Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Vanessa Lopez - Family Ties: Exploring Familial Relationships For Individuals With A Felony Conviction, Vanessa Lopez

Ronald E. McNair Scholars Program 2013

This qualitative study explores the difficulties released prisoners and their families encounter through the reintegration process. The reentry process into society is a challenge for both released prisoners and their families to overcome, since the social stigma of a criminal conviction creates barriers. The challenging component of the social stigma essentially prevents individuals with a criminal conviction from sustaining themselves financially and finding a place to live. Besides the stress of overcoming the barriers of judgments created by society; many of these individuals have to face the rejection of their children, partners, and extended kinship groups. Existing literature has focused …