 5, 2011

This briefing paper describes three common misperceptions about poverty and families, and clarifies new information about recent poverty trends.

CONTACT: Stephanie Coontz, coontzs@msn.com

360 352-8117; 360 556-9223

MASS INCARCERATION AND AMERICA'S FAMILIES

A Best-Practice Briefing Prepared for the Council on Contemporary Families by Carol Shapiro, Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy, Columbia University, October 12, 2010

October 16 is the 37^th anniversary of congressional approval of the Drug Enforcement Administration, whose purpose, in the words of then-President Richard Nixon, was to coordinate an "all-out war" on drugs. Before the 1970's, drug abuse had been seen by policy makers primarily as a disease that could be addressed by treatment. During the 1970s, however, drug abuse - even in the absence of any violent or other criminal behavior - came to be seen as a law enforcement problem to be solved through aggressive arrest and incarceration policies.

Since then, the United States has increased its rates of imprisonment by nearly 500 percent. We now incarcerate a far higher proportion of our citizens than any other nation -- 2.3 million adults and an additional eight hundred thousand youths.  This is a higher proportion than in either China or Russia, and higher than the top 35 European countries combined, per recent reports. As an absolute number it represents more than the combined populations of Boston, San Francisco, and Washington, DC.

On any given day, at least one in 100 adults is in our nation's jails and prisons, while more than one in 30 adults is under some form of correctional custody, including probation and parole supervision in the community. More than half of all inmates are parents of minor children. Almost 3 million minor children have a parent behind bars-that is one in 28--and about one million juveniles are themselves under some form of correctional supervision, creating complex relationships between parents, schools, probation officers, and other agencies.

Low-income communities are disproportionately affected by America's mass incarceration practices. Residents are more likely to be arrested, prosecuted, and sent to jail for the same offenses that lead to warnings, probation, or treatment programs in more affluent neighborhoods.  Most convictions in low-income communities, contrary to popular impression, are for nonviolent acts, with drug users and the mentally ill heavily overrepresented in the prison population.  Two-thirds of incarcerated parents of minor children are in jail for non-violent acts. Many non-violent offenders cycle in and out of jail simply because of technical violations of probation or parole rules, not because they have committed new crimes.

WHY SHOULD WE CARE?

A Report Prepared for the 13th Annual Conference of the Council on Contemporary Families, Augustana College, April 16-17, 2010

By Valerie Adrian and Stephanie Coontz

The economy is now out of free fall, but the impact of recent economic losses on families will continue for many years to come. An overview of the economic, unemployment and poverty trends suggests why:

• The Congressional Budget Office estimates that thousands more jobs would have disappeared and the growth rate would have been 1.2 to 3.2 points lower in the third quarter of 2009 without the Recovery Act's stimulus package, but even so the official unemployment rate remains around 10 percent. When economists take into account discouraged workers that rises to almost 18 percent, the highest figure since the 1930s.
• As of March 2010, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, more than 44 percent of jobless workers had been out of work for six months or more. This is more than double the number recorded in December 2008.
• A December 2009 survey found that 44 percent of families had experienced the job loss of one or more members, a reduction in hours, or a cut in pay over the past year.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE -- September 15, 2009

CONTACT: Ruth E. Zambrana; rzambran@umd.edu; 301.405.3447; AND Laura A. Logie; llogie@umd.edu; 301.405.1651

Over the last 30 years the Latino/Hispanic population in the United States has grown seven times faster than the population of the nation as a whole. Hispanics currently represent almost 15 percent of the U.S. population and within the next two decades are expected to constitute a full quarter of Americans. Although often treated as a monolithic ethnic group, Latina/os differ in their racial and ethnic identities, religious beliefs, health status, socioeconomic status, and language patterns. Lumping ALL these groups under the rubric of "Latino" or "Hispanic" masks important demographic and socioeconomic differences and perpetuates negative stereotypes.

June 19, 2008

By Valerie Adrian, Research Intern, Council on Contemporary Families; valadrian@gmail.com; and Stephanie Coontz, Professor of History and Family Studies, The Evergreen State College; coontzs@msn.com; 360.556.9223

In the following paper, we summarize the extent of the unfolding economic crisis in America and then discuss its many effects on families, from the direct impact of economic stress to less obvious effects such as deteriorating schools, changes in eating habits, and even families' ability to take care of their pets.