The Impact of Parental Incarceration on Psychopathy, Crime, and Prison Violence in Women

• Published date: 01 August 2020
• Author: Robert A. Perera,Nicholas D. Thomson,Ananda B. Amstadter,F. Gerard Moeller,James M. Bjork,Dace Svikis
• DOI: 10.1177/0306624X20904695
• Date: 01 August 2020
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/0306624X20904695

International Journal of

Offender Therapy and

Comparative Criminology

2020, Vol. 64(10-11) 1178 –1194

© The Author(s) 2020

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DOI: 10.1177/0306624X20904695

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Original Manuscript

The Impact of Parental

Incarceration on Psychopathy,

Crime, and Prison Violence

in Women

Nicholas D. Thomson1,2 , F. Gerard Moeller2,

Ananda B. Amstadter2, Dace Svikis2,

Robert A. Perera2, and James M. Bjork2

Abstract

There is a growing interest in understanding the consequences of parental

incarceration. Unfortunately, research exploring the long-term criminological

and personality effects in female offspring is limited, particularly among second-

generation female offenders. In a sample of 170 female offenders, we first assessed the

correlations between psychopathy facets, prison violence, and types of crime. Next,

we tested the association between childhood exposure to paternal and/or maternal

incarceration on adulthood psychopathic traits, criminal offending, and prospective

prison violence over 12 months. Correlations showed the interpersonal facet was

positively correlated with fraud-related crime and prison violence. The affective facet

was positively correlated with violent crime and prison violence. The behavioral facet

was associated with prison violence and drug-related crime. Multinomial logistic

regressions showed higher interpersonal facet scores were associated with an

increased likelihood of having experienced paternal incarceration. Higher affective

facet scores, violent crime, and prison violence were associated with an increased

likelihood of having experienced maternal incarceration, regardless of if the father

had been incarcerated or not. It is evident that having any parent incarcerated during

childhood can be harmful to daughters; however, our findings dovetail with prior

research showing that maternal incarceration leads to more detrimental outcomes

for women.

1Virginia Commonwealth University Health, Richmond, USA

2Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, USA

Corresponding Author:

Nicholas D. Thomson, Division of Acute Care Surgical Services, Departments of Surgery and Psychology,

Virginia Commonwealth University Health, Richmond, VA 23284-2512, USA.

Email: Nicholas.Thomson@vcuhealth.org

904695IJOXXX10.1177/0306624X20904695International Journal of Offender Therapy and ComparativeCriminologyThomson et al.

research-article2020

Thomson et al. 1179

Keywords

psychopathy, parental incarceration, violence, gender differences, prison misconduct,

female offenders, crime

More than 1.7 million children in the United States are affected by parental incar-

ceration at any given time (Glaze & Maruschak, 2008) and approximately 10 mil-

lion children will experience parental incarceration sometime before the age of 18

years (Mauer et al., 2009). Even with a reduction in overall incarceration rates for

men, there has been a steady increase of incarcerated women (Carson, 2018), and

the rate of incarcerated mothers has doubled since 1991 (up by 131%; Glaze &

Maruschak, 2008). There are notable long-term impacts of having a parent incar-

cerated as a child that can be seen into adulthood, including greater risk of psycho-

pathology, internalizing and externalizing traits, illegal drug use, having a criminal

conviction, and becoming incarcerated (Gifford et al., 2019). However, there is a

scarcity of research aiming to understand the long-term correlates of parental incar-

ceration among second-generation female offenders. Research has shown that the

effects of childhood adversities (e.g., parental incarceration) can be generationally

transmitted (Geller et al., 2009), but not all female offenders have experienced

parental incarceration. Thus, it may be important to understand how the long-term

effects of parental incarceration differentiate female prisoners on personality traits

and criminal behavior.

Losing any parent to incarceration has been shown to be more detrimental than

other forms of parental separation (e.g., parental death, hospitalization, disharmony;

Murray & Farrington, 2005). A possible explanation may be because parental incar-

ceration increases the risk of exposure to other adverse childhood experiences (e.g.,

neglect, exposure to violence, poverty, household instability; Wildeman & Wakefield,

2014). In some cases, the child of an incarcerated parent may suffer from the shame

and stigma of having a parent in prison, causing additional social isolation (Mauer

et al., 2009). Furthermore, the traumatic experience of parental incarceration may

impact the child’s security and attachment with parents, which interferes with typical

psychosocial development impacting personality and increasing the risk of delin-

quency (Makariev & Shaver, 2010; Thomson, Kuay, et al., 2018).

Both maternal and paternal incarceration are linked to detrimental consequences

for the child. Children of incarcerated parents have greater difficulties in school and

have higher rates of substance use, poor health, delinquency, home instability, poor

social adjustment, and externalizing and internalizing problems (Arditti, 2012; Hagan

& Foster, 2012; Lee et al., 2013; Murray & Farrington, 2005, 2008; Murray et al.,

2012). The link between parental incarceration and offspring criminal behavior is par-

ticularly well-established (Burgess-Proctor et al., 2016). In a meta-analysis including

45 samples, Murray et al. (2012) found that children with incarcerated parents were at

a higher risk for antisocial behavior compared with their peers. Furthermore, male and

female adolescents who had an incarcerated father were at increased risk of illegal

drug use during early adulthood (Roettger et al., 2011). Similarly, results from the