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 1 - 6 of 11
This report aims to inform UK policy making regarding preventing offending and reoffending, by bringing together published information and new findings on prisoners' children and families.
It looks at the past and present family circumstances of 1,435 newly sentenced prisoners. It examines their childhood and family background, current family relationships, and associations between background/family characteristics and reoffending e.g. school truancy. The report estimates that 200,000 children are affected by imprisonment. 74% of the prisoners involved in the study said they felt close to their families. The report concludes that maintaining family relationships may help prevent reoffending and therefore consideration should be given to how adequate the systems are which facilitate family contact and involvement. The impact that parental imprisonment and maintaining contact may have on the prisoners' families should also be considered further.
See Prisoners' Childhood and Family Backgrounds below:
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This peer reviewed article investigates whether children of prisoners have more convictions as adults than their peers whose parents were not sentenced to prison but did incur convictions.
This is examined using two longitudinal data sets: the Cambridge Study in Delinquent Development and the NSCR Transfive Study between 1946 until 1981 in England and the Netherlands. Findings show that there was no notable relationship discovered between the imprisonment of a parent and the offending behaviour of their children in the Netherlands. However, in England, there was a connection found but only for sons. This can be explained in part by the criminality of the parents however in light of controlling various parental convictions and risk factors in childhood for example, a meaningful connection remained between the amount of parental imprisonments and offence rates of sons'. The study notes that sons' offending was only predicated by parental imprisonment after the age of 7. See The British Journal of Criminology to view this publication if you have a log in.
The open access version is available for free below:
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This peer reviewed article investigates father and child criminal careers using statistical methodology that compares groups over time.
It shows that children of random and chronic offenders have a notably higher conviction rate than children whose fathers do not offend. However, in contradictions to projections from intergenerational theories and studies, which look at the underlying reasons for offending, fathers who offended chronically did not have more chronically offending children than fathers who offended randomly. The results conclude that while there is strong case for intergenerational offending, it is simply because the father has a conviction and not dependent on how many he has. If you have access to SagePub see here for Intergenerational Transmission of Criminal Behaviour.
See below for open access to Intergenerational Transmission of Criminal Behaviour:
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This peer reviewed article looks, quantitatively, at the ways the transmission of criminal behaviour occurs by exploring specific times and frequencies of criminal behaviour as well as risk factors.
It explains that the lack of crime related risk factors for children whose parents have never been convicted, means they are much less likely to have convictions themselves than children whose parents had convictions before they were even born. Further, it notes that when their parents are convicted, children aged between 7 and 13 years, are slightly more likely to show criminal behaviour than children whose parents had been convicted at any other time in their lives. Essentially, this study shows that there is no key period of time for a parents conviction which heightens the likelihood of their children convicting. The results suggest the need for further study into intergenerational transmission of criminal behaviour that considers static and dynamic explanations and criminal environment and risk factors. For access via Taylor & Francis online see The Impact of Timing.
For open access via Researchgate see The Impact of Timing below:
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This research was conducted in Scotland although it can be read and learned from by people from any country.
It notes that in Scotland in 2009 there were more children with a parent in prison than experiencing divorce, and explores the idea that separation as a result of parental imprisonment is traumatic for those children. The report looks at literature around this trauma including the likeliness of these children developing Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and offending behaviours in later life. The researcher interviewed a small sample of children, young people and some carers. The findings were concerned with experiences e.g. grandparental care of children, the want for their views being taken into account by a judge and the impact the imprisonment of a parent has had on them e.g. levels of anxiety. The report concludes that children's rights, views and best interests must be taken into account in the event of parental imprisonment and makes recommendations for Scottish Policy, courts, remand and sentencing.
See Perspectives of Children below:
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This research was conducted in light of the fact that charities help facilitate contact and visits to family members inside, who are 39% less likely to re-offend as a result, but measuring the difference charities make can be difficult due to poor recording and lack of available funds for evaluation purposes.
Think NPC worked with 6 charities (Action for Prisoners' Families, Kids VIP, pact, POPS, Safe Ground and Storybook Dads) to identify common frameworks of understanding and key areas of measurement including; changes in family relationships and experience of those visiting. Think NPC devised 2 questionnaires. The findings reveal which programmes worked for the families. Recommendations are around the government improving measurement, developing the measurement tools such as the one designed as part of the research and developing a shared approach to measurement e.g. flexibility.
Read about this shared measurement approach below:
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