Government urged to avoid 'stigmatising' children of parents in prison
Social workers are among those urging the Labour government to stop suggesting that the children of parents in prison are more likely to commit criminal offences.
A letter signed by 30 academics and criminal justice experts says making such a link is “discriminatory and harmful”.
Labour's manifesto pledge to reduce reoffending contains a paragraph which says: “The children of those who are imprisoned are at far greater risk of being drawn into crime than their peers. We will ensure that those young people are identified and offered support to break the cycle.”
However, Dr Shona Minson, of Oxford University’s Centre for Criminology, is concerned about the weakness of the evidence for the claims made.
The letter sent to the secretaries of state for justice and education, and England’s chief social worker for children and families Isabelle Trowler, welcomes the new government's commitment to increasing support for children who have experienced parental imprisonment.
It continues: “However, we would invite you to reconsider linking support for children who experience parental imprisonment to a suggestion of their future criminality.
"There is not a proven causal link between parental imprisonment and children’s offending, and identifying children in this way is highly stigmatising and breaches children’s rights to be protected by the state from discrimination which they suffer because of the status of their parents.”
The letter also references comments made by Labour MP Kerry McCarthy during a debate in the House of Commons. She said: “It has been suggested that 65 per cent of boys with a parent in prison go on to offend.”
But according to Dr Minson the claim is based on a decades old study study which found 15 out of 24 boys born in 1953 whose fathers were imprisoned had a criminal record as adults.
She said: “Policies for today’s children should not be based on the experiences of 15 boys in one study in the 1970s and 1980s.”
The letter stresses research in the UK and internationally shows children who have experienced a parent in prison are more at risk of mental illness, poor educational outcomes, unemployment “and being involved in the criminal justice system”.
It adds: “These studies have not yet proved a causal link between parental imprisonment and children’s criminal justice involvement; rather, they show the negative practical and emotional impacts of imprisonment itself on income, housing, care arrangements, education, and social support, to name a few, all of which in themselves can harm chid wellbeing and increase risk of a number of negative outcomes if support is not available.”
The letter calls on the government to to work with stakeholders to "provide support which recognises children’s rights and does not further stigmatise or diminish their future outcomes, but instead enables them to thrive”.
Dr Caroline Bald, co-chair of BASW's criminal justice group, is among those who have signed the letter.
The Ministry of Justice was contacted for comment.
Read Dr Minson's blog on the issue here