When Mom is in Prison

An increasing number of female inmates incarcerated in America's prisons and jails has caused a researcher at Rutgers University's Camden campus to examine what happens to the children many of these women leave behind.

Jane Siegel, an assistant professor of criminal justice at Rutgers-Camden, has begun a pioneering study to examine the impact of women's incarceration on their children.

Through in-depth interviews with 70 mothers, some housed at a prison for women in Clinton, NJ, and others in Philadelphia; 65 of their children, ranging in age from 8 to 18; and 16 guardians, Siegel already has learned a great deal about the troubles these young people face.

"You can see it very clearly in the teen-agers," she says, noting that a few of the girls in the study have become pregnant, one of the boys is a teen-age father and some drop out of school. While the older boys tend to be involved in "more serious deviance" than the girls, she hasn't seen much of a difference between the boys' and girls' experiences.

Siegel, who also serves on the board of a halfway house for female offenders, has been struck by "how much violence there is in the lives of these young people. They experience violence in the streets and violence in their schools. A lot of what they talk about deals with aggression, but that's true whether their mother is there or away."

Many of the mothers in the study are in prison for drugs or crimes that were economically driven by drug use. While women traditionally have been arrested for non-violent crimes, the number of women and girls convicted of serious offenses has been on the rise. Many criminologists underscore the importance of childhood sexual victimization as a factor in female criminality. For instance, girls are much more likely than boys to experience sexual abuse at home, which may cause some of them to run away. Once on the street, girls may then turn to crime, such as prostitution or theft, for survival.

Being sexually victimized in childhood also puts some -- but not all -- girls at risk of being abused as women. Siegel's earlier research on these topics, especially a study on risk factors for the victimization of women, led to her current work. One of the main differences between those women who were re-victimized in adulthood and those who were not was that those who faced future sexual violence reported that their mothers had been arrested.

In her current study, Siegel generally asks the young people what they would want if they had one wish. While most answer that they want their mother back home, some of the children talk about wanting money, a nice house or lots of toys. "They keenly feel the absence of material stuff," she says. "They feel needy."

A resident of Bala Cynwyd, Siegel expects to complete her study this spring. She received her doctoral (1996) and master's (1990) degrees in criminology from the University of Pennsylvania.

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Author: Press Release-Rutgers