Sibling Criminal Justice Contact as a Consequential Life Course Experience

• In Event: Using Longitudinal Data to Study The Causes and Consequences of Criminal Justice Contact Over the Lifecourse.

Abstract

Classic research on the concentration of crime and punishment within families often focused on shared genetic and family influences or utilized older sibling crime as a control variable in the prediction of younger sibling criminal involvement. More recent research on the collateral consequences of mass incarceration shows harmful effects of arrest or imprisonment on other family members but is usually focused on outcomes for children or romantic partners. Using longitudinal survey data, this study unites both streams of research by examining the effects of criminal justice contact of one sibling on the wellbeing, home environment, and adjustment of another. Rather than conceiving of the criminal justice involvement of one sibling as merely a useful control, I ask whether sibling criminal justice contact is a consequential life course experience in its own right.

Author

• Sara Wakefield, Rutgers University