Measuring Child Exposure to the U.S. Justice System: Evidence from

Longitudinal Links between Survey and Administrative Data

Keith Finlay1 Michael Mueller-Smith2 Brittany Street3

1U.S. Census Bureau 2University of Michigan 3University of Missouri

Spring 2022

Street (Univ. of Missouri) Child Exposure to U.S. Justice Spring 2022 1 / 18
Disclaimer

– Any opinions and conclusions expressed herein are those of the authors and do not

necessarily represent the views of the U.S. Census Bureau. While this work was not subject

to formal Census Bureau content review, Census staff reviewed all statistical output to

ensure that no confidential information was disclosed.

– This presentation meets all of the U.S. Census Bureau’s Disclosure Review Board (DRB)

standards and has been assigned DRB approval numbers CBDRB-FY22-ERD002-001 and

CBDRB-FY22-ERD002-003 (approved 11/3/2021 and 02/15/2022)

Street (Univ. of Missouri) Child Exposure to U.S. Justice Spring 2022 2 / 18
Motivation

– Incarceration rate rose from 117.8/100,000 in 1960 to 518.9/100,000 in 2010

– 8% (3%) of adult men have a felony conviction (been to prison) (Shannon et al. 2017)

– 33% (15%) of Black adult men have a felony conviction (been to prison)

– 49% of Black men are arrested by the age of 23 in NLSY (Bramer et al. 2012)

– Serious concerns on the implications for future generations

Street (Univ. of Missouri) Child Exposure to U.S. Justice Spring 2022 3 / 18
Prior efforts to quantify intergenerational exposure

Mumola (2002), Glaze and Maruschak (2008):

– 2.1% (2.3%) of minor children in U.S. had a parent in state/federal prison in 1999 (2007)

– Source: Survey of Inmates in State and Federal Correctional Facilities

Wildeman (2009):

– 3.6%–4.2% White children born in 1990 with parent incarcerated by age 14

– 25.1%–28.4% Black children born in 1990 with parent incarcerated by age 14

– Source: Survey of Inmates, NCRP, NPS, Natality Files

– Life Table methodology used to generate cumulative measures

Street (Univ. of Missouri) Child Exposure to U.S. Justice Spring 2022 4 / 18
In this paper, we do the following:

– Integrate over a terabyte of administrative and survey data:

– 1040 tax filings (1968-2019), household survey data (2000/2010 Decennial, 2005-2019 ACS),

caseload information (IHS, Medicaid, HUD), Social Security registration information

(1999-2019), and longitudinal criminal history information (CJARS → ∼ 50% of US pop.)

– Create longitudinal residential and relationship crosswalks for the entire US population

– Link children to adults in their home through constructed crosswalks and observe CJ

events through CJARS, addressing three major shortcomings in the literature:

1. Incorporate broader definitions of justice involvement beyond incarceration

2. Generate cumulative exposure estimates to account for documented scarring effects of

criminal records/sanctions

3. Broaden definitions of intergenerational exposure to reflect non-traditional family structures

– Measure correlations of child wellbeing with range of intergenerational exposures to test

for evidence of diminishing harms hypothesis

Street (Univ. of Missouri) Child Exposure to U.S. Justice Spring 2022 5 / 18
In this paper, we do the following:

– Integrate over a terabyte of administrative and survey data:

– 1040 tax filings (1968-2019), household survey data (2000/2010 Decennial, 2005-2019 ACS),

caseload information (IHS, Medicaid, HUD), Social Security registration information

(1999-2019), and longitudinal criminal history information (CJARS → ∼ 50% of US pop.)

– Create longitudinal residential and relationship crosswalks for the entire US population

– Link children to adults in their home through constructed crosswalks and observe CJ

events through CJARS, addressing three major shortcomings in the literature:

1. Incorporate broader definitions of justice involvement beyond incarceration

2. Generate cumulative exposure estimates to account for documented scarring effects of

criminal records/sanctions

3. Broaden definitions of intergenerational exposure to reflect non-traditional family structures

– Measure correlations of child wellbeing with range of intergenerational exposures to test

for evidence of diminishing harms hypothesis

Street (Univ. of Missouri) Child Exposure to U.S. Justice Spring 2022 5 / 18
In this paper, we do the following:

– Integrate over a terabyte of administrative and survey data:

– 1040 tax filings (1968-2019), household survey data (2000/2010 Decennial, 2005-2019 ACS),

caseload information (IHS, Medicaid, HUD), Social Security registration information

(1999-2019), and longitudinal criminal history information (CJARS → ∼ 50% of US pop.)

– Create longitudinal residential and relationship crosswalks for the entire US population

– Link children to adults in their home through constructed crosswalks and observe CJ

events through CJARS, addressing three major shortcomings in the literature:

1. Incorporate broader definitions of justice involvement beyond incarceration

2. Generate cumulative exposure estimates to account for documented scarring effects of

criminal records/sanctions

3. Broaden definitions of intergenerational exposure to reflect non-traditional family structures

– Measure correlations of child wellbeing with range of intergenerational exposures to test

for evidence of diminishing harms hypothesis

Street (Univ. of Missouri) Child Exposure to U.S. Justice Spring 2022 5 / 18
In this paper, we do the following:

– Integrate over a terabyte of administrative and survey data:

– 1040 tax filings (1968-2019), household survey data (2000/2010 Decennial, 2005-2019 ACS),

caseload information (IHS, Medicaid, HUD), Social Security registration information

(1999-2019), and longitudinal criminal history information (CJARS → ∼ 50% of US pop.)

– Create longitudinal residential and relationship crosswalks for the entire US population

– Link children to adults in their home through constructed crosswalks and observe CJ

events through CJARS, addressing three major shortcomings in the literature:

1. Incorporate broader definitions of justice involvement beyond incarceration

2. Generate cumulative exposure estimates to account for documented scarring effects of

criminal records/sanctions

3. Broaden definitions of intergenerational exposure to reflect non-traditional family structures

– Measure correlations of child wellbeing with range of intergenerational exposures to test

for evidence of diminishing harms hypothesis

Street (Univ. of Missouri) Child Exposure to U.S. Justice Spring 2022 5 / 18
Data Sources

1) Criminal Justice Administrative Records System (CJARS)

– Event-level criminal justice data with nationwide scope

– Tracking across key milestones in the justice system

– Capacity to link with individual-level survey and administrative data at the U.S. Census Bureau

2) Residency inputs:

- Decennial Census

- IRS 1040 tax forms

- American Community Survey (ACS)

- Public and Indian Housing (PIC), HUD

- Tenant Rental Assist. Cert. Sys. (TRACS)

- Centers for Medicaid & Medicare Serv. (CMS)

- Indian Health Services (IHS)

- MAF-ARF

3) Relations inputs:

- Residency crosswalk

- Decennial Census

- IRS 1040 tax forms

- American Community Survey (ACS)

- HUD, Longitudinal (PIC/TRACS)

coverage

logic rules

Consider 1999-2005 birth cohorts in CJARS covered states at the population level.

Street (Univ. of Missouri) Child Exposure to U.S. Justice Spring 2022 6 / 18
CJARS data coverage

– 175m CJ events

– CJ exposures are: criminal

charge, felony charge, felony

conviction, prison

– Charge/conviction exposure: AZ,

FL, MD, MI, NJ, NC, ND, OR,

TX, WI (∼29% of U.S.)

– Prison exposure: AZ, FL, MI,

NE, NC, PA, TX, WA, WI

(∼30% of U.S.) Statewide

coverage,

2+ domains

Statewide

coverage,

1 domain

Partial

geographic

coverage

Caseload

snapshot

Street (Univ. of Missouri) Child Exposure to U.S. Justice Spring 2022 7 / 18
Intergenerational links identified by crosswalks

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

All White Black Hispanic Asian Native

American

Female, bio-parent Female, bio-parent/other caregiver

Male, bio-parent Male, bio-parent/other caregiver All results were approved for release by the U.S. Census Bureau, authorization number CBDRB-FY22-ERD002-001.

Street (Univ. of Missouri) Child Exposure to U.S. Justice Spring 2022 8 / 18
Intergenerational links identified by crosswalks

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

All White Black Hispanic Asian Native

American

Female, bio-parent Female, bio-parent/other caregiver

Male, bio-parent Male, bio-parent/other caregiver

97%

95%

90%

76%

All results were approved for release by the U.S. Census Bureau, authorization number CBDRB-FY22-ERD002-001.

Street (Univ. of Missouri) Child Exposure to U.S. Justice Spring 2022 8 / 18
Intergenerational links identified by crosswalks

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

All White Black Hispanic Asian Native

American

Female, bio-parent Female, bio-parent/other caregiver

Male, bio-parent Male, bio-parent/other caregiver All results were approved for release by the U.S. Census Bureau, authorization number CBDRB-FY22-ERD002-001.

Street (Univ. of Missouri) Child Exposure to U.S. Justice Spring 2022 8 / 18
Contemporaneous bio-parent exposure estimates

0%

1%

2%

3%

4%

Charge Felony Charge Felony

Conviction

Prison Entry In Prison

3.7%

1.2%

0.9%

0.3%

0.8%

All results were approved for release by the U.S. Census Bureau, authorization number CBDRB-FY22-ERD002-001.

Street (Univ. of Missouri) Child Exposure to U.S. Justice Spring 2022 9 / 18
Cumulative bio-parent exposure estimates

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

0 3 6 9 12 15 18

Age of Child

Charge Felony Charge Felony Conviction In Prison

26.0%

11.4%

9.2%

3.6%

All results were approved for release by the U.S. Census Bureau, authorization number CBDRB-FY22-ERD002-001.

Street (Univ. of Missouri) Child Exposure to U.S. Justice Spring 2022 10 / 18
Adding other caregivers as sources of exposure

– Household formation and structure in U.S. has undergone significant transformations

– Bumpass (1990), Cherlin and Furstenberg (1992), McLanahan and Sandefur (1994), Cherlin (2004),

Andersson (2002), Heuveline, Timberlake and Furstenberg (2003), Brown (2010), Cherlin (2010), Curtin and

Martinez (2014), Powell et al. (2016), Smock and Schwartz (2020), Raley and Sweeney (2020), Cavanagh

and Fomby

– With important heterogeneity by race

– Wilson (1987), Cherlin (1992), Lichter et al. (1992), Bumpass and Lu (2000), Raley and Wildsmith (2004),

Fomby and Cherlin (2007), McLanahan and Percheski (2008), Isen and Stevenson (2011), Kreider and Ellis

(2011), Raley, Sweeny, and Wondra (2015), Raley et al. (2015), Parker, Sassler, Tach (2021)

– Omitting caregivers who are not biological parents is a potential major source of bias

– Who can we observe?

– Step, foster, and adoptive parents

– Coresiding extended family members (aunts, uncles, grandparents — not siblings/cousins)

– Unclassified caregivers (file 1040 but no rel. measure; inferred parent but not in SSA data)

– Unclassified cohabitating adults (boyfriends, girlfriends, roommates, etc)

Street (Univ. of Missouri) Child Exposure to U.S. Justice Spring 2022 11 / 18
Adding other caregivers as sources of exposure

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

40%

0 3 6 9 12 15 18

Child Age

Charge Felony charge Felony conviction In prison

Bio-parents With caregivers

26.0%

11.4%

9.2%

3.6%

All results were approved for release by the U.S. Census Bureau, authorization number CBDRB-FY22-ERD002-001.

Street (Univ. of Missouri) Child Exposure to U.S. Justice Spring 2022 12 / 18
Adding other caregivers as sources of exposure

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

40%

0 3 6 9 12 15 18

Child Age

Charge Felony charge Felony conviction In prison

Bio-parents With caregivers

38.9%

21.4%

18.3%

8.8%

All results were approved for release by the U.S. Census Bureau, authorization number CBDRB-FY22-ERD002-001.

Street (Univ. of Missouri) Child Exposure to U.S. Justice Spring 2022 12 / 18
Majority of exposure during/following coresidency

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

40%

45%

0 3 6 9 12 15 18

Child Age

Charge Felony charge Felony conviction In prison

All exposures In-home exposures

In-home event Out-of-home event

Charge 79.2% 74.9%

Felony charge 67.4% 79.6%

Felony conviction 64.8% 80.7%

In prison 54.2% 88.6%

Share of exposed minors with:

All results were approved for release by the U.S. Census Bureau, authorization number CBDRB-FY22-ERD002-001.

Street (Univ. of Missouri) Child Exposure to U.S. Justice Spring 2022 13 / 18
Minority children have substantially higher risk

32%

62%

45%

17%

60%

16%

42%

25%

6%

34%

14%

35%

22%

5%

29%

6%

20%

11%

2%

15%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

White,

Non-Hispanic

Black,

Non-Hispanic

Hispanic Asian American

Indian

Charge Felony charge Felony conviction In prison All results were approved for release by the U.S. Census Bureau, authorization number CBDRB-FY22-ERD002-001.

intensive margin

Street (Univ. of Missouri) Child Exposure to U.S. Justice Spring 2022 14 / 18
Children in low-income households have higher exposure rates

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

0 20 40 60 80 100

Parent Household Income Rank

Charge Felony charge Felony conviction In prison

All results were approved for release by the U.S. Census Bureau, authorization number CBDRB-FY22-ERD002-003.

by race

Street (Univ. of Missouri) Child Exposure to U.S. Justice Spring 2022 15 / 18
Are all exposures made equal?

– Not clear that we should worry about larger exposure estimates, if:

– reflect less serious types of contact with justice system, or

– capture less meaningful adult-child relationships

– Investigate through regression analysis:

Yi = α + ρ1Bio-Parent Exposurei + ρ2Other Caregiver Exposurei + βXi + 

– Outcomes: Behind in school, difficulty remembering, dropped out of highschool, teen pregnancy,

charged with a crime, household poverty status, grandparents are primary caregivers

– Exposure: charge, felony charge, felony conviction, and incarceration, differentiated by

contemporaneous and cumulative

– Controls: adult linkages, birth year, commuting zone of birth, gender by race, survey year, age

– Diminishing harms hypothesis would suggest smaller ρˆ for: less serious types of exposure,

less recent exposure, and for less central adult-child relationships

Street (Univ. of Missouri) Child Exposure to U.S. Justice Spring 2022 16 / 18
Many estimates are statistically indistinguishable

Behind in school (control mean = 0.052)

0.997

0.998

0.999

1

1.001

1.002

1.003

Bio-parent Other Caregiver

-0.02

0

0.02

0.04

Charge Felony charge Felony conviction In prison

Contemporaneous Exposure

Cumulative Exposure

All results were approved for release by the U.S. Census Bureau, authorization number CBDRB-FY22-ERD002-001. Street (Univ. of Missouri) Child Exposure to U.S. Justice Spring 2022 17 / 18
Many estimates are statistically indistinguishable

Grandparent as primary caregiver (control mean = 0.029)

0.997

0.998

0.999

1

1.001

1.002

1.003

Bio-parent Other Caregiver

-0.03

-0.01

0.01

0.03

0.05

0.07

0.09

Charge Felony charge Felony conviction In prison

Contemporaneous Exposure Cumulative Exposure

All results were approved for release by the U.S. Census Bureau, authorization number CBDRB-FY22-ERD002-001. Street (Univ. of Missouri) Child Exposure to U.S. Justice Spring 2022 17 / 18
Discussion of results & conclusion

– Intergenerational exposure to the U.S. justice system much larger than previously thought

– Improved data availability/integration eliminate need for strong methodological

assumptions

– Clear implications for inequality and intergenerational mobility in U.S.

Thank you!

Brittany Street

streetb@missouri.edu

Street (Univ. of Missouri) Child Exposure to U.S. Justice Spring 2022 18 / 18
Discussion of results & conclusion

– Intergenerational exposure to the U.S. justice system much larger than previously thought

– Improved data availability/integration eliminate need for strong methodological

assumptions

– Clear implications for inequality and intergenerational mobility in U.S.

Thank you!

Brittany Street

streetb@missouri.edu

Street (Univ. of Missouri) Child Exposure to U.S. Justice Spring 2022 18 / 18
Discussion of results & conclusion

– Intergenerational exposure to the U.S. justice system much larger than previously thought

– Improved data availability/integration eliminate need for strong methodological

assumptions

– Clear implications for inequality and intergenerational mobility in U.S.

Thank you!

Brittany Street

streetb@missouri.edu

Street (Univ. of Missouri) Child Exposure to U.S. Justice Spring 2022 18 / 18
Discussion of results & conclusion

– Intergenerational exposure to the U.S. justice system much larger than previously thought

– Improved data availability/integration eliminate need for strong methodological

assumptions

– Clear implications for inequality and intergenerational mobility in U.S.

Thank you!

Brittany Street

streetb@missouri.edu

Street (Univ. of Missouri) Child Exposure to U.S. Justice Spring 2022 18 / 18
Appendix Slides

Street (Univ. of Missouri) Child Exposure to U.S. Justice Spring 2022 1 / 7
Details on residency crosswalks

Data are linked at the person-level using a Protected Identification Key (PIK) created through

the Census Bureau’s Person Identification Validation System (PVS). Similarly, addresses are

assigned MAFIDs, a numeric key, to protect PII.If more than one MAFID (i.e., address) is

provided for an individual in a given year, the following ranking is applied: Decennial Census,

IRS 1040, IRS 1040 ELF, American Community Survey, CMS EDB, HUD LNG, HUD PIC,

HUD TRACS, IHS, MAF-ARF, CMS MSIS (county level information only)

Street (Univ. of Missouri) Child Exposure to U.S. Justice Spring 2022 2 / 7
Building national residency crosswalks

1970 1980 1990 2000 2010 2020

IRS 1040 Filings

Decennial Census

American Community Survey

Medicaid/Medicare Enrollment

HUD Beneficiaries

Indian Health Services

Social Security Registration

– Very good coverage starting in 1999

– Ability to track older cohorts will improve dramatically with new 1970, 1980, and 1990

Decennial files in FSRDC

– Trent Alexander, UM PI for digitization/linkage project

back

Street (Univ. of Missouri) Child Exposure to U.S. Justice Spring 2022 3 / 7
Building national relationship crosswalks back

Identify set of 

cohabitation and 

relationships

Decennial Census 2000

Decennial Census 2010

American Community 

Survey (2001-2019)

1040 IRS Filings (1969, 

1974, 1979, 1984, 1989, 

1994, 1995, 1998-2019)

HUD Beneficiaries 

(1995-2016, 2018)

SSA Birth Registration 

(1999-2018)

Indian Health Services 

(1999-2019)

Medicare/Medicaid 

Enrollment (2000-2014)

MAF-ARF (2000-2019)

Explicit 

relationship 

observed?

Yes (Available for heads of household in survey and benefit data)

No

Biological parent

Step, foster, or 

adoptive parent 

Extended family 

member

Unclassified 

caregiver

Unclassified 

cohabiting adult

Not included as 

parent, caregiver, 

or cohabiting adult

On SSA 

Birth 

Registration 

File?

No

Claim as 

dependent 

on 1040 

filing? 

(12<age gap<45)

No

Yes Yes

Less than 13 

year age gap? 

OR

Greater than 20 

cohabitants in 

residency

Is 

relationship 

status 

inferable?

Yes

No

Yes

No

Street (Univ. of Missouri) Child Exposure to U.S. Justice Spring 2022 4 / 7
Building national relationship crosswalks back

Identify set of 

cohabitation and 

relationships

Decennial Census 2000

Decennial Census 2010

American Community 

Survey (2001-2019)

1040 IRS Filings (1969, 

1974, 1979, 1984, 1989, 

1994, 1995, 1998-2019)

HUD Beneficiaries 

(1995-2016, 2018)

SSA Birth Registration 

(1999-2018)

Indian Health Services 

(1999-2019)

Medicare/Medicaid 

Enrollment (2000-2014)

MAF-ARF (2000-2019)

Explicit 

relationship 

observed?

Yes (Available for heads of household in survey and benefit data)

No

Biological parent

Step, foster, or 

adoptive parent 

Extended family 

member

Unclassified 

caregiver

Unclassified 

cohabiting adult

Not included as 

parent, caregiver, 

or cohabiting adult

On SSA 

Birth 

Registration 

File?

No

Claim as 

dependent 

on 1040 

filing? 

(12<age gap<45)

No

Yes Yes

Less than 13 

year age gap? 

OR

Greater than 20 

cohabitants in 

residency

Is 

relationship 

status 

inferable?

Yes

No

Yes

No

Street (Univ. of Missouri) Child Exposure to U.S. Justice Spring 2022 4 / 7
Building national relationship crosswalks back

Identify set of 

cohabitation and 

relationships

Decennial Census 2000

Decennial Census 2010

American Community 

Survey (2001-2019)

1040 IRS Filings (1969, 

1974, 1979, 1984, 1989, 

1994, 1995, 1998-2019)

HUD Beneficiaries 

(1995-2016, 2018)

SSA Birth Registration 

(1999-2018)

Indian Health Services 

(1999-2019)

Medicare/Medicaid 

Enrollment (2000-2014)

MAF-ARF (2000-2019)

Explicit 

relationship 

observed?

Yes (Available for heads of household in survey and benefit data)

No

Biological parent

Step, foster, or 

adoptive parent 

Extended family 

member

Unclassified 

caregiver

Unclassified 

cohabiting adult

Not included as 

parent, caregiver, 

or cohabiting adult

On SSA 

Birth 

Registration 

File?

No

Claim as 

dependent 

on 1040 

filing? 

(12<age gap<45)

No

Yes Yes

Less than 13 

year age gap? 

OR

Greater than 20 

cohabitants in 

residency

Is 

relationship 

status 

inferable?

Yes

No

Yes

No

Street (Univ. of Missouri) Child Exposure to U.S. Justice Spring 2022 4 / 7
Building national relationship crosswalks back

Identify set of 

cohabitation and 

relationships

Decennial Census 2000

Decennial Census 2010

American Community 

Survey (2001-2019)

1040 IRS Filings (1969, 

1974, 1979, 1984, 1989, 

1994, 1995, 1998-2019)

HUD Beneficiaries 

(1995-2016, 2018)

SSA Birth Registration 

(1999-2018)

Indian Health Services 

(1999-2019)

Medicare/Medicaid 

Enrollment (2000-2014)

MAF-ARF (2000-2019)

Explicit 

relationship 

observed?

Yes (Available for heads of household in survey and benefit data)

No

Biological parent

Step, foster, or 

adoptive parent 

Extended family 

member

Unclassified 

caregiver

Unclassified 

cohabiting adult

Not included as 

parent, caregiver, 

or cohabiting adult

On SSA 

Birth 

Registration 

File?

No

Claim as 

dependent 

on 1040 

filing? 

(12<age gap<45)

No

Yes Yes

Less than 13 

year age gap? 

OR

Greater than 20 

cohabitants in 

residency

Is 

relationship 

status 

inferable?

Yes

No

Yes

No

Street (Univ. of Missouri) Child Exposure to U.S. Justice Spring 2022 4 / 7
Building national relationship crosswalks back

Identify set of 

cohabitation and 

relationships

Decennial Census 2000

Decennial Census 2010

American Community 

Survey (2001-2019)

1040 IRS Filings (1969, 

1974, 1979, 1984, 1989, 

1994, 1995, 1998-2019)

HUD Beneficiaries 

(1995-2016, 2018)

SSA Birth Registration 

(1999-2018)

Indian Health Services 

(1999-2019)

Medicare/Medicaid 

Enrollment (2000-2014)

MAF-ARF (2000-2019)

Explicit 

relationship 

observed?

Yes (Available for heads of household in survey and benefit data)

No

Biological parent

Step, foster, or 

adoptive parent 

Extended family 

member

Unclassified 

caregiver

Unclassified 

cohabiting adult

Not included as 

parent, caregiver, 

or cohabiting adult

On SSA 

Birth 

Registration 

File?

No

Claim as 

dependent 

on 1040 

filing? 

(12<age gap<45)

No

Yes Yes

Less than 13 

year age gap? 

OR

Greater than 20 

cohabitants in 

residency

Is 

relationship 

status 

inferable?

Yes

No

Yes

No

Street (Univ. of Missouri) Child Exposure to U.S. Justice Spring 2022 4 / 7
Building national relationship crosswalks back

Identify set of 

cohabitation and 

relationships

Decennial Census 2000

Decennial Census 2010

American Community 

Survey (2001-2019)

1040 IRS Filings (1969, 

1974, 1979, 1984, 1989, 

1994, 1995, 1998-2019)

HUD Beneficiaries 

(1995-2016, 2018)

SSA Birth Registration 

(1999-2018)

Indian Health Services 

(1999-2019)

Medicare/Medicaid 

Enrollment (2000-2014)

MAF-ARF (2000-2019)

Explicit 

relationship 

observed?

Yes (Available for heads of household in survey and benefit data)

No

Biological parent

Step, foster, or 

adoptive parent 

Extended family 

member

Unclassified 

caregiver

Unclassified 

cohabiting adult

Not included as 

parent, caregiver, 

or cohabiting adult

On SSA 

Birth 

Registration 

File?

No

Claim as 

dependent 

on 1040 

filing? 

(12<age gap<45)

No

Yes Yes

Less than 13 

year age gap? 

OR

Greater than 20 

cohabitants in 

residency

Is 

relationship 

status 

inferable?

Yes

No

Yes

No

Street (Univ. of Missouri) Child Exposure to U.S. Justice Spring 2022 4 / 7
Details on relationship crosswalks

1. Residency crosswalk

– All pair-wise cohabitations (households with <20 persons and not group quarters)

2. Decennial Census, ACS, & HUD have relations to the household head

– Household head and spouse share bio children

– Household head is step parent, then spouse is bio parent

– Household head is adopted/foster parent then spouse is too

– Household head is grandparent/aunt/uncle, then spouse is too

– Household head is grandparent, then bio child is parent to grandchild (age difference>13)

– Household head is aunt/uncle, then sibling is parent to niece/nephew

3. Tax filing behavior

– Co-filers are married

– Filers claiming dependents are parents if 12<age difference<45

– Filers claiming dependents are grandparents if age difference>45

– Dependents are siblings (unless age gap>45, then grandparent-grandchild relation)

4. Census Household Composition Key (CHCK)

– Establishes parent-child links from SSA information

– Primarily bio children (%), unclassified caregivers from above steps are presumed to be bio

Street (Univ. of Missouri) Child Exposure to U.S. Justice Spring 2022 5 / 7
With stark differences on intensive margin back

White, non-Hispanic

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10+

Total Number of Exposure Events

Any Charge Felony Charge

Felony Conviction Prison Spells

Years of Prison

Black, non-Hispanic

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10+

Total Number of Exposure Events

Any Charge Felony Charge

Felony Conviction Prison Spells

Years of Prison

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10+

Total Number of Exposure Events

Any Charge Felony Charge

Felony Conviction Prison Spells

Years of Prison All results were approved for release by the U.S. Census Bureau, authorization number CBDRB-FY22-ERD002-003.

Street (Univ. of Missouri) Child Exposure to U.S. Justice Spring 2022 6 / 7
Returns to household income vary by race back

In prison

0%

8%

15%

23%

30%

0 20 40 60 80 100

Parent Household Income Rank

White, Non-Hispanic

Black, Non-Hispanic

Hispanic

Asian

American Indian

All results were approved for release by the U.S. Census Bureau, authorization number CBDRB-FY22-ERD002-003.

Street (Univ. of Missouri) Child Exposure to U.S. Justice Spring 2022 7 / 7