At the time of the 2000 Census approximately 10,000 adult males were in prison. Given this absence there are about 67 men for every 100 women in the North Lawndale community, with a greater imbalance among the parenting generations. This gap often leads to permanent or intermittent father absence, decreased family income, and a heavy reliance on grandparents for parenting.

Research has shown that there is a direct correlation between male incarceration rates and father absence in families. A study in the District of Columbia found that when the male incarceration rate of a neighborhood exceeds 2%, fathers are absent from over half of the families.

An in-depth look at crime and the criminal justice system including individual and societal economic costs, issues surrounding ex-offender re-entry, as well as problems and solutions is available for download in pdf format.

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