Children and families

AuthorLol Burke
Date01 September 2016
DOI10.1177/0264550516668422
Published date01 September 2016
Subject MatterEditorial
Editorial
Children and families:
The collateral
consequences
of punishment
It has been estimated that there are approximately 200,000 children in England
and Wales who have a parent in prison (Barnardo’s, 2014: 1). However, in the
absence of official recording and monitoring by the Ministry of Justice, the actual
number of children affected by the imprisonment of a parent might be even higher.
Despite positive developments such as visitors’ centres and support groups, some 50
years after the first systematic study of prisoners’ families (Morris, 1965) it is still
largely the case that such families are, in official terms at least, the invisible victims of
imprisonment and are often treated as, and suffer from, ‘guilt by association’
(Matthews, 1983). As Hagan and Dinovitzer (1999) note, the ‘collateral costs and
consequences of imprisonment may be especially consequential for children of
imprisoned parents who are already at risk as a result of growing up and coming of
age in disadvantaged communities’ (p. 121).
Prisoners and their families often face multiple disadvantages even before the
imprisonment takes place. Parental imprisonment may in turn merely serve to
compound pre-existing disadvantages by severely disrupting family life and
weakening the attachment relationship and in some cases lead to emotional and
behavioural problems that transcend the prison sentence. Many children react to the
arrest of their parent with anger, grief, and rejection but find it difficult to share these
feelings because of shame and stigma. They are often socially isolated and dis-
advantaged, but most do not receive the support they need in the community, and
some are at risk of unsuitable care arrangements, because they are not being
identified by the authorities when their parents are sentenced to imprisonment
(Barnardo’s, 2014: 1).
It has been estimated that some 30 per cent of prisoners’ children experience
significant mental health problems compared to 10 per cent of the general popu-
lation (Social Exclusion Unit, 2002). According to the Social Care Institute for
Excellence (SCIE, 2008), adults who had a parent in prison during childhood are
more likely to experience structural disadvantage and worse outcomes in terms of
poor accommodation, relationship issues, unemployment, drug and alcohol misuse.
Similarly, the children’s charity Barnardo’s claims that children with a parent in
prison are: twice as likely as other children to experience conduct and mental health
problems; less likely to do well at school; more likely to be excluded; more likely to
Probation Journal
2016, Vol. 63(3) 251–255
ªThe Author(s) 2016
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DOI: 10.1177/0264550516668422
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The Journal of Community and Criminal Justice

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