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Parents of Young Offenders as Blameworthy Victims? Methodological Challenges and Solutions

Parents of Young Offenders as Blameworthy Victims? Methodological Challenges and Solutions. Daniel McCarthy Lecturer in Criminology University of Surrey . What criminology has to say about parenting and crime? .

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Parents of Young Offenders as Blameworthy Victims? Methodological Challenges and Solutions

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  1. Parents of Young Offenders as Blameworthy Victims? Methodological Challenges and Solutions Daniel McCarthy Lecturer in Criminology University of Surrey

  2. What criminology has to say about parenting and crime? • Onset and desistance factors (Sampson and Laub, 1993, Farrington, 2007 for reviews) - Parents as a risk factor in crime • Collateral consequences, especially when parent is incarcerated (Fishman, 1990, Hagan and Dinovitzer, 1999, Codd, 2008, Comfort, 2008)

  3. Why parents? • Desistance and supporting resettlement • Parenting dynamics – re-building or severing relationships • Coping mechanisms they employ • Impacts – financial and material, health (physical and mental), relationships, identity and self, violence and harm

  4. “Families should be more like the Waltons and Less Like the Simpsons” (G H Bush, Former US President)

  5. Researching parents in criminology • Secondary data issues – child as dependent variable, few of the parent/s • Current project: • 60 interviews with parents sampled from Youth Justice Services in South Wales and London. • Social network analysis • Parents with children imprisoned – interview at 2 time frames – start of sentence and 6 months after sentence

  6. Examples of Interview measures • How relationships and contact between parent/s and child change over the prison term and beyond? • Factors of gender of parent and family structure • Parental support networks and ties – whether these change over the prison term • Wider impacts on parents – tied to health, work, personal relationships, self and identity

  7. Connecting Interview Data with Social Network Analysis (SNA)

  8. Networks of parental connections and how they change • Familial ties • Friendship ties • Neighbours, community ties and activities • Formal control agencies – e.g. prison, youth offending teams

  9. What does such a methodological approach provide research on families and crime? • Prison as an interconnected system beyond the prisoner – importance of family • Processes, mechanisms and context behind parental networks and secondary experiences of prison • Resilience factors or negative impacts on familial relations and coping

  10. Key Methodological Issues/Challenges • Re-positioning family risk factors • Issues about ‘networks’ • Parental pathways • How to measure ‘impact’ and ‘outcomes’ on parents?

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