Rikke Fuglsang Olsen

Invisible Consequences of Punishment: Parental Imprisonment and Child Outcomes

This dissertation provides systematic, quantitative insight on the children of prisoners in Denmark. It examines parental imprisonment as a social phenomenon and the long-term consequences of parental imprisonment on children’s life chances.

Differences in children’s criminal and educational outcomes are, to a large extent, attributable to social background and the criminality of parents. Nonetheless, this dissertation demonstrates that parental imprisonment has an additional impact on certain outcomes and for particular subgroups. The analyses show that parental imprisonment affects the risk of being convicted of property crime and juvenile delinquency over and above parental social background and criminality. In contrast, parental imprisonment does not affect children’s educational attainment: only the small group of children who experience the imprisonment of both parents ultimately attain less education. Finally, this dissertation also reveals that out-of-home placement after parental imprisonment is, for some children, a contributing factor to their higher risk of juvenile delinquency.

Udgivet juni 2013

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