Intergenerational offending A narrative review of the literature

By Anna Kotova with Rachel Cordle

This report reviews key research on intergenerational offending, defined as the observed phenomenon whereby children with a parent or parents who offend, go on to offend themselves. It focuses on questions such as whether any differences between maternal and paternal offending exist, differential impacts according to the child’s gender, and evidence of interventions to reduce intergenerational offending. Key findings are: • There is a strong correlation between parental offending and child offending, established across numerous longitudinal studies across different jurisdictions. • There is clear evidence to suggest that children with a parent in prison are at risk of poor outcomes (in terms of mental health, behaviour, wellbeing etc.). However, the extent to which parental imprisonment is a specific cause of these poorer outcomes is unclear (i.e., poor outcomes may result from other factors such as socio-economic disadvantage). • There are complex reasons why children with an offending parent are at higher risk of offending. These encompass both intrafamilial (e.g. parental supervision of the child, addiction) and socio-economic (e.g., economic deprivation) factors, meaning a multi-faceted approach is needed. • Recent research has found the effect of parental offending on children differs according to the gender of parents and children. Having a convicted mother was linked to an increased risk of a daughter offending, but having a convicted father was not linked to an increased risk of the daughter offending. However, the number of girls who offend is generally small, which might explain this finding, as noted by the authors. There was a strong link between having a convicted father and boys’ offending, and the same trend in the context of boys and convicted mothers. However, in-depth analysis suggests a direct link between fathers’ offending and their sons’ offending, whereas the link between mothers and sons is not direct and is instead mediated via factors such as the father’s drug-taking. • Longer periods of parental imprisonment are associated with an increased risk of the child offending. • Type of offence is an additional factor. The children of people who commit violent offences are more likely to commit violent offences also. • There are very few external evaluations of interventions aimed at reducing intergenerational offending. Equally, there appears to be very few interventions that explicitly state that an aim of the intervention is to reduce intergenerational offending. • Several protective factors exist which are linked to improved child outcomes. For example, the resident carer coping well is one such factor, as is the child’s mental wellbeing and having a forum in which they can express their needs and emotions.

London: UK Ministry of Justice, 2025. 33p.