About this session

Saturday, 8:30 AM - 10:00 AM

U.S. Children's Experiences of the Criminal Legal System

Approximately 4 in 10 U.S. children will experience an adult household member’s arrest,
prosecution in court, or incarceration during their childhood (Finlay et. al, 2023). For BIPOC
children, these rates are even higher, with nearly 2 out of 3 Black children experiencing the
prosecution of a household member before they turn eighteen (Finlay et. al, 2023). Given the
ubiquity of U.S. children’s exposure to the criminal legal system, it is critical that developmental
scientists give due attention to the ways that criminal legal systems shape children’s and
families’ lives, and how individual or systemic-level interventions might better support them.
Given long-standing inequities in which communities are policed, charged, and incarcerated,
criminal legal systems can also be understood as both a key mechanism of structural racism and
critical context for development that varies across racial/ethnic and economic strata, and across
place and time.

Incorporating a variety of state and localized datasets and assessing both current populations
and historical trends, this panel presents new research on patterns and inequities in children’s
family exposure to the criminal system, the consequences of that exposure for children and
parents, and individual and policy factors that can reduce harm or support resilience among
children whose households are brought into the criminal legal system. Implications for children’s
development, family stability, and practice and policy will also be discussed.

Paper #1
Title	Exploring the Prevalence of Children’s Recent Experiences of Household Member Criminal Legal System Events
Presenting author	Naoka Carey, JD, M.Ed., Lynch School of Education & Human Development, Boston College, United States

Paper #2
Title	Types of Contact with Incarcerated Fathers and Child Behavior Problems
Presenting author	Kaitlyn Pritzl, Human Development & Family Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison, United States

Paper #3
Title	Resilience in the Context of Parental Incarceration & Youth Mental Health: Relationships at Home and Beyond
Presenting author	Frederique Corcoran, Institute of Child Development, University of Minnesota, United States

View all paper details

Session chair
Rebecca J. Shlafer, Ph.D., Department of Pediatrics, University of Minnesota, United States

Discussant
Dr. Elizabeth Johnson, Ph.D., Department of Counseling, Human Development, and Family Science, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, United States

⇦ Back to schedule