The Effects of Maternal Incarceration on Child Behavior
In the past, there have been many studies done on the effects of parental incarceration on child wellbeing. However, there has been much less study of the effects of maternal incarceration. Recent studies done on the wellbeing of children with incarcerated mothers have produced varying and conflicting results. Inconsistent results make it very difficult to generalize findings and to carry out effective interventions.
Defining the Problem: Maternal Incarceration
Women are being incarcerated at much higher rates, and child well being and future outcomes for those children are a growing concern (Luke, 2002). There has been an 839 percent increase in incarceration of women since 1997, two
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According to Farrington, Murray, and Sekol (2012), children are likely to experience stressful life events before and after parental incarceration. Following incarceration, children can experience problems like, but are not limited to, traumatic separation, reduced income, and loneliness (Farrington et. al. 2012). Farrington, Murray, and Sekol found that the circumstances under which children experience parental incarceration vary from child to child, but experiencing incarceration can lead to negative changes in antisocial behavior in children. Dallaire, Thrash, and Zeman, found that incarcerated specific experiences make children more prone to maladjustment than environmental experiences do (2015). Additionally, Borowski, Dallaire, and Zeman studied the effects of maternal incarceration in the context of a child’s socialization, examining emotion socialization of children with incarcerated mothers, finding that higher levels of incarceration-specific risk index predicted low emotional regulation in children (2016).
Conversely, Turney and Wildeman examined the effects of maternal incarceration on child behavior, finding that the effects of maternal incarceration were consistently null, suggesting the poor outcomes on child behavior are mostly linked to disadvantages the child experiences before maternal incarceration
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Some states require parents to terminate their parental rights when they are incarcerated, based on the length of their incarceration, so the child can be put with a new family permanently, severing all ties between mother and child (Luke, 2002). This situation can exacerbate the effects a child is already feeling during their mother’s incarceration. Luke recommends laws exclude jail or prison time from being a criterion for terminating a parent’s parental rights (2002). Luke also recommends parenting classes for incarcerated mothers during their incarceration (2002). Parenting classes can be useful for mothers to reintegrate themselves into the household an role as a mother following their incarceration. There is little research in the effectiveness of parenting class, studies only having been done in individual prisons, but all research points to the potential long term benefits of providing incarcerated mothers with parenting classes and resources
Can you imagine having your parents incarcerated? I can, when I was 10 years old my father was incarcerated and at age 23 my mother was incarcerated. Parental incarceration impacts you as a child or a teen in so many ways due to only one parent or grandparent being able to raise the child without the other. Parental incarceration is a very dramatic event in a child's lifespan. Having a parent incarcerated can have an impact on a child's mental health, social life and educational needs. Studies show parental incarceration can be more traumatic to students than even a parent's death or divorce, and the damage it can cause to students' education, health, and social relationships puts them at higher risk of one day going to prison themselves.(Sparks,
Not only is prison ineffective in preventing reoffending in women and is expensive, it can be extremely damaging to the female’s well-being and their families. The effect that a custodial sentence has on women is arguably far worse than for men. Women are often not prepared or equipped for their life following their prison sentence; due to the fact that women are more likely to be lone parents before prison (Social Exclusion Unit, 2002), are more likely to leave prison homeless and unemployed (Wedderburn, 2000), and are more likely to lose access of their children whilst serving their sentence (Corston, 2007). Statistics from 2010 showed that around 17,000 children become separated from their mother by imprisonment (Wilks-Wiffen, 2011). This can be absolutely devastating to not only the female offender, but to their innocent children too. Moreover, due to the small number of women’s prisons, the average distance that women are sent away from their homes is around 60 miles (Women in Prison, 2013). Therefore, even if the women are lucky enough to keep in contact with their children, it can be tremendously hard to organise visitation and uphold
It is undeniable that mass incarceration devastates families, and disproportionately affects those which are poor. When examining the crimes that bring individuals into the prison system, it is clear that there is often a pre-existing pattern of hardship, addiction, or mental illness in offenders’ lives. The children of the incarcerated are then victimized by the removal of those who care for them and a system which plants more obstacles than imaginable on the path to responsible rehabilitation. Sometimes, those returned to the community are “worse off” after a period of confinement than when they entered. For county jails, the problem of cost and recidivism are exacerbated by budgetary constraints and various state mandates. Due to the inability of incarceration to satisfy long-term criminal justice objectives and the very high expenditures associated with the sanction, policy makers at various levels of government have sought to identify appropriate alternatives(Luna-Firebaugh, 2003, p.51-66).
Hairston, C., & Lockett, P. (1987). Parents in Prison: New Directions for Social Services. Social Work , 162-164.
This article describes the similarities and parallelism of the foster system to the prison systems and how they perpetuate and are influenced by each other. It describes how these systems commodify and dehumanize these human beings, especially women who receive long, severe sentences for minor offenses and are thus denied ability to parent their child from behind bars. This, thus, affects the child in the short and long term because these children are taken from their mothers by the state, often put into foster care, in which the state then refuses to take care of these motherless children. This then leads to social workers developing more aggressive and hostile tactics when dealing with these types of cases, because often the children must scavenge the streets in order to survive and become troubled by the social realities they face. The author then begins to discuss how the welfare system becomes heavily involved with these families, along with the stigmatizations government assistance is attached with. . It is unfortunate that this article only very briefly discusses pregnant, black incarcerated women, and the lack of prenatal care they are provided with during
Women in Prison. Washington, D.C.: Bureau of Justice Statistics Varnam, Steve. Our prisons are a crime (reforming the prison system). Editorial. Christianity Today 21 June 1993
Although the actual number of pregnant women incarcerated in the United States is somewhat unclear, it is estimated that six to ten percent of the females sentenced to prison are pregnant when incarcerated. (Guerino et.al., 2011) The majority of female inmates that are sentenced to prison after felony convictions are s...
The challenges of children who grow up with parents whom were incarcerated at some point in their childhood can have a major effect on their life. The incarceration of parents can at times begin to affect the child even at birth. Now with prison nurseries the impregnated mother can keep her baby during her time in jail. With the loss of their parent the child can begin to develop behavioral problems with being obedient, temper tantrums, and the loss of simple social skills. Never learning to live in a society they are deprived of a normal social life. “The enormous increase incarceration led to a parallel, but far less documented, increase in the proportion of children who grew up with a parent incarcerated during their childhood” (Johnson 2007). This means the consequences of the children of the incarcerated parents receive no attention from the media, or academic research. The academic research done in this paper is to strengthen the research already worked by many other people. The impact of the parent’s incarceration on these children can at times be both positive and negative. The incarceration of a parent can be the upshot to the change of child’s everyday life, behavioral problems, and depriving them a normal social life.
Over the past few decades, an increase in incarceration has occurred. During the 1990’s, America’s prison population increased by half as well as the number of children with a parent in prison. By 2002, 1 in 45 minor children had a parent in prison. This continuous increase has a tremendous effect on families, especially when children are involved, due to prisoners being separated from their loved ones. Incarcerated parents are forced to learn a new way of life, such as not being a part of their children’s lives, while their children must learn to live with an absent parent and accept an alternated support system that may remove them from the only environment that they know. Additionally, research has shown how families who suffer from incarceration
There is a plethora of data within the last 10-15 years that repeatedly show family, friends, and entire communities or neighborhoods being drastically affected by the consequences of mass incarceration as well. The data focus primarily on the effects on the partners, children, families, friends, and caregivers of those incarcerated; particularly the economic, emotional, and personal relationships between incarcerated individuals and those the data also
Parental incarceration can affect many aspects of a child’s life, including emotional and behavioral well-being, family stability and financial circumstances. The growing number of children with an incarcerated parent represents one of the most significant collateral consequences of the record prison population in the U.S. Children who have an incarcerated parent require support from local, state, and federal systems to serve their needs. Kids pay both the apparent and hidden costs while their loved one serves out sentences in jail or prison.
Incarceration not only affects the person being incarcerated but also directly affects the family. Most importantly, children suffer the consequences of maternal
doi:10.1007/s10964-012-9780-9 Phillips, S. D. (2010). The past as prologue: Parental incarceration, service planning and intervention development in context. In J. Poehlmann & M. Eddy (Eds.). ), Children of incarcerated parents (pp. 13–32) and the. Washington, DC: Urban Institute.
The perpetuation of massive incarceration rates has had a significant economic impact on the low-income communities. Similarly, various analyzes suggested a correlation between high incarceration and low-income communities. Likewise, low-income communities face higher risks of crime, as well as, an increased danger of having a family member incarcerated (Harris and Kearney 2014). However, even within the low-income communities, there is a stratification of race. African American men, who lack a high school diploma, have a 50% chance of being incarcerated. The unfortunate reality is that approximately 2.7 million children have at least one parent who is incarcerated (Harris and Kearney 2014). As DeFina and Hannon (2013) suggest, the mass incarceration
The relationship between early child abuse and juvenile delinquency, as well as adult criminal behavior, has long been supported through psychological and criminological studies. It is important to recognize that though these studies show a correlation, there are many factors which contribute to delinquency and adult criminal behavior. Therefore, these studies merely show that child abuse may increase the risk for delinquency or other social problems but does not result in all abused children becoming delinquents. Through the examination of studies on child sexual abuse, physical abuse, and neglect and maltreatment it can be seen that children who have undergone these traumatizing experiences learn to cope in different ways which may result in social and criminal deviance. The type of abuse or neglect a child suffers may act as an indicator to the type of criminal act or unhealthy coping mechanisms used later on.