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This peer-reviewed article refers to the USA but can be applied anywhere. It explores the notion that intergenerational crime, as most research would report, may not only have causal links to social disadvantage, parenting, genetics and modelling processes but that a parents involvement in the criminal justice system itself may be the cause and negatively impact on a child. The youngest and oldest samples of a longitudinal study of 1,009 boys in inner city Pittsburgh were used to explore the development of problem behaviour in young people and how this links to their parents' arrest, conviction and imprisonment. Findings uncovered that parental arrest and conviction without imprisonment were not precursors to problematic behaviour in the boys. Whilst parental imprisonment had no links to the boys' marijuana use, depression or poor academic performance there was an increase in theft amongst them compared with control groups and this link was stronger for White than for Black youth. Conclusions note that although parenting (post release) and peer relations accounted for around half of youth theft, the specificity of the relationship between youth theft and parental imprisonment suggests that labelling and stigma could be intrinsic to understanding the repercussions of parental imprisonment for children and young people.
Understand more about the links between parental involvement in the criminal justice system via the link below:
