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 13 - 18 of 27
This short piece of research relates to the mentoring of children of prisoners in the US however, it can be applied to any country with an interest in this area.
It is the last in a series of 10 action research reports. The research is conducted in light of the estimated two million children with imprisoned parents in the US at the time of writing and the negative circumstances many of these children can find themselves in. It considers developmental psychology and childrens' needs depending on their stage of development. Studies of mentoring programmes are examined which indicate the long term social, emotional and educational benefits of mentoring children of prisoners and the importance of quality and longevity of mentor/mentee relationships.
See how mentoring can be a promising intervention for children of prisoners below:
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This study investigates whether the caring responsibilities of a defendant mother are treated as personal mitigation to reduce sentence length in England and Wales.
The peer-reviewed research uses a combination of textual analysis of secondary data (transcripts of Crown Court sentencing remarks) and interview data. The research found that there is inconsistency in the application of personal mitigation to sentencing due to the exercise of judicial discretion. Judges with a greater understanding of the impact of prison on women are more likely to order pre-sentence reports, and if a judge has a pre-sentence report the defendant's motherhood has a greater likelihood of mitigating the sentence.
For open access to the article see Mitigating Motherhood below:
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This short paper is the 5th in a series of working papers from the Howard League called What is Justice? Re-imagining penal policy.
Kotova notes that despite previous research showing that prisoners' families in the UK are affected financially, socially, emotionally and practically by imprisonment, this is not yet one of the key topics in criminology and/or the sociology of punishment. Furthermore, criminal justice policy does not engage with prisoners' families needs, instead the rhetoric is largely focused on punishments and how just they are. This paper builds on the concept of social justice to argue that a broader understanding of justice within criminal justice is essential if social justice is to be achieved for prisoners' families. Four types of injustices are discussed- these are highlighted by using a social justice outlook to think about prisoners' families. In conclusion Kotova notes that to enable justice for prisoners' families, the meaning of justice in criminal justice must be widened, and social justice and the damaging impacts of imprisonment must be discussed.
Read Justice and Prisoners Families below:
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You will need to become a member of Taylor & Francis Online Journals to access the full article.
In light of the fact that the prison service more regularly encourages family visits and understands that maintaining good family ties reduces reoffening, this research explores the views and experiences of 30 prisoner's families, 16 prisoners and 14 prison staff around visits to a particular local Category B prison. Qualitative information was collected as part of a wider evaluation of the prison visitors centre. The findings show that three parties view visiting very differently: families see it as emotionally strenuous and practically complex, prisoners see visits as the highlight of their time inside whereas staff focus on the potential security breaches. Importantly for us, the research shows that prisoners did not want their children to see them and that parents would elaborately 'cover up' the imprisonment. In light of research which shows that children who visit their imprisoned parents have a better sense of wellbeing, a recommendation is made by Woodall and Dixley around professionals supporting the sensitive disclosure of the imprisonment of their parent.
Read about The significance of 'the visit' below:
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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 report, aimed predominately at commissioners and decision makers but accessible to any professional, looks at the need for and benefits of Women Centred Working.
Going through the principles on which Women Centred Working is based the report looks at: - the safe, supportive, community based and accessible nature of the approach - holistic, tailored and multi agency ways of working - the concepts of empowerment and co-production - the nature of effectiveness, outcomes focused and evidence based work - cost effectiveness and prevention It includes quotes and case studies throughout and examples of good practice and suggestions for development of Women Centred Working for funders, government, service providers and so on towards the end of the document. Of key importance to NICCO readers is the reference to women's children throughout and to the support offered to women offenders or those at risk of offending especially with regard to cost effectiveness.
Please download Showcasing women centred solutions below:
