Parental Incarceration’s Effect on Family: Effects on Mothers, Fathers, Marriage, Children, and Socioeconomic Status

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to provide a qualitative analysis of the effects incarceration has on family members. Incarceration affects a very large number of families in the United States and Canada, especially since the mass incarceration between the 1970s and 2000s that occurred in the United States. Incarceration was found to have both negative effects on incarcerated mothers and fathers, and it was found to increase the risk of divorce. Children were also affected by parental incarceration by raising their risks of developing mental illness, engaging in delinquent behaviour, having negative social experiences and damaging their parent-child relationship. Moreover, parental incarceration had little to no effect on a child’s academic performance and it displayed the child’s resiliency. Lastly, incarceration had negative effects on a family’s socioeconomic status and it increased the risk of second-generation offenders.