Educational Consequences of Paternal Incarceration: Evidence from a Danish Policy Reform

Abstract

Objectives This study estimates the causal effect of paternal incarceration on children’s educational outcomes measured at the end of compulsory schooling (9th grade) in Denmark. Methods I use Danish administrative data and rely on a sentencing reform in 2000, which expanded the use of non-custodial alternatives to incarceration for traffic offenders, for plausibly exogenous variation in the risk of experiencing paternal incarceration. Results The results show that paternal incarceration does not affect academic achievement (grade point average), but that it does reduce the number of grades obtained, and–most importantly–roughly doubles the risk of not even completing compulsory school and getting a 9th grade certificate. These findings are driven mainly by boys for whom paternal incarceration appear to be particularly consequential. Conclusions The findings presented in this study highlight the presence of unintended and collateral consequences of penal policies–even in the context of a relatively mild penal regime. Effects are, however, estimated for a subgroup of Danish children experiencing paternal incarceration, and how results translate to other subgroups and beyond the Danish context is open for speculation.

Struggle Outside Jails: Scoping Review of Impacts and Resiliency Among Children of Incarcerated Parents

“…Special education may be needed for children with incarcerated parents (Anker, 2023). The results of this research supported Turney and Haskins (2014), where it was also found that there was an association between parental incarceration-in this case the father-with noncognitive skills, classroom retention, and need for special education.…”

“…Furthermore, parental incarceration was found as the most dominant variable causing children to repeat grades at school (Webb et al, 2022). In addition, many children with incarcerated parents are threatened with dropping out of school (Anker, 2023). Basic needs such as food or decent housing that are difficult to obtain due to parental arrest can predict whether a child will do schoolwork and learning well at school (Webb et al, 2022).…”

Paternal imprisonment, fatherhood, and family relationships

“…Panel data designs that have been used to account for selection bias and unobserved variables include fixed effects models (Geller et al, 2012;Wildeman, 2010), propensity score matching (Bradshaw et al, 2020;Haskins, 2015;Turney & Wildeman, 2013;Washington et al, 2018;Wildeman, 2010), difference-in-difference analysis (Olsen, 2022), strategic comparison groups (Porter & King, 2015), and placebo regressions (Geller et al, 2012;Wildeman, 2010). Other studies have used approaches utilizing (quasi-) random variation as a result of policy shocks and random-judge assignment to study the intergenerational effects of paternal imprisonment (S. H. Andersen & Wildeman, 2014;Anker, 2023;Bhuller et al, 2017;Dobbie et al, 2018;Norris et al, 2021;Wildeman & Andersen, 2017). Although various studies using these more rigorous designs have found negative impacts of parental imprisonment on families' outcomes, other studies have found null effects or even positive effects (Bhuller et al, 2022).…”