Decades of research and practice show that multiple strategies are needed to address both recidivism and the development of criminal behaviours in new individuals. Children with incarcerated parents constitute a high-risk group for future criminality due to the intergenerational transmission of crime from parents to children.
The possible impact that the quality and closeness of relationships may have on individual agency has been overlooked as a crime prevention strategy. Quality and closeness in relationships can influence individual behaviour, including prosocial and antisocial behaviours. For parents with established criminal behaviours, the recreation of social bonds that focus on healthy relationships, where prosocial behaviour is favoured, can provide a route towards reduced recidivism. For children, healthy family relationships, such as positive parenting, provide role modelling of prosocial behaviours, which can prevent the development of criminal behaviour.
The Nordic countries have long taken pride in being at the forefront of rehabilitative correctional practices, social equality, and prevention strategies. Although rehabilitation programmes are emphasised and implemented within the Nordic correctional systems, little attention has been given to the complex processes that convicted individuals and their families experience, as well as the potential for prevention and rehabilitation that these situations provide.
To address the complex adversity that families affected by incarceration often face, crime prevention strategies that focus on healthy relationships to foster prosocial behaviour should have a multi-level approach and target not only the incarcerated individual but the entire family. As a minimum, interconnected interventions should be provided for the incarcerated parent, the child, and the non-incarcerated co-parent as part of the multi-level apporach. For the incarcerated parent, interventions to establish prosocial behaviour should focus on, for example, parenting behaviours, collaborative relationship strategies with the partner or co-parent, and establishing prosocial peer networks. For the child, interventions should focus on, for example, promoting psychosocial health and emotional self-regulation. For the non-incarcerated co-parent, interventions should focus on for example promoting their own psychosocial health, parenting strategies, parenting stress, and collaborative relationship strategies with the incarcerated parent.
Parts of this type of multi-level approach have been tested in Sweden, where a controlled trial to test the effects of the parental support programme for incarcerated parents: the “For Our Children’s Sake” programme, showed that, three months post-intervention, parents in the intervention group had a closer relationship with their children compared to the control group. Additionally, parents who had participated in all intervention sessions had a lower pro-criminal attitude compared to the control group (Norman, 2023). Currently, interventions to support psychosocial health in both children and non-incarcerated caregivers are being developed in a research project at Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden. The intervention will be pilot tested during 2025-2026.
In sum, a multi-level approach that focuses on building healthy relationships in families affected by incarceration can be a helpful tool within the umbrella of crime prevention strategies. Several parts of such an approach are being tested in Sweden and can be of future use in the Nordic context.
About the author:
Åsa Norman is an Associate Professor at the Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm Sweden. She has been conducting research and clinical work that focuses on families affected by incarceration for the past 15 years. She is currently leading a research project that aims to scientifically develop and evaluate a support intervention for children with parents in prison and their non-incarcerated caregivers.
