The Influence of Parental Incarceration on their Children’s Socialization and Adolescent Offending and Victimization

• In Event: Roundtable: Incarceration

Abstract

As parental incarceration has increased over the years, scholars have become concerned with the consequence it has on families. In order to examine these potential effects, prior research has focused mainly on how post-release family relations can influence recidivism. Less research, however, has focused on how prison experiences of parents may continue to affect parenting and children’s outcomes after release. Given the fact that incarceration can produce changes in beliefs, attitudes, and values on crime and the criminal justice system, it is important to examine how children are socialized by these parental perceptions when they return home. Utilizing longitudinal data, the proposed study will assess if incarceration influences parental socialization of their children and subsequent adolescent outcomes on offending and victimization.

Author

• Melissa Noel, University at Albany, SUNY