National Estimates of Multisystem Exposure Among Urban Families

ABSTRACT Objective Estimate the patterns and prevalence of multisystem exposure among US families with children. Background Contact with systems authorized to regulate, surveil, and use punitive tools to enforce compliance is pervasive among disadvantaged families. These social control systems are often studied in isolation, but a growing body of literature has traced important parallels and overlaps in family experiences of system contact. While this research has identified important implications of multisystem entanglements, their prevalence among US families is less clear. Method Data from the Future of Families and Child Wellbeing Study are used to measure maternal, paternal, and family exposure to three social control systems: the criminal legal system (CLS), child protective services (CPS), and child support enforcement (CSE). Survey weights are used to calculate the prevalence of system exposure and patterns of multisystem entanglement among a representative sample of urban families with children born during a period of system expansion. Results Most urban families encountered at least one social control system by the time their child was 5 years old, most commonly the CLS alone or in conjunction with either CSE or CPS, with strong socioeconomic gradients in both the extent and complexity of exposure. Conclusion The patterns identified emphasize the importance of studying social control system exposure at a family level both for understanding family experiences and for scholarship on the effects of system contact and inequality.