Morality and Motherhood of (Ex-)Prisoners’ Children

• In Event: Effects of imprisonment on families: new contextual and conceptual insights

Abstract

Mothers of children whose father is in prison are frequently faced with questions about what is 'right' to do. What, if anything, should they tell their children about the father’s offence and prison sentence? How can they protect their children from the potentially stigmatising and hostile gaze of the outside world? To what extent should they try to maintain the children’s relationship with the father in prison? Addressing these questions is a fundamental part of mothering children affected by paternal imprisonment but there has been little investigation into how mothers in these situations navigate such issues in practice, nor a considered attempt to understand the varied reasons for their moral decision-making and practice.

This study begins to address this gap through an analysis of interview data from women who participated in the Families and Imprisonment Research (FAIR) study, a prospective longitudinal study of 54 families in England and Wales where the father served a prison sentence of six years or less. The mothers who participated in the study, were interviewed once when the father was in prison, a second time shortly after his release and a third time six or seven years afterwards. This paper presents three case studies of mothers whose experiences illustrate a range of moral challenges that mothers faced as a result of their association with the father. These were challenges to their identity as a ‘good mother’ and to their capacity to provide a ‘good life’ for their children. The analysis is informed by Carol Gilligan’s ‘ethic of care’ and the work of relational sociologists and anthropologists of ethics. It sheds new light on the moral issues faced by women caring for children whose fathers had prison sentences and draws attention to the relational dimension of everyday moral action and reflection.

Authors

• Caroline Lanskey, University of Cambridge

• Lucy Markson, University of Cambridge

• Karen Souza, University of Cambridge

• Sophie Ellis, University of Cambridge

• Friedrich Lösel, Cambridge University & University of Erlangen-Nuremberg

• Jennifer Barton-Crosby, NatCen Social Research