ISSN: 2151-0806
Vol. 6, Issue 3 July, 2013
Intergenerational Crime Prevention: Attempts to Save Children from Following in Their Incarcerated Parents’ Footsteps Steve Dobransky, PhD Candidate Justice Studies and International Relations Kent State University E-mail: sdobrans@kent.edu
INTERGENERATIONAL CRIME PREVENTION: ATTEMPTS TO SAVE CHILDREN FROM FOLLOWING IN THEIR INCARCERATED PARENTS’ FOOTSTEPS (Essay) Abstract This paper examines the problem of intergenerational crime in the United States. It looks at the past research and current efforts on assisting children of incarcerated parents. With record-levels of incarceration, little government and public attention seems to have been made on the short and long-term effects of mass incarceration on the families of the imprisoned, especially children. This paper intends to address the issue and highlight the harmful effects of parental incarceration with the fact that little has been done up to now to resolve the problem. We are at the point where the imprisoned parents are meeting up with their imprisoned children. It is a cycle of intergenerational crime in which this paper analyzes and evaluates. The paper concludes with recommendations on how to deal better with this issue and reduce its overall negative impact.
Introduction America’s incarceration rate is at the highest levels in American history. Rising four times the levels since the 1970s, America’s prisons have gone from approximately 500,000 inmates to 2.6 million inmates. Ever since the “war on crime” was declared in 1968 by President Richard Nixon, the United States has jailed tens of millions of adults. Despite the massive incarceration rate, there seems to have been very little consideration done at the highest political and legal levels regarding what the consequences would be for the children of the incarcerated adults. Peace Studies Journal, Vol. 6, Issue 3, July 2013
Page 164