Institutional Contact and Family Violence in an Era of Mass Incarceration

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ABSTRACT American children are exposed to violence at a shockingly high rate. Over one in eight have had the maltreatment they experienced confirmed by the authorities, and at least one in four have witnessed inter-parental violence. Although formal institutions such as social service providers, child welfare, and law enforcement agencies are intended to protect families, these institutions may be seen less as family protectors than as agents of surveillance, punishment, and family separation—especially in vulnerable communities. The overall goal of this research is to understand how contact with formal institutions shapes family violence experiences and their consequences for children. It will also allow the principal investigator, Dr. Tasseli McKay, the opportunity to build the measurement expertise, analytic skills, and methodological tools needed to conduct impactful, long-term research on the implications of mass incarceration for family violence. The project consists of five studies, combining primary qualitative interviews and mobile surveys with youth and parents in contact with punitive institutions (such as juvenile and criminal legal systems) and secondary analysis of survey and administrative data. It will generate (1) Estimates of the bidirectional relationship between institutional contact and childhood family violence exposure (Aim 1, K99 phase); (2) New, validated measures of institutional contact that capture objective institutional contacts and subjective experiences of institutional responsiveness (Aim 2, K99 phase); (3) A qualitative assessment of how institutional contacts and institutional responsiveness inform family violence disclosure decisions among affected family members (Aim 3, R00 phase); (4) Estimates of the influence of institutional contact events and institutional responsiveness on help-seeking intentions and service utilization (Aim 4, R00 phase); and (5) A quantitative assessment of the respective roles of institutional contact events and institutional responsiveness in shaping the relationship between childhood exposure to family violence and involvement in violence during the transition to adulthood (Aim 5, R00 phase). The project will produce advances in conceptualization, measurement, and analytic methods that lay a foundation for new research on institutional contact as a social determinant of child health and well-being and help inform sound public policy and public health intervention for the most common and impactful forms of violence: those within the family.