Parenting and Reintegration Experiences for Recently Incarcerated Women

• In Event: 477 - Section on Crime, Law, and Deviance Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 02. Punishment and Incarceration 2

Abstract

In recent decades, the rate of female incarceration has been growing faster than that of men. Along with this substantial growth has come an increase in the number of mothers who are incarcerated and therefore separated from their children. The consequences of this separation and the effects it has on reentry experiences for these mothers is the areas of investigation in this paper. Much of the prior work on reentry has focused on the experiences of male offenders. The parenting relationship is likely to have different meanings for mothers, however, and may therefore have unique impacts on the prosocial and antisocial behavior of these women after their release from incarceration. To examine these relationships, thirty-eight semi-structured baseline and follow-up interviews with recently incarcerated mothers in the Portland, OR metro area were conducted to obtain information regarding offenders’ relationships with their children before and after incarceration, along with their pro- and anti-social behaviors in the period following their release from incarceration. This study speaks to emerging theoretical developments suggesting that incarceration and reentry experiences may be gendered processes, and suggests that future research consider the distinct consequences of incarceration and reentry on mothers with differing levels of contact with their children.

Authors

• Melissa Thompson, Portland State University

• Summer Newell, Portland State University

• Lew Bank, Portland State University

• Mary Oschwald, Portland State University