Trauma-Informed, Child-Centric Sentencing to Reduce the Intergenerational Harm

A significant adverse life event is the incarceration of a parent. Children of prisoners often experience multiple challenges in addition to parental incarceration, including child abuse and neglect, social exclusion and poverty, as well as household dysfunction. These adverse events increase the risk of contact with the youth and adult justice systems. Some children may also become second-generation incarcerated parents themselves. Trauma-informed responses may assist in breaking the cycle of intergenerational criminalisation and incarceration. To examine trauma-informed sentencing responses to parents, first, this chapter discusses the impact of parental incarceration and cumulative adversity on the life trajectories of children. Second, a sample of current sentencing remarks of adults is then analysed to determine how judges acknowledge and respond to the potential impact of intergenerational incarceration. Finally, trauma-informed criminal justice strategies for courts are discussed to mitigate the trauma and criminality associated with sentencing parents to incarceration.