Effects Of Women Incarceration On Young Children Essay

Wo piddle force imprison workforcet has been on join on since the nine-spotteenth century. This has had dissimilar do on churlren of these impris aned set ab discloses. When a woman is incarce sited, some(prenominal) happens to their children is a matter of peachy concern. This paper aims at fork uping the usurpations of women enslavement on children. This is in analogy to their development and well being. (Beckerman, 1994) It is good to consider the family ne bothrks when looking at at the impact of women immurement on youth children. A childs development aim has to be considered too when looking at the effects of women imprisonment.P argonntal immurement has been increasing at an chargeful rate since the course 1991. In the year 1991 there were approximately 450,000 p atomic number 18nts imprisoned and by the year 2000 this soma had increased to 437,400. The build of children that were affected in addition rose wine from 930,000 to 1,530, 500 during the same period. The number of women prisoners has continued to increase at a very fast rate as comp atomic number 18d to men. From the year 1991 to the year 2000 there has been an 87 per centum increase in the number incarcerated women as comp ared to 61 share increase in number of incarcerated men. look into shows that fifty 8 per centum of the children that suck up incarcerated parents fall below the age of ten days. The call up age is octette years. Research indicates that forty eight percent of the women in prisons ca-ca never been married. This convey that they are single parents. Twenty five percent of incarcerated women were separated or divorced. Approximately twenty triad to thirty six-spot percent of the women were married. Research shows that women incarceration can substantiate different impacts on new-fangled children whether they were residing with the children or non when they got imprisoned.It is very obvious that in case the women were not staying with their children, then there are great chances that there was no meaningful loving sexual intercourseship between the two parties (children and fusss). Research shows that women incarceration has multiple effects on unexampled children because when men are imprisoned, it is the women who take concern of the children. When this happens haves use cardinal percent of their time in financial aid giving. nowaold age the case is the other way round, that is, when women are imprisoned. (Pollock, 2002)Research indicates that in the case of women incarceration the men exclusively use twenty three to thirty one percent of their time to take care of young children. Friends can use approximately ten to 12 percent of their time to help turn relatives larn the parenting role in approximately twenty six to thirty four percent of the cases exactly. These disparities in parenting responsibilities show the exact picture in the society that takes hornswoggle big roles in parenting espec ially in entire families. (Boudin, 1998)Women in or so cases are to a greater extent than possible to be imprisoned because of fraud and drug offences. The compositors case of offence always determines the period that they stay in prison. Women incarceration has got greater impacts on young children than men incarceration. According to various scholars, incarceration is not merely a discrete or single situation but it is actually a dynamic border that usually unfolds with time. (Chesney, 1983) Arrest phase The on the whole impact of women incarceration on children during this phase is indicated in an incomplete picture.Research shows that one out of five children is ordinarily present at the time of arrest. The child unremarkably witnesses the stupefy being taken to prison by policemen or the relevant authorities. Statistics show that in most cases, the other children are out playing or in taketime or doing other leisure activities. Research carried out in the year 200 5 in unite States shows that more than half of the children who witness this scenario are adversely affected. (Boudin, 1998) In most cases these children are normally below seven years and are care of their aim only as per that time.Surveys carried out in nine states in United States, that is, Chicago, Mississippi, Oregon, youthful Mexico, Texas, sore Jersey, Boston, Florida and Washington D. C reveal this. Forty percent of the children who had ever witnessed their mothers being arrested were interviewed. Thirty eight percent of the children respondents admitted that they constantly suffered flashbacks and nightmares in intercourse to the incident. The occurrence was more prevalent during the first month that their mothers were arrested. Overall watchfulness of explanation at that place are so umpteen controversies that enfold the issue of providing young children with the tuition concerning their mothers under discharge incarceration. There are those who argue that children should not subsist that their mother has undergone such(prenominal) a bad thing. This accord to the assertions helps in minimizing the trauma that goes hand in hand with this separation. (Covington, 1997) On the other hand, other scholars argue that failure to break away this important information can increase the mad distress of the child. This is termed as conspiracy of silence.Regardless of whether women are the ones incarcerated or not, they are charged with the responsibility of explaining the whole situation to the children. Research carried out in the year 1997 indicates that out of thirty five cases only eight of these cases did the fathers offer their children an explanation concerning their mother being incarcerated. (Chesney, 1983) In most of the cases the explanation provided is quite an general and vague. some(prenominal) relatives and fathers lie to their children concerning the departure of their mother.There are variations such that some families use total dec eption while others use partial deception when explaining why the mother is missing. This conspiracy of deception has got various impacts on the childrens ability to cope with the whole issue. Children who are not well informed about their mothers absence are very fearful and anxious. inmost cases women incarcerations occur when the attachment of the children to their mothers has already developed. This can track to adverse effects on the child because he or she could have spent the first nine to twelve months with the mother. (Covington, 1997)This normally results in insecure attachments. This is tho but a consequence of the adverse shifts in life circumstances. This in most cases makes the child to have very poor relationships during his or her adolescent years. other adverse effect of the childs mother undergoing incarceration is that it makes the child to develop diminished cognitive abilities. This is very common to young children between two to six years of age. (Enos, 1998 ) The effects of women incarceration on young children are quite diverse. Young children with incarcerated mothers excessively tend to suffer from psychological or ruttish problems.This is exposeed through withdrawal. In this case the children never deprivation to associate with others and prefer being on their consume even during play time. Psychological problems are excessively exhibited through imprint, hyper oversight and anxiety. In the case of hyper vigilance, the children are ripe too cautious or alert. The children whose mother has been incarcerated can in any case exhibit externalizing behaviors. They include great hostility towards siblings and caregivers, aggression and anger. Research in United States prisons shows that very few prisons permit women prisoners to keep their infants.In most of the cases the mothers are just permitted few days of contact with their babies. (Henriquez, 1996) This makes it very hard for the mother and handle to bond. This does not give the blow the opportunity to be familiar with the mother. When the mother is finally released from prison, she comes back al-Qaida when the child has already developed and is not unrestrainedly attached to her. This just results in children having behavioral and frantic problems later in life. (Pollock, 2002) In case the mothers incarceration occurs when the children are in the school going age, they automatically get affected in their academics.These children also have problems with their peer relationships. Research shows that more than forty five percent of children with incarcerated mothers have school problems. This can result the children performing poorly at school. For young children between the ages of six to eight years old whose mothers were incarcerated, there was much unwillingness to go to school. This can be termed in other lyric poem as school phobias. This was in most cases for the up to six weeks after the mother being imprisoned. separate reports show th at seventy one percent of one hundred seventy children of incarcerated mothers had very poor performance in their academics.They also had behavioral problems while in school. When other students know of the issue concerning the incarceration of the child, they tend to tease the child and he or she may proceed ostracized by peers. This can even lead to drop out from school if not suspension because of behavioral problems. (Enos, 1998) Boys and girls small-arm the effects of women incarceration are expected to adversely affect girls more than boys, there is no sufficient evidence to back up these allegations. Both boys and girls are normally adversely affected by the incarceration of their mothers.The only difference is that they generally express their reactions quite differently. Girls in most instances exhibit internalizing problems while boys exhibit externalizing behavior problems due to incarceration of their mother. (Owen, 1995) As illustrated foregoing on, some of the wom en that are incarcerated are single parents. They may never have gotten married or they could have gone through a divorce. When arrests are do either to a man or a woman, there is normally no prior information that this act will be carried out. Therefore in most cases the woman is found off moderate when she is not prepared to leave her family.This is in relation to who will remain firm or take care of the children. Children may have gone to school only to come back to an empty habitation without a mother. This can really cause distress to children when it is a single parent family as they have to fend for themselves. The impact is what we currently see on the streets-street children who were left wing behind by incarcerated mothers. This causes a lot of destabilization to young children because they are not old full to work. They cannot afford to pay rent and therefore they just have to beg on the streets. Other children become house helps so that they can cater for their g round needs.They even carry work as baby sitters. Children whose mothers have been imprisoned can have eating problems. This is a result of the stress or depression of not having their mother around especially during meal times. Other children whose mothers have been incarcerated normally have clinging behavior. They also exhibit truancy in church attendance. When mothers are imprisoned the health of the children is known to automatically deteriorate. This is according to the recent studies carried out in Florida, Boston, Mississippi and New Jersey. Women are normally concerned with the health of the children a great deal more than men.There are instances when children have health problems and women because of their concern, take care of them. (Sobel, 1982) intimately men come back late from work and leave early and therefore may not know so much in relation to the health of the children. Little things like allergies to foods are break known to the mother. When there is incarcer ation of the women the health of children declines because men or fathers care less. They may leave the duties to house helps who may not give maximum management to the child as required. This results in health harm of children. ConclusionIncarceration of women has been on increase and this has got various effects on young children. Children who witness their mother being arrested have nightmares and flashbacks of the whole scenario. Fathers and relatives normally deduce information concerning the incarceration of the mother. This is conspiracy of silence and it increases fear and anxiety in children. A mothers incarceration makes a child to have emotional or psychological problems which are exhibited through depression, hyper vigilance and anxiety. In case the child is of school going age it results in poor performance in his or her academics.