Foster Care, Permanency, and Risk of Prison Entry

• Date: 01 November 2021
• Author: Maria Cancian,Sarah Font,Jessie Slepicka,Lawrence M. Berger
• DOI: 10.1177/00224278211001566
• Published date: 01 November 2021
• Subject Matter: Articles

Article

Foster Care,

Permanency, and

Risk of Prison Entry

Sarah Font

1

, Lawrence M. Berger

2

,

Jessie Slepicka

3

, and Maria Cancian

4

Abstract

Objective: (1) Examine associations of foster care exit type (e.g., reunification

with birth family, adoption, guardianship/permanent relative placement, or

emancipation from care) with risk of entry into state prison; (2) Examine

racial disparities in those associations. Method: With data on over

10,000 Wisconsin youth who entered foster care in mid- to late-

childhood, we present imprisonment rates in young adulthood by race, sex,

and foster care exit type. Proportional hazards models with a robust set of

covariates compare d prison entry rates among th e most common exit

types—reunification, aging out, and guardianship/permanent relative place-

ment. Results: Nearly 13 percent of the sample experienced imprisonment

in young adulthood. Compared with emancipated youth, hazard of impri-

sonment was 1.58–1.96 times higher among reunified youth. Differences

1

Department of Sociology and Criminology, Child Maltreatment Solutions Network, Penn-

sylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA

2

School of Social Work and Institute for Research on Poverty, University of Wisconsin–

Madison, Madison, WI, USA

3

Department of Sociology and Criminology, Pennsylvania State University, University Park,

PA, USA

4

School of Public Affairs, Georgetown University, Washington, DC, USA

Corresponding Author:

Sarah Font, Department of Sociology and Criminology, Child Maltreatment Solutions

Network, Pennsylvania State University, 612 Oswald Tower University Park PA 16802, USA.

Email: saf252@psu.edu

Journal of Research in Crime and

Delinquency

ªThe Author(s) 2021

Article reuse guidelines:

sagepub.com/journals-permissions

DOI: 10.1177/00224278211001566

journals.sagepub.com/home/jrc

2021, Vol. 58(6) 710–754

were largely unexplained by observed individual, family, or foster care char-

acteristics. Imprisonment rates were sim ilar for emancipated youth and

youth exiting to guardianship/permanent relative placement. Hazard of

imprisonment for reunified Black youth was twice that of reunified white

youth, but racial differences in prison entry were statistically non-significant

among emancipated youth. Conclusion: Efforts to reduce incarceration risk

for all youth in foster care are needed. Reunified youth may benefit from

services and supports currently provided primarily to emancipated youth.

Keywords

incarceration, corrections, causes/correlates, crime, race/ethnicity

Approximately 6 percent of U.S. children experience foster care by age 18

(Wildeman and Emanuel 2014). Children who experience foster care com-

monly have experienced maltreatment and other childhood adversities (Cho

and Jackson 2016; Turney and Wildeman 2017) in addition to the disruption

associated with foster care placement, and are more likely than children in

the general population to exhibit adverse outcomes in multiple life domains

(Gypen et al. 2017). Longstanding concerns have been raised about the life

trajectories of individuals who experience foster care—and, especially

youth who “age out” of care (remain in care until the age of majority and

exit care without having obtained a permanent, legally-recognized

family)—including claims that that the U.S. is “sending more foster kids

to prison than college” (Bauer and Thomas 2019). However, while a great

deal of research has interrogated whether individuals who experience foster

care have higher rates of subsequent criminal and juvenile justice involve-

ment than those who do not (Bald et al. 2019; Cusick and Courtney 2007;

Doyle 2007, 2008), comparatively little research has considered how incar-

ceration risk varies within the foster care population. Children experiencing

foster care are a diverse population with heterogeneous experiences occur-

ring before, during, and after care. An investigation of the rates and pre-

dictors of criminal justice involvement among youth who spent time in

foster care—and heterogeneity therein by foster care exit type—stands to

illuminate which foster care youth are at greatest risk for subsequent incar-

ceration and thereby provide implications for effectively targeting preven-

tion efforts.

Most children who experience foster care do not spend their entire child-

hood in care, nor do they commonly remain in care from initial removal

711

Font et al.

until they reach the age of majority. Rather, foster care episodes vary in

length, number, and types of placements, and children may exit and return

to foster care more than once. Youth may exit care by being reunified with

their families of origin, adopted by another family, or placed in legal guar-

dianship or another permanent arrangement, most commonly with a relative

caregiver. Some youth will reach the age of emancipation while still in care,

which is commonly referred to as “aging out” of care. As such, the envir-

onments that children and youth experience and the individuals comprising

their familial and social networks before, during, and after foster care

episodes may independently and interactively impact their risk of criminal

justice involvement.

In this study, we leverage integrated statewide longitudinal administra-

tive data from Wisconsin to assess risk of incarceration in early adulthood

among children who entered foster care (though not necessarily for the first

time) in mid- to late-childhood. We focus specifically on whether risk of

entering state prison in early adulthood differs by foster care exit type after

adjusting for differences in demographics, pre-foster care environments,

and experiences within foster care (time in care; number and types of

placements). Our regression estimates draw comparisons among the three

most common foster care exit types for youth spending time in foster care

during mid- to late-childhood: reunification, guardianship/permanent pla-

cement with a relative, and aging out of care. In addition, we examine how

rates of state prison entry—and the association between exit type and

imprisonment—vary by race.

Background

Federal, state, and local policy strongly prioritizes “permanency,” defined

as exiting care into a permanent legally recognized family, for children in

foster care. Moreover, federal law prioritizes family reunification, whereby

children return to the family from which they were removed whenev er

possible. To this end, states are typically required to make reasonable

efforts to achieve reunification for a prespecified period of time. Approx-

imately half (49 percent) of all children exiting foster care each year exit to

reunification (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services [USDHHS]

2018).

When reunification is not achieved, adoption is the preferred alternative.

For children placed with relatives, legal guardianship or a permanent cus-

tody arrangement is also permissible. Guardianship differs from adoption in

that it does not require termination of the parental rights of the child’s birth

712 Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency 58(6)