1 National Offender Management Service, School of Health Sciences/Applied Psychology, Cardiff Metropolitan University, UK.
2 School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK.
Trauma Violence Abuse. 2017 Apr;18(2):185-199. doi: 10.1177/1524838015603209. Epub 2016 Jun 23.
The effect of family visits on prisoner well-being and future behavior is an important consideration in the development of prison policy. This review systematically examines current research findings that explore the impact of prison visits from family members on three specific offender outcomes: prisoners' well-being, rule breaking within the prison, and recidivism. The review focuses on visits by family and does not duplicate earlier reviews but rather extends them into current literature, through identification of empirical studies conducted post 1989, published since 1991. Ten studies met the stipulated inclusion criteria. All are case-control and cohort studies. The review of studies used a standardized quality assessment tool. Results show considerable variation in study quality, methods, and findings. However, studies consistently reported positive effects of prisoners receiving visits. Prison visits reduced depressive symptoms in women and adolescent prisoners. There was some evidence of reduction in rule-breaking behavior. One high-quality study suggested that visits reduced recidivism and increased survival in the community. Although there were positive outcomes associated with prison visits, it was not possible to draw strong conclusions for the outcomes of interest due to a lack of research, methodological discrepancies, and variability in outcome measures and results. The discussion considers the implications of the findings for policy, practice, and research.
家庭探访对囚犯福祉和未来行为的影响是制定监狱政策时需要考虑的一个重要因素。本综述系统地考察了当前研究成果，这些成果探讨了家庭成员探访对囚犯的三个特定结果的影响：囚犯的福祉、监狱内的违规行为和累犯。本综述重点关注家庭探访，并没有重复之前的综述，而是通过确定自 1991 年以来发表的 1989 年后进行的实证研究，将其扩展到当前文献中。符合规定纳入标准的研究有 10 项。所有研究都是病例对照和队列研究。对研究的综述使用了标准化的质量评估工具。结果表明，研究质量、方法和发现存在相当大的差异。然而，研究一致报告了囚犯接受探访的积极影响。探访减少了女性和青少年囚犯的抑郁症状。有一些证据表明，探访减少了违规行为。一项高质量的研究表明，探访减少了累犯率，并增加了社区中的生存机会。尽管探访与积极的结果相关，但由于研究不足、方法差异以及结果衡量和结果的可变性，对于所关注的结果，无法得出强有力的结论。讨论考虑了这些发现对政策、实践和研究的影响。
