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Female Offenders and Their Children - The Effects of Maternal Incarceration on Children

NCJ Number
72098
Author(s)
A M Stanton
Date Published
1977
Length
304 pages
Annotation
The effects of the incarceration of female offenders on their children and the mother-child relationship are examined, along with the criminal justice system's response to family disruption.
Abstract
The subjects were 75 mothers and their children age 4 to 18 years from four California counties. A total of 54 of the mothers were incarcerated in county jails, and 21 were on probation. The criteria for selecting the women were that they be sentenced and have a child over 4 years of age with whom they were living at the time of their arrest. In addition, the anticipated release date of the incarcerated women had to fall within the projected duration of the study. The incarcerated mothers and their children were interviewed twice, once while the mother was serving her sentence and again about a month after her release. The person responsible for the child's care during the mother's incarceration was also interviewed while the mother was in jail. The child's school was contacted for general achievement and behavior information for the periods before, during, and after the mother's imprisonment. The comparison group of mothers on probation and their children were also interviewed twice at intervals corresponding to those for incarcerated mothers and their children. One of the most provocative findings of the study was that the children of the arrested women were never considered as participants in the judicial proceeding in terms of their needs and the consequences they faced from the mother's sentencing. Further, no effort was made on the part of the criminal justice system and other social service agencies to ameliorate the effects of the mother's imprisonment on the children. The imprisonments of the mothers were generally debilitating for all concerned. Materials used in the study and supplementary data are appended. Tabular data and over 90 references are provided.