Directory of Research

All research and evidence on NICCO is reviewed using a Quality Assessment Tool (QAT) developed by the University of Huddersfield and Barnardo's.

Research and evidence is assessed in four key areas: Methodological Quality, Child-Centredness, Relevance to Policy and Strategy, and Relevance to Practice with offender's children. This ensures that items on the NICCO website are as useful as possible to academics, practitioners, commissioners and other professionals. For more information about the development of the QAT or to review research in order to list it on NICCO, please see the QAT webpage where you can download the Tool, Guidebook and a short step-by-step 'How To' document. Please contact us to submit quality assessed research on to NICCO.

Click on the icons to see a full list of items which have been awarded a standard icon or icon+ (for items which have scored particularly highly) in each key area:

Child-Centredness

Relevance to Policy

Methodological Quality

Relevance to Practice

103. Parental Incarceration Among Adolescents Receiving Mental Health Services
You need access to Springer Link to access this article in the Journal of Child and Family studies or to buy or rent it. Although this is research into adolescents in the U.S, it can be learned from by interested parties any where. The US Bureau of Justice Statistics estimates that one in 50 young people in the US has a parent in prison in 1999 and research shows that these children are more likely to experience emotional and behavioural difficulties. This peer-reviewed study uses a sample...
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104. An unfair sentence - All Babies Count: Spotlight on the criminal justice system
This report is part of the a series of Spotlight reports, published as part of the NSPCC's All Babies Count campaign. All Babies Count aims to raise awareness of the importance of pregnancy and the first year of life to a child's development. The report looks at babies affected by the criminal justice system, and argues that having a parent or a significant adult involved in the criminal justice system should be treated as a strong marker of additional support needs in a...
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105. Supporting children with a parent in prison: A review of the London Prisons Visiting Service: 2014
This report looks at the complex needs and safeguarding concerns faced by children with a parent in prison, and discusses the importance of providing support for children when they are visiting a parent in prison. It is highlighted that the prison visiting environment can have an important role to play in supporting children and young people, and provide an opportunity to identify those at risk. The London Prisons Service provided at the time by Spurgeons is also covered, which supported...
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106. Parental Arrest and Children in Child Welfare Services Agencies
You must purchase this peer reviewed article from the American Psychological Association's PsychNet to view the entire article or request it for free from the authors via Researchgate. Although written about American research, the finding from this article can be used by professionals everywhere. The National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being shows that approximately 1 in 8 children who are investigated by child welfare services (CWS) agencies for mistreatment have parents who...
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107. Differences Among Children Whose Mothers Have Been in Contact with the Criminal Justice System
This article begins with the premise that you have to understand the varying needs of children with mothers involved in the criminal justice system (CJS) in order to be able help them. To that end, the analyses described in this article explore the differences and tensions in parent and family risks among a group of children whose mothers had contact with the CJS. The research used data from a study of young people devised to explore patterns and correlations. The results showed that the...
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108. Safeguarding Children of Arrested Parents
This short report, from the International Association of Chiefs of Police is co written with the US Department of Justice's Bureau of Justice Assistance and Office of Justice programmes. It can be learned from by police professionals anywhere. It notes that the arrest of a parent can have a significant impact on a child, whether or not the child is present at the time of the arrest. Over the past 20 years an increasing body of research has emerged into the effects of these events on...

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