This chapter of Crime and Justice: a Review of Research written by top researchers in the field starts on the premise that there is little known about whether parental imprisonment causes problems (known as risk factors) such as anti-social behaviour, offending, mental health problems, drug abuse, school failure and unemployment.
This peer-reviewed research looks at parental imprisonment being the cause of these poor outcomes because of the strain of parent/child separation, stigma etc and also the differences between children's reactions based on parents sentence length, which parent is imprisoned and the social context. Various studies looking at parental imprisonment are discussed and summarised. The researchers conclude that children of prisoners have about three times the risk for antisocial behavior compared to their peers, and twice the risk of mental health problems. Furthermore, the researchers state that whilst few studies investigate the relationship between parental imprisonment and child drinking, drug, education, and employment outcomes (and those that do are based on unrepresentative samples, meaning that results should be treated with caution) - studies to date suggest that parental imprisonment is a risk factor for school failure, drug abuse and unemployment. However, parental imprisonment was not consistently associated with drinking problems. The research recommends children's protection from harmful effects of parental imprisonment by the use of family friendly prison practices, financial assistance, parenting programmes and sentences which are less stigmatising given social context.
Please download the effects of parental imprisonment on children below:
