Fathers in Prison in the Netherlands

• In Event: Invisible Ties: Exploring Fatherhood and Criminal Justice

Abstract

It is a common idea that a sentence should be proportionate to the seriousness of the offence. In this context, it is important to study whether different offenders experience a sentence differently. Parenthood has been found to influence the subjective severity of imprisonment, however, results are primarily based on studies among mothers in prison. Although fathers, as compared to mothers, are strongly overrepresented in the prison population, knowledge about imprisoned fathers is lacking. The aim of this study was to examine whether demographic and criminal characteristics of imprisoned fathers are different from those of men that never had children. In addition, we studied the impact of fatherhood on subjective experience of severity of imprisonment.

We studied differences between these groups in a large Prison Project sample of 1,904 prisoners in 28 detention centers. The Prison Project is a study on intended and unintended effects of imprisonment. It is unique for its longitudinal, nationwide, multicenter design and large representative sample. In this study we compared nearly 700 detainees who reported to have children and compared them to the detainees who never had children. The following characteristics and outcomes were evaluated: Demographics and Criminal profiles, Health, Behavior in Prison and Detention Experience.

Authors

• Joni Reef, Leiden University

• Anja Dirkzwager, Netherlands Institute for the Study of Crime and Law Enforcement

• Paul Nieuwbeerta, Leiden University