Research on Children of Criminal Offenders

1. Research on Children of Criminal Offenders  Past, Present, and Future

3. PAST RESEACH

4. Parent criminality and the risk for delinquency Glueck, S., & Glueck, E. (1950). Unraveling Juvenile Delinquency. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. McCord, J., & McCord, W. (1958). The effects of parental role model of criminality. Journal of Social Issues, 14, 66-75.

5. Criminality is difficult to measure. . . So, researchers measured parental arrest… Was parent ever arrested? Convicted versus not convicted? Felony versus misdemeanor?

6. Parental arrest is a risk marker Parent risk factors Antisocial attitudes and behavior Lack of education Substance abuse Mental illness Family risk factors Single-parent households Family conflict Poverty Inadequate parenting Disruption in care Community risk factors Exposure to violent Access to drug markets Delinquent peers

7. Children whose parents get arrested (not just incarcerated) have a heightened risk for delinquency…

8. Cumulative Risk Likelihood of adverse outcomes increases exponentially as the number of risk factors increases

9. RECENT RESEACH

10. Influences Feminist criminology Focused attention of the parenting role of female inmates Expansion of the criminal justice system Created a sense of urgency

11. Feminist Criminology (1960s) Do male theories of delinquency and crime apply to females?[1, 2] Do prison programs adequately address the needs of female inmates? [3,4] Is prison adjustment different for women than men because of their different relationship to their children? [5,6]

12. Expansion of Prison Population (1980s) Crack cocaine and gang violence More police (increased likelihood of arrest) Sentencing guidelines (greater likelihood of people being sent to prison) Mandatory maximum sentences Three strikes laws Truth in sentencing (serve greater proportion of sentence) Focus has been on incarceration, but arrests, probation, and parole have also increased

13. Shift in Research Questions How are children affected differently by the incarceration mothers versus fathers? Are there unintended adverse consequences of parental incarceration for children? Is parental incarceration a risk marker or risk factor?

14. 1. How are children affected by the incarceration mothers versus fathers?

15. http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/pdf/iptc.pdf

16. Rate of increase in mothers in prison outpaced rate of increase in fathers in prison A greater proportion of mothers in prison were living with their children before entering prison (64% vs 44%) A greater proportion of mothers in prison have children living with a grandparent compared to fathers(53% vs 13%) A greater proportion of mothers have children in foster care (9.6% vs 1.8%)

17. More recent research. . . About two-thirds of children with an arrested mother also have an arrested father[10] Maternal arrest and paternal arrest may have different consequences for children But, children of arrested mothers and fathers are not distinct populations Recent renewal of interest in the effects of fathers’ imprisonment Wilbur et al. (2007) Socioemotional effects of fathers’ incarceration on low-income, urban, school-aged children. Pediatrics http://www.pediatrics.org/cgi/content/full /120/3/e678

18. 2. Are there unintended adverse consequences of parental arrest and incarceration for children?

19. Look familiar????? Single-parent and grandparent-headed households Economic and material crises Long-term effects on employability and earnings of parents Changes in residence and caregivers Separation from siblings Grief, stigma, anxiety, behavior problems

20. Limitations Small n’s Convenience samples Cross sectional No direct observation of children Non-standardized measures

21. What this research tells us… Children have adverse experiences, but how common are they?

22. Compared to other children Adolescents in mental health settings[11] National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-being [12] Great Smoky Mountains Study [13]

23. Nationally representative sample of maltreatment reports 1 in 8 children had recently arrested parents Greater cumulative risk More likely to be placed out-of-home (is there spill-over??) Parental arrest predicted out-of-home placement, but did not differentiate between placement with relatives versus non-relatives Non-relative placement was associated with cumulative risk and child behavior problems Children with arrested parents were no more likely than other children to have clinical CBCL scores

24. The most consistent finding… As a group, children whose a parents have a history of arrest are exposed to a greater total number of risk factors These children and families are among the most complex cases service systems encounter

25. 3. Is parental incarceration a risk marker or a risk factor? i.e., Are children’s problems caused by the problems their parents have or by putting parents with problems in prison?

29. No association with. . . Quality of care Family structure

30. Implications for practice Parental incarceration is a unique risk factor for poverty and family disruption. Newly evolving programs focus on the parenting role of inmate parents and on helping parents maintain contact with criminal authorities. Substance abuse, mental illness, and lack of education have equally detrimental effects on poverty and family stability but also affect parenting and family structure

31. FUTURE RESEARCH

32. Research to answer theoretical and policy questions Is parental incarceration a risk marker or risk factor? Need longitudinal data starting with very young children Parent criminal careers

33. Research to inform service development Current services are characterized by a one-size-fits-all approach and emphasize “harm reduction” Need for targeted services that are responsive to needs of children, their parents, and focus on the communities where children of offenders are concentrated Differences among children[14] Differences in parents’ criminal careers matter?[15]

34. Relevant Research Research on Parent Criminality Pittsburgh Youth Study Loeber, R., & Stouthamer-Loeber, M. (1986). Family factors as correlates and predictors of juvenile conduct problems and delinquency. Crime and Justice, 7, 29-149. Cambridge Study in Delinquent Development Farrington, D. P. (1993). Childhood origins of teenage antisocial behavior and adult social dysfunction. Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, 86, 13-17. Great Smokey Mountains Study Costello, E. J., Erkanli, A., Fairbank, J. A., & Angold, A. (2002). The prevalence of potentially traumatic events and in childhood and adolescence. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 15, 99-112. National Study of Child and Adolescent Well-being Phillips, S. D., Burns, B. J., Wagner, H. R., & Barth, R. P. (2004). Parental arrest and children in child welfare services agencies. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 2, 174-186. Robins, L. N. (1978). Sturdy childhood predictors of adult antisocial behaviour: replications from longitudinal studies. Psychological Medicine, 8, 611-622. Guzder, J., Paris, J., Zelfowitz, P., & Feldman, R. (1999). Psychological risk factors for borderline pathology in school-age children. Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 38, 206-212. Farrington, D. P., Jolliffe, D., Loeber, R., Stouthamer-Loeber, M., & Kalb, L. M. (2001). The concentration of offenders in families, and family criminality in the prediction of boys' delinquency. Journal of Adolescence, 24, 579-596. Leve, L. D., & Chamberlain, P. (2004). Female juvenile offenders: Defining an early-onset pathway for delinquency. Journal of Child & Family Studies, 13, 439-452. Sirpa, S. K. (2002). Familial criminality, familial drug use, and gang membership: Youth criminality, drug use, and gang membership - What are the connections? Journal of Gang Research, 9, 11-22.

35. Relevant Research Maher, L., & Feinman, C. (1991). Punishment and welfare: Crack cocaine and the regulation of mothering. New York: Haworth. Task Force on the Female Offender. (1990). The female offender: What does the future hold? Arlington, VA: American Correctional Association. Barry, E. M. (1991). Pregnant, addicted and sentenced: Debunking the myths of medical treatment in prison. Criminal Justice, Winter, 23-27. Harm, N. J. (1992). Social policy on women prisoners: A historical analysis. Affilia, 7(1), 90-108. Fogel, C. I. (1993). Hard time: The stressful nature of incarceration for women. Issues in Mental Health Nursing, 14(1), 30-47. Clark, J. (1995). The impact of the prison environment on mothers. Prison Journal, 75, 306-340. Bureau of Justice Statistics http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/ bjs/glance/corrtyp.htm Source Book of Criminal Justice Statistics 2003, (Table 6.57) http://www.albany.edu/sourcebook/pdf/t657.pdf Source Book of Criminal Justice Statistics 2003, (Table 6.8) http://www.albany.edu/ sourcebook/pdf/t6.8.pdf Phillips, S. D., Erkanli, A., Costello, E. J., & Angold, A. (2007). Differences among children whose mothers have a history of arrest. Women & Criminal Justice, 17(2/3), 45-63. http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/haworth/wcj/2007/00000017/F0020002/art00003

36. Phillips et al. (2002). Parental incarceration among youth receiving mental health services. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 11(4), 385-399. http://www.springerlink.com/content/j70773133670v411/ Phillips et al. (2004). Parental arrest and children in child welfare services agencies. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 2, 174-186. Phillips, et al. (2006) Disentangling the risks. Criminology and Public Policyhttp://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1745-9133.2006.00404.x Also… Kinner et al. (2007). Do paternal arrest and imprisonment lead to child behavior problems and substance use? A longitudinal analysis. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry. Doi:10.1111/j.1469-7610.2007.01785.x Murray, J., & Farrington, D. P. (2005). Parental imprisonment: Effects on boys' antisocial behaviour and delinquency through the life course. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 46, 1269-1278. Murray, J., Janson, C., & Farrington, D. P. (2007). Crime in adult offspring of prisoners: A cross-national comparison of two longitudinal samples. Criminal Justice and Behavior, 34, 133-149.

37. Phillips, S. D., Erkanli, A., Costello, E. J., & Angold, A. (2007). Differences among children whose mothers have a history of arrest. Women & Criminal Justice, 17(2/3), 45-63. Phillips, S. D., & Erkanli, A. (2007). Differences in patterns of parental arrest and the parent, family, and child problems child protective service workers encounter in working with families. Children & and Youth Services Review, doi:10.1016/j.childyouth. 2007.09.003