Unprecedented numbers of children experience parental incarceration worldwide. Families and children of prisoners can experience multiple difficulties after parental incarceration, including traumatic separation, loneliness, stigma, confused explanations to children, unstable childcare arrangements, strained parenting, reduced income, and home, school, and neighborhood moves. Children of incarcerated parents often have multiple, stressful life events before parental incarceration. Theoretically, children with incarcerated parents may be at risk for a range of adverse behavioral outcomes. A systematic review was conducted to synthesize empirical evidence on associations between parental incarceration and children's later antisocial behavior, mental health problems, drug use, and educational performance. Results from 40 studies (including 7,374 children with incarcerated parents and 37,325 comparison children in 50 samples) were pooled in a meta-analysis. The most rigorous studies showed that parental incarceration is associated with higher risk for children's antisocial behavior, but not for mental health problems, drug use, or poor educational performance. Studies that controlled for parental criminality or children's antisocial behavior before parental incarceration had a pooled effect size of OR = 1.4 (p < .01), corresponding to about 10% increased risk for antisocial behavior among children with incarcerated parents, compared with peers. Effect sizes did not decrease with number of covariates controlled. However, the methodological quality of many studies was poor. More rigorous tests of the causal effects of parental incarceration are needed, using randomized designs and prospective longitudinal studies. Criminal justice reforms and national support systems might be needed to prevent harmful consequences of parental incarceration for children.

http://www.neuroscience.cam.ac.uk/publications/download.php?id=18104

Children's antisocial behavior, mental health, drug use, and educational performance after parental incarceration: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

The number of children experiencing parental imprisonment is increasing in Western industrialized countries. Parental imprisonment is a risk factor for child antisocial behavior, offending, mental health problems, drug abuse, school failure, and unemployment. However, very little is known about whether parental imprisonment causes these problems. Parental imprisonment might cause adverse child outcomes because of the trauma of parent‐child separation, stigma, or social and economic strain. Children may have worse reactions to parental imprisonment if their mother is imprisoned or if parents are imprisoned for longer periods of time or in more punitive social contexts. Children should be protected from harmful effects of parental imprisonment by using family‐friendly prison practices, financial assistance, parenting programs, and sentences that are less stigmatizing for offenders and their families.

/pdf/the-effects-of-parental-imprisonment-on-children-1lr7ngt2pl.pdf

The Effects of Parental Imprisonment on Children

Some determinants of impulsive aggression: role of mediated associations with reinforcements for aggression.

There is an ongoing American policy debate about the appropriate legal status for psychoactive drugs. Prohibition, decriminalization, and legalization positions are all premised on assumptions about the behavioral effects of drug laws. What is actually known and not known about these effects is reviewed. Rational-choice models of legal compliance suggest that criminalization reduces use through restricted drug availability, increased drug prices, and the deterrent effect of the risk of punishment. Research on these effects illustrates the need for a more realistic perspective that acknowledges the limitations of human rationality and the importance of moral reasoning and informal social control factors. There are at least 7 different mechanisms by which the law influences drug use, some of which are unintended and counterproductive. This framework is used to explore the potential behavioral effects of decriminalization and legalization.

Drugs and the Law: A Psychological Analysis of Drug Prohibition

The purpose of this study is to extend our understanding of attitudes toward the police by examining how race/ethnicity, social class, and neighborhood context interact to influence four different ...

The Influence of Race/Ethnicity, Social Class, and Neighborhood Context on Residents' Attitudes Toward the Police

Public Attitudes to Sentencing: Surveys from Five Countries

PART I General 1. Sentencing procedure and appeals 2. Information about the offender 3. The relevance of explanations 4. Aggravation and mitigation 5. Discrimination and mercy 6. Background information 7. The efficacy of correctives 8. General deterrence and education 9. Sentencers' aims PART II Imprisonment 10. Using imprisonment 11. Imprisonment's wanted and unwanted effects 12. Administration, location, allocation 13. Rules, grievances and rights 14. Getting out PART III Non-custodial measures 15. Diversion and nominal measures 16. Financial measures 17. Community penalties 18. Philosophies and effectiveness of supervision 19. The control of stigma PART IV Special categories 20. Young adult offenders 21. Mentally disordered offenders 22. Dangerous offenders 23. Traffic offenders 24. The executive and the judiciary Index

Sentencing - Theory, Law and Practice

Sentencing in a Rational Society.

Sentencing in a rational society

one-man Royal Commission. It describes the penal system and discusses it in the light of research and available published information. The description is lucid and the comments are shrewd, and sometimes highly entertaining. Some observations, indeed, throw a new light on old assumptions. For example, Walker assembles the figures for the various methods of dealing with children in trouble (including noncriminal situations), and shows 'the frequency with which the police and the criminal courts impinge on the lives of juveniles, in comparison with other forms of intervention...; ... in terms of frequency alone the penal system is clearly the most important single social service.' One may not necessarily agree, and 'social service' is undefined, but the juxtaposition is challenging. Walker's standpoint is an individual one. He displays an unusual combination of interests-psychology and administration-while his basic attitude is

Nigel Walker

Papers

Public Attitudes to Sentencing: Surveys from Five Countries

Sentencing - Theory, Law and Practice

Sentencing in a Rational Society.

Sentencing in a rational society

Crime and Punishment in Britain