Fearing surveillance, dads with a record avoid kids' schools
In the past 10 years, a boom in research has documented the many ways in which a parent’s incarceration has negative consequences for their kids. Children whose parents have spent time behind bars have worse social, economic, cognitive, behavior and health outcomes than kids whose parents haven’t.
But researchers know less about why that is.
A Cornell sociologist, who is a former elementary school teacher, recently identified a mechanism that may explain why these kids have worse educational outcomes – and strong, lasting, negative consequences that often span generations.
Dads who have been incarcerated at some point from their child’s birth through age 9 are nearly 50 percent less involved in their child’s education, compared with fathers of the same race and income level who have never been incarcerated, according a study co-written by Anna Haskins, assistant professor of sociology.
But that’s not necessarily because they don’t care about their child’s schooling.
Rather, they may avoid their child’s school because they see it as a “surveilling institution” – an entity, like a bank or a hospital, that has increased security, direct connections to other public agencies and keeps formal records, the research found.
“They may avoid institutions they see as ‘surveilling’ because of distrust or dislike of the criminal justice system and police or shame and stigma – regardless of whether they’ve done anything wrong,” Haskins said. “Schools are unique because most people don’t think of them as surveilling institutions. But with their increases in security guards and metal detectors, they can seem that way to people wanting to avoid any further contact with the criminal justice system.”
Haskins and her co-author, Wade Jacobsen of the University of Maryland, published their studyFearing surveillance, dads with a record avoid kids' schools | Cornell Chronicle:
