All research and evidence on NICCO is reviewed using a Quality Assessment Tool (QAT) developed by the University of Huddersfield and Barnardo's.
Research and evidence is assessed in four key areas: Methodological Quality, Child-Centredness, Relevance to Policy and Strategy, and Relevance to Practice with offender's children. This ensures that items on the NICCO website are as useful as possible to academics, practitioners, commissioners and other professionals. For more information about the development of the QAT or to review research in order to list it on NICCO, please see the QAT webpage where you can download the Tool, Guidebook and a short step-by-step 'How To' document. Please contact us to submit quality assessed research on to NICCO.
Click on the icons to see a full list of items which have been awarded a standard icon or icon+ (for items which have scored particularly highly) in each key area:
Results 7 - 12 of 12
This chapter of Crime and Justice: a Review of Research written by top researchers in the field starts on the premise that there is little known about whether parental imprisonment causes problems (known as risk factors) such as anti-social behaviour, offending, mental health problems, drug abuse, school failure and unemployment.
This peer-reviewed research looks at parental imprisonment being the cause of these poor outcomes because of the strain of parent/child separation, stigma etc and also the differences between children's reactions based on parents sentence length, which parent is imprisoned and the social context. Various studies looking at parental imprisonment are discussed and summarised. The researchers conclude that children of prisoners have about three times the risk for antisocial behavior compared to their peers, and twice the risk of mental health problems. Furthermore, the researchers state that whilst few studies investigate the relationship between parental imprisonment and child drinking, drug, education, and employment outcomes (and those that do are based on unrepresentative samples, meaning that results should be treated with caution) - studies to date suggest that parental imprisonment is a risk factor for school failure, drug abuse and unemployment. However, parental imprisonment was not consistently associated with drinking problems. The research recommends children's protection from harmful effects of parental imprisonment by the use of family friendly prison practices, financial assistance, parenting programmes and sentences which are less stigmatising given social context.
Please download the effects of parental imprisonment on children below:
This peer reviewed article refers to the impact of parental imprisonment on children in the USA but can be learned from by authors anywhere.
It looks specifically at the trauma experienced by children of imprisoned parents including key processes such as visits and child care giving. The research utilises a comparison group of similarly disadvantaged, single care-giver families who do not have a parent in prison. The findings show that accounts of child trauma from both the care-giver and child were higher and more likely to be clinical cases amoung those who had experienced parental imprisonment. Looking at processes; visitation was likely to be more problematic and care-giving was more likely to be done by someone other than a biological parent when a parent was imprisoned compared to the other group. Parents' reports of child trauma were most often linked to distressing prison visits thus recommendations around improving visits for children are made. Use your Springer Link log in details to access Parental Incarceration and Child Trauma.
Use open access resource Researchgate to download Parental Incarceration and Child Trauma for free below:
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This report details recommended changes to improve the experience for children visiting prisons.
Based on interviews with mothers and children who visit male prisons, the recommendations are intended to make prison visits as positive as possible for the children and young people involved. Examples of best practice are included throughout the report, as well as a focus on highlighting the concerns of the affected children and families. The report is largely organised according to the six recommendations detailed below:
1. All prisons should view visits as a family intervention, under the remit of reducing reoffending, rather than a security risk.
2. Searches of children and babies should be made more child-friendly and proportionate to the security risks posed.
3. Children's visits to male prisons should be separate from the Incentives and Earned Privileges scheme, as they are for women's prisons.
4. The National Offender Management Service should simplify the form and process for applying to the Assisted Prison Visits scheme.
5. Play facilities and visitor services within prisons should reach a consistent national standard, and the National Offender Management Service should issue guidance for governors, informed by advice from Ofsted.
6. Children should be permitted to bring homework and school reading books into and out of prisons.
Please see Barnardo's Locked Out below:
This short, accessible, children's rights focused article outlines the University of Huddersfield's 2013 COPING study into the mental health and resilience of children of prisoners across Europe.
There is an initial introduction to some of the challenges children with parents in prison face and consideration of how this differs across Europe. The author, who took part in the study, includes insights from the children that he conducted interviews with and includes images of pictures some drew in relation to their parents imprisonment. General recommendations for policy and practice in the criminal justice system, schools and elsewhere are briefly bullet pointed at the end.
You can access Prisons without walls for free from the University of Huddersfield's repository below:
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This evaluation explores the work and benefits of Ormiston's Breaking Barriers outreach service for children with a loved one who has recently been sentenced to prison.
The service, which offers 8 visits from a practitioner to a child in school, is assessed in relation to the aims of the service using service data, first hand interviews with children and parents and anecdotal evidence from school partners. The evaluation ends with clear recommendations for running the service, (such as post-intervention follow ups, awareness raising about children of prisoners) as well as evaluating (using direct measures against the service aims for example).
You can read the Breaking Barriers evaluation on the Ormiston website or download it below:
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