Publications by Author

Becky Pettit

Research

Western, B.; Pettit, B., (Forthcoming), Mass Imprisonment, Punishment and Inequality in America, Western, B., Russell Sage Foundation, New York.

An abstract for this publication is not available.

Bushway, S.; Pettit, B.; Stoll, M. A.; Weiman, D. F.; Lyons, C., (2007), "Status and the Stigma of Incarceration: The Labor Market Effects of Incarceration by Race, Class, and Criminal Involvement" In Barriers to reentry? : the labor market for released prisoners in post-industrial America, Russell Sage Foundation, New York.

An abstract for this publication is not available.

Pettit, Becky and Jennifer Hook. (2005) The Structure of Women’s Employment in Comparative Perspective. Social Forces 84, 779-801.

In this paper we analyze social survey data from 19 countries using multi- level modeling methods in an effort to synthesize structural and institutional accounts for variation in women's employment. Observed demographic characteristics show much consistency in their relationship to women's employment across countries, yet there is significant variation in the effect of demographic characteristics on women's employment across countries. Disentangling specific policy conditions from overall policy generosity leads us to discover important non-linearities in the effects of parental leave on the employment of women with young children, and that federally supported childcare is positively related to the probability of employment of married women and women with young children.

Western, Bruce and Becky Pettit. (2005) Black-White Wage Inequality, Employment Rates, and Incarceration. American Journal of Sociology, 111,553-578. (Winner 2006 James F. Short Jr. Paper Award)

The observed gap in average wages between black men and white men inadequately reflects the relative economic standing of blacks, who suffer from a high rate of joblessness. The authors estimate the black-white gap in hourly wages from 1980 to 1999 adjusting for the sample selection effect of labor inactivity. Among working-age men in 1999, accounting for labor inactivity--including prison and jail incarceration--leads to an increase of 7%-20% in the black-white wage gap. Adjusting for sample selectivity among men ages 22-30 in 1999 increases the wage gap by as much as 58%. Increasing selection bias, which can be attributed to incarceration and conventional joblessness, explains about two-thirds of the rise in black relative wages among young men between 1985 and 1998. Apparent improvement in the economic position of young black men is thus largely an artifact of rising joblessness fueled by the growth in incarceration during the 1990s.

Pettit, Becky. (2004) Moving and Children’s Social Connections: Neighborhood Context and the Consequences of Moving Low-income Families. Sociological Forum, 19, 285-311.

Using data from an experimental housing relocation program, this research compares social connections of children in families that move with those of similar children who do not move. Qualitative interview data are used to examine what factors influence the formation of social connections after moving. Results show the impact of moving on children's social connections is influenced by neighborhood context, financial resources, and children's age at the time of the move. Studies of moving during childhood need to pay closer attention to the factors that influence where, when, and why families move.

Pettit, Becky and Bruce Western. (2004). Mass Imprisonment and the Life Course: Race and Class Inequality in U.S. Incarceration. American Sociological Review, 69, 151-169. (Honorable Mention 2003-2005 Sociology of Law Article Prize.)

Although growth in the U.S. prison population over the past twenty-five years has been widely discussed, few studies examine changes in inequality in imprisonment. We study penal inequality by estimating lifetime risks of imprisonment for black and white men at different levels of education. Combining administrative, survey, and census data, we estimate that among men born between 1965 and 1969, 3 percent of whites and 20 percent of blacks had served time in prison by their early thirties. The risks of incarceration are highly stratified by education. Among black men born during this period, 30 percent of those without college education and nearly 60 percent of high school dropouts went to prison by 1999. The novel pervasiveness of imprisonment indicates the emergence of incarceration as a new stage in the life course of young low-skill black men.

Pettit, Becky, and Sara S. McLanahan. (2003). Residential Mobility and Children’s Social Capital: Evidence From an Experiment. Social Science Quarterly, 84(3), 632-649.

Objective. This article examines the effects of residential mobility on social connections that are likely to affect children's well-being.

Methods. We use data from a survey of participants in a housing experiment in Los Angeles, California to examine whether families that moved from public housing projects to other neighborhoods suffered short- term losses of social capital. Results. Results indicate that residential mobility is associated with a reduced likelihood of parents talking with the parents of their children's friends. However, the effects of residential mobility on social capital are sensitive to adjustments for poverty levels in destination neighborhoods and factors that influence the probability of moving.

Conclusions. Our results suggest that at least some of the negative effects of moving shown in previous studies may be due to negative selection. That is, families that move may be less successful at developing social ties than families that do not move. This finding suggests that future research on residential mobility needs to pay closer attention to factors that influence why and where families move.

Western, Bruce and Becky Pettit. (2002). Beyond Crime and Punishment: Prisons and Inequality. Contexts, 1, 37-43.

Changes in government policy on crime and punishment have put many poor minority men behind bars, more than their arrest rates would indicate. The growth of the penal system has also obscured the extent of economic inequality and sowed the seeds for greater inequality in the future.

Western, Bruce and Becky Pettit. (2000). Incarceration and Racial Inequality in Men’s Employment. Industrial and Labor Relations Review, 54,3-16.

To estimate employment-population ratios for black and white men with an adjustment for incarceration-a factor overlooked by most research on employment inequality-the authors combine data from surveys of prisons and jails with data from the Current Population Survey. This adjustment significantly reduces estimated employment rates for African Americans, young workers, and young high school dropouts. The authors find that employment among young black male high school dropouts steadily declined between 1982 and 1996 despite periods of very low unemployment in the labor market as a whole. Standard labor force data, which include no incarceration data, understate black-white inequality in employment among young dropouts by about 45%.