Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Things Fall Apart: Health Consequences of Mass Imprisonment for African American Women

  • Published:
The Review of Black Political Economy

Abstract

In this article, we examine the possible impact of mass imprisonment on the physical health of African American women. Specifically, we focus on a variety of mechanisms through which mass imprisonment may increase the risk of having three major chronic health conditions that are risk factors for cardiovascular disease (CVD): hypertension, diabetes, and obesity. This approach is distinctive in that it provides a broad theoretical framework through which mass imprisonment might harm the physical health of African American women in ways separate from the pathways linking mass imprisonment to their risk of contracting infectious diseases (especially HIV and other STIs), which has been the emphasis of most research in this area. In order to draw these connections, we begin by briefly discussing what mass imprisonment is and its social consequences. We then discuss our three CVD risk factors, documenting disparities between white and African American women in these risk factors and discussing mechanisms through which mass imprisonment might contribute to these disparities. We close by discussing the data needed to test our hypotheses and suggesting some avenues for future research.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. For a general discussion of how individuals influence each other over the life course, see Elder 1974 [1999].

  2. We focus solely on individual-level effects, yet recent research suggests that high levels of imprisonment can damage community life (Clear 2007) and marriage markets (Charles and Luoh 2010) so we may be underestimating the effects of imprisonment on African American women by only considering individual-level effects.

  3. These effects are so substantial, moreover, that they even increase the risk of homelessness (Wildeman 2011).

  4. Nationally representative data on African American health became available with the introduction of the National Health Interview Survey in 1957 and the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey in the early 1960s.

  5. Obesity is defined as having a body mass index (BMI) (weight(kg)/height(m)2) that meets or exceeds 30. Hypertension is defined as elevated blood pressure (measured as systolic pressure ≥ 140 mmHg or diastolic pressure ≥ 90 mmHg) and/or taking antihypertensive medication. Diabetes is defined as ever being told of having diabetes by a doctor or other health care professional (other than during pregnancy for women).

  6. Ideally we would be able to make more direct comparisons and compare the health of women with exposure to mass incarceration and those with no exposure to mass incarceration, but these data are not available.

  7. Extreme obesity is defined as a body mass index (BMI) (weight(kg)/height(m)2) of greater than or equal to 40.

  8. Using a population health perspective, we expect that mass imprisonment will have larger aggregate effects on the health of the black female population via the indirect effects of having a male partner or family member incarcerated. However, although not discussed in this paper, we expect that the direct effects of being incarcerated will have larger individual effects on a black woman’s health. For a review of the research on the impact of black female incarceration on black female health, see Cox (this issue).

  9. The Three-City Study, which is a multi-level, multi-method longitudinal project designed to examine, in great detail, the lives of urban African American, Mexican American, Puerto Rican, and non-Hispanic white low-income families with children in Boston, Chicago, and San Antonio, is one excellent example (Burton and Tucker 2009).

References

  • Achebe C. Things fall apart. New York, NY: Anchor Books; [1958] 1994.

  • Adler NE, Ostrove JM. Socioeconomic status and health: what we know and what we don’t. Ann N Y Acad Sci. 1999;896:3–15.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Anderson E. Code of the street: decency, violence, and the moral life of the inner city. New York, NY: W.W. Norton and Company; 1999.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bonczar TP. Prevalence of imprisonment in the U.S. population, 1974–2001. Bureau of Justice Statistics Special Report. Washington, DC: United States Department of Justice; 2003.

    Google Scholar 

  • Braman D. Doing time on the outside: incarceration and family life in urban America. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press; 2004.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bryant LL, Chin NP, Cottrell LA, et al. Perceptions of cardiovascular health in underserved communities. Prev Chronic Dis. 2010;7(2):A30.

    Google Scholar 

  • Burton LM, Tucker MB. Romantic unions in an era of uncertainty: a post-Moynihan perspective on African American women and marriage. Ann Am Acad Pol Soc Sci. 2009;621:132–48.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Charles KK, Luoh MC. Male incarceration, the marriage market, and female outcomes. Rev Econ Stat. 2010;92(3):614–27.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Clear TRR. Imprisoning communities: how mass incarceration makes disadvantaged neighborhoods worse. New York, NY: Oxford University Press; 2007.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Comfort M. Punishment beyond the legal offender. Ann Rev Law Soc Sci. 2007;3:271–96.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Comfort M. Doing time together: love and family in the shadow of the prison. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press; 2008.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Cooper R, Cutler J, Desvigne-Nickens P, Fortmann SP, Friedman L, Havlik R, et al. Trends and disparities in coronary heart disease, stroke, and other cardiovascular diseases in the United States: findings of the national conference on cardiovascular disease prevention. Circulation. 2000;102(25):3137–47.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cowie CC, Rust KF, Byrd-Holt DD, Eberhardt MS, Flegal KM, Engelgau MM, et al. Prevalence of diabetes and impaired fasting glucose in adults in the U.S. population: National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 1999–2002. Diabetes Care. 2006;29(6):1263–8.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cox RJA. The Impact of mass incarceration on the lives of African- American women. Rev Black Polit Econ. (this issue).

  • DuBois WEB. The Philadelphia negro: a social study. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press; [1899] 1996.

  • Elder GH Jr. Children of the great Depression: social change in life experience: 25th anniversary edition. Boulder, CO: Westview Press; 1974 [1999].

  • Elo IT. Social class differentials in health and mortality: patterns and explanations in comparative perspective. Annu Rev Sociol. 2009;35:553–72.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Feinstein JS. The relationship between socioeconomic status and health: a review of the literature. Milbank Q. 1993;71(2):279–322.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Flegal KM, Carroll MD, Ogden CL, Curtin LR. Prevalence and trends in obesity among US adults, 1999–2008. JAMA. 2010;303(3):235–41.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Geller A, Garfinkel I, Western B. Paternal incarceration and support for children in fragile families. Demography. 2011;48(1):25–47.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Geronimus AT. Understanding and eliminating racial inequalities in women’s health in the United States: the role of the weathering conceptual framework. J Am Med Womens Assoc. 2001;56(4):133–6, 149–50.

    Google Scholar 

  • Giordano PC. Legacies of crime: a follow-up of the children of highly delinquent girls and boys. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press; 2010.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Green KM, Ensminger ME, Robertson JA, Juon H. Impact of adult sons‘ incarceration on African American mothers’ psychological distress. J Marr Fam. 2006;68(2):430–41.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Goldman N. Social inequalities in health disentangling the underlying mechanisms. Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2001;954:118–39.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Grinstead O, Faigeles B, Bancroft C, Zack B. The financial cost of maintaining relationships with incarcerated African American men: a survey of women prison visitors. J Af Am Men. 2001;6(1):59–69.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Harris A, Evans H, Beckett K. Drawing blood from stones: legal debt and social inequality in the contemporary United States. Am J Sociology. 2010;115(6):1753–99.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Heron MP, Hoyert DL, Murphy SL, et al. Deaths: Final data for 2006. National Vital Statistics Reports. 2009;57(14). Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics.

  • House JS. Understanding social factors and inequalities in health: 20th century progress and 21st century prospects. J Health Soc Behav. 2002;43(2):125–42.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jackson JS, Knight KM. Race and self-regulatory health behaviors: the role of the stress response and the HPA axis in physical and mental health disparities. In: Schaie KW, Carstensen LS, editors. Social Structure Aging and Self-Regulation in the Elderly. New York, NY: Springer; 2006. p. 189–208.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jackson JS, Knight KM, Rafferty JA. Race and unhealthy behaviors: chronic stress, the HPA axis, and physical and mental health disparities over the life course. Am J Public Health. 2010;100(5):933–9.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Johnson R, Raphael S. The effects of male incarceration dynamics on Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome infection rates among African American women and men. J Law Econ. 2009;52(2):251–93.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kelly S, Hertzman C, Daniels M. Searching for the biological pathways between stress and health. Annu Rev Public Health. 1997;18:437–62.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kurian AK, Cardarelli KM. Racial and ethnic differences in cardiovascular disease risk factors: a systematic review. Ethn Dis. 2007;17(1):143–52.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lantz PM, House JS, Mero RP, Williams DR. Stress, life events, and socioeconomic disparities in health: results from the Americans’ Changing Lives Study. J Health Soc Behav. 2005;46(3):274–88.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Liebow E. Tally’s corner: a study of negro streetcorner men. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers; [1967] 2003.

  • Link BG, Phelan J. Social conditions as fundamental causes of disease. J Health Soc Behav. 1995;Spec No:80–94.

  • Lloyd-Jones D, Adams R, Carnethon M, De Simone G, Ferguson TB, Flegal K, Ford E, Furie K, Go A, Greenlund K, Haase N, Hailpern S, Ho M, Howard V, Kissela B, Kittner S, Lackland D, Lisabeth L, Marelli A, McDermott M, Meigs J, Mozaffarian D, Nichol G, O’Donnell C, Roger V, Rosamond W, Sacco R, Sorlie P, Stafford R, Steinberger J, Thom T, Wasserthiel-Smoller S, Wong N, Wylie-Rosett J, Hong Y; American Heart Association Statistics Committee and Stroke Statistics Subcommittee. Heart disease and stroke statistics—2009 update: a report from the American Heart Association Statistics Committee and Stroke Statistics Subcommittee. Circulation. 2009; 27:119(3):e21–181.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lopoo L, Western B. Incarceration and the formation and stability of marital unions. J Marr Fam. 2005;67(3):721–34.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Malveaux J. The status of African American women: shouldering the third burden. 2009. Available at: http://www.juliannemalveaux.com/downloads/THE_STATUS_OF_AFRICAN_AMERICAN_WOMEN.pdf. Accessed 1 April 2011.

  • Manza J, Uggen C. Locked out: felon disenfranchisement and American democracy. New York, NY: Oxford University Press; 2006.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • McTigue K, Larson JC, Valoski A, Burke G, Kotchen J, Lewis CE, et al. Mortality and cardiac and vascular outcomes in extremely obese women. JAMA. 2006;296(1):79–86.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mezuk B, Rafferty JA, Kershaw KN, Hudson D, Abdou CM, Lee H, et al. Reconsidering the role of social disadvantage in physical and mental health: stressful life events, health behaviors, race, and depression. Am J Epidemiol. 2010;172(11):1238–49.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS). Health, United States 2010: With Special Feature on Death and Dying. Hyattsville, MD. 2011

  • Nielsen NR, Kristensen TS, Schnohr P, Grønbaek M. Perceived stress and cause-specific mortality among men and women: results from a prospective cohort study. Am J Epidemiol. 2008;168(5):481–91.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nurse AM. Fatherhood arrested: parenting from within the juvenile justice system. Nashville, TN: Vanderbilt University; 2002.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ogden CL. Disparities in obesity prevalence in the United States: black women at risk. Am J Clin Nutr. 2009;89(4):1001–2.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pager D. The mark of a criminal record. Am J Sociology. 2003;108(5):937–75.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pampel FC, Krueger PM, Denney JT. Socioeconomic disparities in health behaviors. Annu Rev Sociol. 2010;36:349–70.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Patterson O. Slavery and social death: a comparative study. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; 1982.

    Google Scholar 

  • Patterson O. Rituals of blood: consequences of slavery in two American centuries. Washington, DC: Civitas/Counterpoint; 1998.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pettit B, Western B. Mass imprisonment and the life course: race and class inequality in US incarceration. Am Sociolog Rev. 2004;69(2):151–69.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Simms MC, Malveaux JM. Slipping through the cracks: the status of black women. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers; 1986.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stack C. All our kin. New York, NY: Basic Books; [1974] 1997.

  • Taylor SE, Repetti RL, Seeman T. Health psychology: what is an unhealthy environment and how does it get under the skin? Annu Rev Psychol. 1997;48:411–47.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Thoits PA. Stress and health: major findings and policy implications. J Health Soc Behav. 2010;51(1):S41–53.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wakefield S, Uggen C. Incarceration and stratification. Ann Rev Sociology. 2010;36:387–406.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Western B. The impact of incarceration on wage mobility and inequality. Am Sociological Rev. 2002;67(4):526–46.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Western B. Punishment and inequality in America. New York, NY: Russell Sage Press; 2006.

    Google Scholar 

  • Western B, Wildeman C. The black family and mass incarceration. Ann Am Acad Pol Soc Sc. 2009;621:221–42.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wildeman C. Parental imprisonment, the prison boom, and the concentration of childhood disadvantage. Demography. 2009;46(2):265–81.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wildeman C. Parental incarceration, child homelessness, and the invisible consequences of mass imprisonment. 2011; Fragile Families Working Paper WP09-19-FF.

  • Wildeman C, Western B. Incarceration in fragile families. Fut Children. 2010;20(2):181–201.

    Google Scholar 

  • Williams DR. The health of men: structured inequalities and opportunities. Am J Public Health. 2003;93(5):724–31.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Williams DR. Racial/ethnic variations in women’s health: the social embeddedness of health. Am J Public Health. 2002;92(4):588–97.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Williams DR, Collins C. US socioeconomic and racial differences in health: patterns and explanations. Annu Rev Sociol. 1995;21:349–86.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Williams DR, Jackson PB. Social sources of racial disparities in health. Health Aff (Millwood). 2005;24(2):325–34.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Williams DR, Mohammed SA, Leavell J, Collins C. Race, socioeconomic status, and health: complexities, ongoing challenges, and research opportunities. Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2010;1186:69–101.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Williams DR, Yu Y, Jackson JS, Anderson NB. Racial differences in physical and mental health: socio-economic status, stress and discrimination. J Health Psychol. 1997;2(3):335–51.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wilson WJ. The truly disadvantaged: the inner city, the underclass, and public policy. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press; 1987.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yudkin JS, Kumari M, Humphries SE, Mohamed-Ali V. Inflammation, obesity, stress and coronary heart disease: is interleukin-6 the link? Atherosclerosis. 2000;148(2):209–14.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Washington, Department of Sociology, 211 Savery Hall, Box 353340, Seattle, WA, 98195-3340, USA

    Hedwig Lee

  2. Yale University, Department of Sociology, 493 College Street, New Haven, CT, 06511, USA

    Christopher Wildeman

Authors
  1. Hedwig Lee
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Christopher Wildeman
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Hedwig Lee.

About this article

Cite this article

Lee, H., Wildeman, C. Things Fall Apart: Health Consequences of Mass Imprisonment for African American Women. Rev Black Polit Econ 40, 39–52 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12114-011-9112-4

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12114-011-9112-4

Keywords

Search

Navigation