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 19 - 24 of 42
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This peer-reviewed article looks at the influence of adults' interpretations and the way issues of parental imprisonment are talked about in families on children's methods of coping with parental imprisonment. It explores how families' approaches to the issue may be based on openness and honesty or may emphasise privacy and secrecy, or a combination of these. The article argues that children are likely to be influenced by their parents'/carers' views, and that these may cause conflict for them. The article concludes that where parents/carers retain a positive view of the imprisoned parent, children are likely to benefit; where parents/carers feel issues of shame and stigma acutely, this is likely to be transmitted to their children. It is highlighted that this message is important for practitioners involved in supporting prisoners' families and also for parenting programmes.
See 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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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 peer reviewed American article looks at the relationship between parental involvement in the criminal justice system and children's likelihood of experiencing family risks. The study is based on data from a longitudinal study of young people from 11 rural counties in North Carolina.
The study found that parent risk factors (i.e. substance abuse, mental illness, and lack of education) had a significant direct effect on children's exposure to family risks - and these parent risk factors were also associated with greater odds of parental involvement in the criminal justice system. Parental involvement in the criminal justice system had a significant association with children's likelihood of experiencing two types of family risks - economic strain and instability. However, parental involvement in the criminal justice system was not significantly associated with family risks related to family structure or quality of care. Exposure to these risks was better explained by the direct effect of parental substance abuse, mental health problems, and lack of education. The research concludes that parental criminal justice system involvement is significantly related to children's exposure to certain types of family risks, independent of other parent risks. Furthermore, the article suggests that it is unrealistic to expect correctional programs focusing on relationships with children, to single-handedly impact intergenerational incarceration. Although these programmes may play an important role in offsetting some of the more immediate adverse effects of parental incarceration on children, the report suggests that they need to be coupled with rehabilitation efforts that target parental substance abuse, mental health problems, and inadequate education. Log in via Wiley to access Disentangling the Risks
Download Disentangling the Risks open access and for free via Researchgate 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:
