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…

Reviews factors such as income, employment, housing, and transportation which tend to keep women and female-headed families concentrated in cities. Proposes that cities are ideal places for future experimentation in lifestyles not based on traditional sex roles. (GC)