The Risk of Family Violence After Incarceration: An Integrative Review

Abstract

Despite the importance of understanding the prevalence, causes, and consequences of conflict and violence within families, the specific risk of violence following a family member’s release from incarceration has been hard to ascertain. Research indicates that a significant percentage of persons released from incarceration will experience involvement in family violence in their life, yet it remains unclear whether this heightened risk exists due to larger family or structural contexts or whether incarceration itself leads to heightened risk of family violence after release. Using an integrative review methodology that combines results from both qualitative and quantitative studies, we review existing studies of family violence after incarceration to explore (1) the prevalence, (2) variation in measurement, (3) risk factors, and (4) protective factors for family violence after a family member’s incarceration. Through a search of three separate databases for peer-reviewed and gray literature, we analyzed 26 studies that estimated any form of physical family violence after any family member had been incarcerated. Where reported, intimate partner violence occurs in almost a quarter of cases, although only four studies examine the prevalence of violence perpetrated against children by parents. Family violence history, weakened family support during incarceration, and substance use after release all emerged as persistent risk factors. Directions and opportunities for future research are discussed.

The Future of the United States Overdose Crisis: Challenges and Opportunities

“…At the same time, arrests and incarceration cause family separation and increased stress and reduced resources for millions of families, thus increasing family-level sources of risk for opioid and stimulant misuse. [39][40][41] Additionally, criminalization of drug use contributes to its stigmatization, 42 which in turn reduces public support for public policy responses to the overdose crisis. 43 Stigma related to criminalization also reinforces policies that marginalize and compound social drivers of substance misuse for people who use drugs.…”

“…The disruptive effects of incarceration can increase risk of postrelease substance use 36 and overdose, 37,38 including opioids and stimulants. At the same time, arrests and incarceration cause family separation and increased stress and reduced resources for millions of families, thus increasing family‐level sources of risk for opioid and stimulant misuse 39–41 . Additionally, criminalization of drug use contributes to its stigmatization, 42 which in turn reduces public support for public policy responses to the overdose crisis 43 .…”

When State Violence Comes Home: From Criminal Legal System Exposure to Intimate Partner Violence in a Time of Mass Incarceration

“…Latent class analysis of IPV reports suggests that most IPV in the households of returning prisoners is also situational: it occurs in the context of escalated conflict rather than as a tool of systematic control (McKay et al, 2020). Yet very little research has examined whether, and by what processes, the family stress of CJS contact might promote IPV (Stansfield, Semenza, et al, 2020).…”

“…In major American cities, 44% of unmarried new mothers report that the father of their child was recently in jail or prison (Jones, 2013). Yet research on the relationship between incarceration or other criminal justice system exposure and IPV remains very limited (Stansfield, Semenza, et al, 2020), representing “the most disappointing gap” in scholarship on mass incarceration’s collateral consequences (Wildeman et al, 2019, p. 18S; Wildeman & Lee, 2021).…”

Uneasy partnerships: Prisoner re-entry, family problems and state coercion in the era of neoliberalism

“…As a result, an array of pressing issues remain understudied. Most starkly, although poverty and abuse or other damaging forms of conflict have long been known to be highly prevalent in the lives of formerly incarcerated persons and their family members (Hairston and Oliver, 2011; McKay et al., 2018a; Stansfield et al., 2020), there is as yet no systematic research on the linkages between them in the context of prisoner re-entry.…”