CHESTNUT HILL, MASS. — A cross-sectional study of more than 76 million American children by researchers found approximately 15 percent—or over 11 million—of the children had a family member who was criminally charged within the past five years, resulting in potentially harmful disruptions to families that threaten the young people's wellbeing.
The 24-state study, published in JAMA Network Open on May 12, was conducted by Lynch School of Education and Human Development Professor Rebekah Levine Coley and Naoka Carey, acting assistant professor of lawyering at New York University Law School. See the article here: amanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2848856.
According to their research, lower-level contact with the criminal justice system, such as arrests or charges, are associated with stigma, mental health struggles, and employment and educational disruptions, all of which can also alter the economic and emotional welfare of the children who reside with the individuals. Families may also lose access to housing or public benefits, placing a direct strain on children.
The investigation, which examined data between 2000 and 2021, identified dramatic increases in family members' criminal legal contacts (CLC)—including arrests, charges, convictions, felony convictions and incarcerations—over this time frame. While 6.6 percent of children experienced a family member being criminally charged in 2000-2001, this figure tripled to 19.6 percent of children in 2018-2019, with parents of young children experiencing a
substantial portion of the interaction with the criminal justice system. These increases in criminal justice contacts occurred despite dramatic decreases in crime during the same time.
Coley and Carey noted that nearly 40 percent of American children have had family members who were criminally charged at some point during their childhood, with nearly one in 10 experiencing a caregiver's incarceration.
Prior research theorized that a family's contact with the criminal justice system—particularly parental incarceration—is a critical social determinate of offspring health, including adverse birth outcomes, behavioral concerns, unmet healthcare needs, increased depression and anxiety, and chromosome degradation.
"Parental incarceration has been singularly associated with reductions in children's educational attainment, social networks, and engagement in prosocial activities," said Coley, the Florencia and Marc Gabelli Family Faculty Fellow and the director of the Center for Child and Family Policy. "Our results suggest that high and increasing rates of prevalence may pose a serious public health threat to child wellbeing and have profound implications for child and adolescent welfare and the professionals who work with them."
"Reducing the pervasiveness of CLCs for children, families and communities requires reducing the footprint of the criminal justice system itself through targeted policies and systematic transformation," said Carey. "Ideally, these findings will help policymakers better direct resources to schools, community groups, and health practices to support affected children and families, while underscoring that increasing the reach of criminal systems can directly undermine children's wellbeing."
The research was funded by the National Science Foundation/Criminal Justice Administrative Records System, and dissertation grants from the Russell Sage Foundation and the Lynch School of Education and Human Development.
