Children of imprisoned parents: the increased risk of premature mortality

A new study has shown that children who experience parental imprisonment during their youth are more likely to die prematurely. Steve van de Weijer, co-author of the study and a postdoctoral researcher at the Netherlands Institute for the Study of Crime and Law Enforcement (NSCR), discusses the key findings and possible causes, and looks at policies that can reduce negative outcomes for children of imprisoned parents.

As a consequence of the rising prison population worldwide, the number of children who experience the imprisonment of a parent has rapidly increased during the last couple of decades. Each year, millions of children in the world have a parent in prison. It is probably not surprising to most people that these children do poorly compared to other children, in various domains. Scientific studies have, for example, shown that these children are more likely to engage in antisocial, violent and criminal behaviour and to be imprisoned themselves. Drug abuse, physical and mental health problems, school failure, and teenage pregnancy have also been shown to occur more often among the group of children who experience parental imprisonment. Because of these poor outcomes, these children have also been called ‘orphans of justice’ and the ‘unseen victims of the prison boom’ by various scholars. A new study, which I conducted with Holly Smallbone (Griffith University/NSCR) and Valery Bouwman (NSCR), shows that children who experienced parental imprisonment during their youth are also more likely to die prematurely.

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