The Effect of an Alcohol Treatment Program on Children’s Risk of Foster Care

• In Event: Intergenerational Transmissions and Danish Registry Data

Abstract

Knowledge on the causal effects of parental incarceration on child outcomes remains limited, and in particular, knowledge on causal effects on severe child outcomes such as risk of foster care is, with a few exceptions, close to non-existent. To address this gap in the literature, our study tests how the 1990 introduction of a new non-custodial sanction targeting Danish drunk drivers affected their children’s risk of foster care. With this new sanction offenders were exempt from prison provided that they participated in and completed an alcohol treatment program, which was meant to permanently relieving them of their alcohol addiction. Using the natural experiment that occurred with the implementation of the sanction and exploiting the rich Danish administrative data, we find that the children of drunk drivers who got the program and avoided prison, had a subsequent lower risk of entering into foster care compared to children of drunk drivers who went to prison.

Authors

• Lawrence M. Berger, University of Wisconsin - Madison

• Signe Hald Andersen, Rockwool Foundation Research Unit