Risk, Protection and Resilience in the Family Life of Children and Young People with a Parent in Pri

1
Risk, Protection and Resilience in the Family
Life of Children and Young People with a Parent
in Prison
NEWCASTLE CENTRE FOR FAMILY STUDIES University of
Newcastle upon Tyne
2
Government has attached great importance to
tackling youth offending and antisocial
behaviour.Having a parent in prison is an
identified risk factor for children and young
people
3
By 2004, England and Wales had become the prison
capital of Western Europe. (Prison Reform Trust)

• At the end of August, 2004 the adult prison
  population stood at
• 70,597 men
• 4,586 women

4
Estimates suggest that

• 4 of children experience their fathers
  imprisonment during their school years
• some 150,000 children each year experience a
  parent being put in custody
• (Every Child Matters, 2003)

5
Our study aimed

• to examine the conduct and experience of
  parenting when one or both parents is serving a
  prison sentence
• to explore the process of resilience, resistance
  and protection that might exist for a child who
  has a parent in prison
• to examine the connection between parental
  imprisonment and the risk of children engaging in
  criminal and antisocial behaviours

6
Methods

• Survey questionnaire completed by 925 prisoners
  in four female and four male prison
  establishments
• In-depth, facilitated questionnaires completed by
  48 prisoners (27 fathers and 21 mothers)
• In-depth pre- and post-release interviews with 21
  prisoners (11 fathers and 10 mothers)
• In-depth post-release interviews with 38 children
  (aged 8-17) of the above prisoners and 23
  parents/carers

7
Proposition parental imprisonment places
children at increased risk of offending behaviour

• It does but it is not a simple causality we
  found little evidence of cross-generational
  transmission of criminality.

8
We found that

• the unprecedented levels of imprisonment have
  extensive and poorly understood consequences for
  prisoners families, especially their children
• families experience
• stigma
• social exclusion
• economic hardship
• multiple losses
• difficulty maintaining contact
• disruptions in family life and living
  arrangements

9
The extent of these impacts depends to some
extent, on the gender of the prisoner

• 89 of fathers in prison told us their children
  were living with the other parent
• 27 of mothers in prison told us their children
  were living with the other parent
• In Families with a mother in prison
• 43 of children were looked after by a
  grandparent
• 15 were in the care of other relatives
• 10 were in residential or foster care

10
Fathers in prison are visited more frequently by
their children than mothers in prison When
mothers are in prison, the nature and quality of
the mother-child relationship is heavily
dependent on the quality of the relationship
between the mother and their childs carer.
11
BUT

• Visiting is unpredictable and sporadic
• Children in care rarely visit their parents in
  prison
• Mothers have to work harder at maintaining
  contact with their children

12
Mothers are more likely than fathers to live
with their children after release
13

• Fathers are more likely than mothers to go in and
  out of prison
• 75 of the fathers had served more than one
  prison sentence
• 34 of the mothers had served more than one
  prison sentence

14
So how do children fare?

• The majority of the children in our study had not
  been in any trouble
• Most of those that had been were already involved
  in problem behaviours before parental
  imprisonment
• Again, there are gender variations

15
Boys were more likely than girls to have

• been excluded from school
• got into fights
• been negatively influenced by peers (drinking and
  drug use)

16
Of the 38 young people we interviewed

• six had received a police caution or been in
  court
• eight had exhibited behavioural problems (but not
  committed offences)
• There was considerable variation among siblings
  in the same family. This divergence in pathways,
  despite shared beginnings, was noted by Sampson
  Loeb (2005)

17
We suggest that prisoners children are at
greater risk because of

• chaotic life styles and repeated disruptions
• poverty
• the absence of a parent
• having to grow up too quickly
• parental drug use
• social exclusion being labelled and shunned in
  their neighbourhood
• living in a high crime, deprived area
• lack of social support and understanding

18
Release from prison can also increase the
stresses and strains

• prisoners are more likely to have reduced job
  prospects
• it is often difficult to re-enter the family
• the old temptations re-appear
• Absence of connections to important social
  systems such as work and relationships can
  explain patterns of persistence in offending
  (Hayes, 2005)

19
Looking to the FutureChildren with a parent in
prison

• are largely a forgotten and vulnerable group
• are both silent and silenced within the community
• are guilty by association
• do not consider prisons to be family-friendly
  environments
• There is a heightened probability of negative
  outcomes, but these risk factors do not imply
  causality

20
Many children survive extreme stress protective
factors include

• support from extended family
• peer support
• stability at school
• individual abilities to be emotionally brave and
  to cope

21
But 58 of released prisoners return to prison
within two years (Dibb, 2001)

• Policy imperatives to find
• less destructive alternatives to custodial
  sentences
• ways to support families and to assist the
  maintenance of family ties
• ways of reducing associated risk factors
• appropriate support for children of prisoners

22
Young people told us they want

• someone to talk to
• help with visiting
• access to information
• help with practical issues
• Parental imprisonment is a marker for a range of
  linked effects

23
Pathways are complex and dynamic

• There are subtle interactions between the
  individual, external forces and local context
• There is a need to increase respect not stigma
  for children whose parents are in prison
• Children, given appropriate support, can
• cope
• manage
• stay away from crime

24
I have never ever given a thought about the
criminals family, what they go through. To have
actually experienced it is absolutely horrendous.
I mean victims should be looked after, and they
should be taken care of, but I think the families
of the offenders are forgotten about. They need
help and support because theyre experiencing it
as well. They have got to cope with the fact that
a member of their family has done something
wrong. (Partner of man imprisoned for unlawful
sexual intercourse with underage girl forced
out of her job and her home together with their
teenage sons)
25
He had to look after his two younger sisters. He
were having to bath them in cold water and
things, like. He had to play the parent and that,
and he used to go out finding food for them. He
didnt steal but he had to play the parent role
and take them to school even though they were
mucky and that, but what could he
do?(grandmother of teenager whose mother is a
heroin addict)
26
Positive support of adolescent peersThey know
what Ive been through and everything, so they
were more like protective towards me. They just
try and help me, to see if I need anything They
are the proper caring friends that youd like to
be around all the time, the people youd like to
be around for the rest of your life.(14 year
old son of mother in prison for drug-related
offences)