Four in 10 US kids live with a parent or adult who has faced a criminal charge

Joseph Guzman | July 5, 2022
·3 min read
2

Story at a glance

  • Researchers from the University of Michigan set out to quantify the number of children in homes in which a parent or adult faced at least one criminal charge, was convicted of a felony or spent time in prison.

  • The study found that at least four in 10 children in the U.S. born between 1999 and 2005 were raised in a home where a parent or co-residing adult faced at least one criminal charge.

  • Researchers said their estimates are far higher than estimates from the Bureau of Justice Statistics that show less than 1 in 40 children have a parent in prison in a given year.

A new study is estimating the number of children in the U.S. who grow up in households where at least one parent or adult has had run-ins with the justice system.

Researchers from the University of Michigan set out to quantify the number of children in homes in which a parent or adult faced at least one criminal charge, was convicted of a felony or spent time in prison, noting that previous federal efforts to estimate the number have faced data limitations such as failing to follow children overtime or account for adult influences in “increasingly dynamic households.”

Using data from the U.S. Census Bureau, the Treasury Department and the Criminal Justice Administrative Records System, researchers found that at least four in 10 children in the U.S. born between 1999 and 2005 were raised in a home where a parent or co-residing adult faced at least one criminal charge.

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The analysis found 9 percent of children have had an intergenerational exposure to prison, 18 percent have been exposed to felony conviction and 39 percent in total have been exposed to any criminal charge over the course of childhood.

Researchers said their estimates are far higher than estimates from the Bureau of Justice Statistics that show less than 1 in 40 children have a parent in prison in a given year.

“Data limitations have left us in the dark on just how many kids grow up in households with justice involvement,” Michael Mueller-Smith, assistant professor of economics and faculty associate at the Population Studies Center, said in a statement.

“That we find estimates with close to half of U.S. children having intergenerational exposure to crime and justice is a wake-up call to the failures of our public policy to date. Even if the justice system were completely overhauled today, we will be living with the damage done to our current and former generations for decades to come.”

The study also found that more 60 percent of Black and Native American children, as well as children from low-income households, are exposed to the justice system at twice the rate of their white counterparts.

Researchers note this type of exposure to the justice system is correlated with negative child development outcomes such as falling behind in school and an increase in the likelihood of teen crime and death.

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