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7.12: The Impact of Mass Incarceration

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    324904
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    The U.S. prison system has become a powerful force disrupting families, disproportionately affecting Black and Latino communities. It creates “missing men,” leaving many children to grow up with an incarcerated father, which carries stigma, financial hardship, and emotional trauma (Western 2006). This is a clear example of conflict theory, where a state institution directly damages the family structures of specific racial groups.


    7.12: The Impact of Mass Incarceration is shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by LibreTexts.

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