The effect of maternal incarceration on adult offspring involvement in the criminal justice system

Abstract

Researchers have estimated that 63 percent of incarcerated women have one or more minor children and most reported living with their children prior to incarceration (Mumola, 2000). Unfortunately, children of incarcerated parents have been a relatively invisible population in the research on the collateral consequences of incarceration. The goal of the current study was to examine the long-term effect of maternal incarceration on adult offspring involvement in the criminal justice system using data from the mother child sample of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979. Based on existing research, it was hypothesized that the adult offspring of incarcerated mothers would be more likely to have been convicted of a crime or to be sentenced to probation. The effect of maternal incarceration on correlates of criminal behavior in adolescence and early adulthood (e.g., negative peer influences, positive home environment) was also modeled to assess possible indirect effects. The results highlighted the direct effect of incarceration on adult offspring involvement in the criminal justice system, but parental incarceration had little association with correlates of criminal behavior.

Introduction

Family context has been identified as a central domain in the study of crime and delinquency. Specifically, disruption of the parent-child relationship and parental antisocial behavior have been linked to delinquency and official contact with the criminal justice system (Farrington, 2002, Henry et al., 1996, Juby and Farrington, 2001, Sampson and Laub, 1993). Although the relationship between parenting and child outcomes has been well documented, researchers know little about the long-term effect of maternal incarceration on adult offspring involvement in the criminal justice system.

The absence in the literature is surprising given current incarceration trends. In 1980, women accounted for 3.9 percent of the prison population; by 2003, women represented more than 7 percent of prison inmates (Harrison & Beck, 2004). The children of incarcerated parents have been affected by the rise in incarceration. Currently, more than 1.5 million children have an incarcerated parent; 2 percent of all minor children and 7 percent of African American children have a parent in federal or state prison (Mumola, 2000). Most of the children are very young, and the majority of parents lived with their children prior to incarceration. In fact, 44 percent of fathers and 64 percent of mothers in state prisons and 55 percent of fathers and 84 percent of mothers in federal prisons reported living with their children prior to incarceration (Mumola, 2000).

The primary goal of the current research was to explore the effect of maternal incarceration on adult offspring involvement in the criminal justice system. Using data from the mother child supplement of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 (NLSY79), this study improved on previous research that had focused solely on the direct effect of maternal incarceration on child outcomes by including correlates of criminal behavior (e.g., parental supervision, peer pressure). This analytic strategy was designed to consider the independent effect of incarceration on adult offspring contact with the criminal justice system separate from that of preexisting social and maternal characteristics. The current research sought to address not only if maternal incarceration affects adult offspring involvement in the criminal justice system, but how incarceration influences children and families.