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Research on Children ofCriminal Offenders

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Title: Research on Children ofCriminal Offenders


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

Susan D. Phillips, Ph.D.
UIC JANE ADDAMS COLLEGE OF SOCIAL WORK
2
  • Suggested citation
  • Phillips, S. D. (2007, September). Research on
    children of criminal offenders Past, present,
    and future . Presentation at the 2007 Kids Count
    Conference, Annie E. Casey Foundation, Baltimore,
    Md.

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

Parental arrest
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

Number of Risk Factors
See for example Biederman, J., Milberger, S.,
Faraone, S. V., Kiely, K., Gutie, J., Mick, E.,
et al. (1995). Family-environment risk factors
for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder A
test of Rutter's indicators of adversity. Archive
of General Psychiatry, 2, 464-470. Bry, B. H.,
McKeon, P., Pandina, R. (1982). Extent of drug
use as a function of number of risk factors.
Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 91, 273-279.
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 father10
  • 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 ns
  • 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 settings11
  • 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 childrens problems caused by the
    problems their parents have or by putting parents
    with problems in prison?

26
Incarceration
  • Parent Risk Characteristics
  • Substance abuse
  • Mental health problems
  • Low educational attainment
  • Family Risk Exposures
  • Structure
  • Economic
  • Quality of care
  • Stability

Source Phillips, et al. (2006) Disentangling the
risks. Criminology and Public Policy
27
Incarceration
2.0
Family Risks Economic Strain
  • Parent Risks
  • Substance abuse
  • Mental health problem
  • Low education

2.0
1.6
2.7
28
Incarceration
2.0
  • Parent Risks
  • Substance abuse
  • Mental health problem
  • Low education

Family Risks Instability of Care
2.0
2.1
1.2
Source Phillips, et al. (2006) Disentangling the
risks. Criminology and Public Policy
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 children14
  • 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/j7077
    3133670v411/
  • 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.
    Doi10.1111/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, doi10.1016/j.childyouth. 2007.09.003
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