Jailing parents can help their children avoid a life of crime

JAILING parents who commit crimes can help keep their children on the straight and narrow, a study said yesterday.

It claimed locking up an offender gives their child ‘respite’ from the chaos the parent’s behaviour inflicts on them.

The study’s findings contradict the long-held view of the liberal Left that sending a parent to jail makes a child more likely to turn to crime.

Penal reform campaigners, including Cherie Blair, have argued that youngsters who lose touch with a parent because they are imprisoned risk following in their footsteps.

But the Economic and Social Research Council study said the commonly held views about why young people become involved in crime must now be questioned.

‘Situations often thought of as leading to problem behaviour can actually be the opposite,’ it added. ‘For instance, a parent being in prison may provide a respite from what may have been a chaotic home life.’

The findings of the £1.4million study by academics at De Montfort University were based on interviews with 1,000 ten to 18-year- olds who were asked about factors that would make them more or less likely to offend.

Last night, victims’ groups described the findings as ‘common sense’.

They pointed out that, contrary to popular thinking, a child whose parent was imprisoned would see this as a reason not to break the law.

But they said that if an offending parent is allowed to escape with a community penalty the child may not be put off also trying to profit from crime.

David Green, director of the Civitas think-tank, urged the Government to take note of the study, rather than sweep it under the carpet because it is at odds with its long- standing view that children are harmed when a parent is jailed.

‘ The Home Office always work from a starting point of a strong family being a good influence but, if one of the parents is a criminal, it is a bad influence,’ he said.

Norman Brennan, director of the Victims of Crime Trust, said: ‘ These findings are not rocket science – they are common sense. The problem is that there are always too many people who try to make things complicated.

‘ What needs to be understood is there is a world of difference between a responsible parent who wants to instil some discipline in their child as they bring them up, and those who set the opposite example through crime. If a parent commits a crime but, at the end of the day, is allowed to return home rather than be sent to prison, that is what their children will think they can do.’

Last year, Mrs Blair said young parents who commit crimes should be spared prison to prevent their children turning to crime.

In a foreword to a report by the Prison Reform Trust, the Prime Minister’s wife wrote: ‘ We need to make sure that today’s sons and daughters of prisoners don’t end up tomorrow’s offenders.’

She claimed that support was growing for alternatives to prison.

Although young people who commit serious crimes or are a danger to the community must be imprisoned, she said, ‘in other cases we should also examine closely whether there is a better alternative to imprisonment, which too often worsens problems’.

j.slack@dailymail.co.uk