Wakefield Sara, Baker Garrett, Wildeman Christopher
School of Criminal Justice, Rutgers University, Newark, New Jersey, USA.
Department of Sociology, Sanford School of Public Policy, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, USA.
J Marriage Fam. 2024 Aug;86(4):931-945. doi: 10.1111/jomf.12989. Epub 2024 Apr 3.
To consider whether one sibling's criminal legal system contact influences another's material conditions, social support, and mental health and behavioral problems.
Sibling incarceration is both the most common form of familial incarceration in the United States, with more than one in four Americans reporting ever experiencing this event, and highly unequally distributed. Despite how prevalent and unequally distributed sibling criminal legal system contact is, little research considers the consequences of that event for family life. This study seeks to partially fill that gap by testing whether and how a sibling's criminal legal system contact is associated with changes in the material conditions, social support, and wellbeing of caregivers and other children.
Using data from the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods, the authors estimate hierarchical linear models to consider the relationship between sibling criminal legal system contact and three core indicators of familial and child wellbeing: familial (1) social support and (2) material insecurity, and (3) child wellbeing, as indicated by behavioral and mental health problems using validated scales.
Sibling criminal legal system contact is associated with a reduction in the wellbeing of other children and contributes to declines in familial social support and material security.
Taken together, the results suggest that a sibling's criminal legal system contact can disrupt home life for siblings and families alike, highlighting yet another way that mass criminalization may imperil families and children.
探讨一个兄弟姐妹与刑事法律系统的接触是否会影响另一个兄弟姐妹的物质条件、社会支持、心理健康及行为问题。
在美国，兄弟姐妹被监禁是家庭监禁最常见的形式，超过四分之一的美国人表示曾经历过这种情况，而且分布极不均衡。尽管兄弟姐妹与刑事法律系统的接触普遍且分布不均，但很少有研究考虑这一事件对家庭生活的影响。本研究旨在通过测试兄弟姐妹与刑事法律系统的接触是否以及如何与照顾者和其他孩子的物质条件、社会支持及幸福度的变化相关联，来部分填补这一空白。
利用芝加哥社区人类发展项目的数据，作者估计分层线性模型，以探讨兄弟姐妹与刑事法律系统的接触与家庭及儿童幸福度的三个核心指标之间的关系：家庭（1）社会支持和（2）物质不安全，以及（3）儿童幸福度，通过使用经过验证的量表来衡量行为和心理健康问题。
兄弟姐妹与刑事法律系统的接触与其他孩子幸福度的降低相关，并导致家庭社会支持和物质安全的下降。
综合来看，研究结果表明，兄弟姐妹与刑事法律系统的接触可能会扰乱兄弟姐妹和家庭的家庭生活，凸显了大规模刑事定罪可能危及家庭和儿童的另一种方式。
