Fragile families in the American welfare state

Fragile Families and Welfare Reform

Incarceration in fragile families.

Since the mid-1970s the U.S. imprisonment rate has increased roughly fivefold. As Christopher Wildeman and Bruce Western explain, the effects of this sea change in the imprisonment rate--commonly called mass imprisonment or the prison boom--have been concentrated among those most likely to form fragile families: poor and minority men with little schooling. Imprisonment diminishes the earnings o...

“Coparenting in Fragile Families”

Parental relationships in fragile families.

As nonmarital childbearing escalated in the United States over the past half century, fragile families--defined as unmarried couples with children--drew increased interest from researchers and policy makers. Sara McLanahan and Audrey Beck discuss four aspects of parental relationships in these families: the quality of parents' intimate relationship, the stability of that relationship, the quali...

Fragile States: the Birthplace of Non-State Armed Groups in West Asia

Due to both internal and external factors, Western Asia has long been suffering from security problems and political instability. The institution of various military and militia groups in the region in the absence of powerful central governments is the focal point of the crises, where the internal and external factors meet. The development of such security and military interactions outside the ...