An Outline of the Capstone Paper

Thesis: if children of incarcerated parents were provided more focused therapies, then the risk factors associated with entering the system themselves would be reduced.

Body Paragraph 1: Children with incarcerated parents ought to receive trauma-focused therapies because there is a significantly high number of children affected, and imprisonment of their parents impacts their emotions negatively.

Supporting evidence : Parental incarceration damages children's emotions as they develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms as they struggle to find in identity within the society and positive relationships, causing long term emotional and psychological functioning (Robinson and Landrum, 2013).

Explanation: The statement demonstrates incarcerated patents' children's prevalence and explains how they affect the children negatively emotionally and health-wise.

So what?: Showing parental incarceration is a social problem that needs redress paves the way for the implementation of initiatives to establish a measure to manage and mitigate associated risk factors among the children

Body Paragraph 2: Incarcerated parents' children are predisposed to social and economic issues that contribute to the risk factors of admission to the system in the future and may cause long term emotional and psychological functioning.

Supporting evidence : Morgan-Mullane (2018) argues that if proper intervention measures are not adopted, almost three-quarters of these children would be admitted to the criminal justice system themselves.

Explanation: The statement elaborates on the adverse effects parental imprisonment has on children with regards to the risk factors such as admission to the system themselves and ending up homeless.

So what?: D emonstrating the adverse effects of imprisonment on children, it emphasizes on the need for implementing focused therapy to curb risk factors effects.

Body Paragraph 3: There exists data that correlates the prevalence of imprisonment of parents with the rate the risk factors affects the children.

Supporting Evidence : At least one parent is incarcerated in federal and state prisons for approximately 2 million children, and there are other parents engaged in community correctional initiatives such as parole and probations or held at local jails. (Casey, Shlafer and Masten, 2015).

Explanation : The evidence alludes to the growing number of affected children from parental imprisonment with the highest proportion needing parental guidance.

So what? : representing the data established a foundation on the effects of parental imprisonment and how vulnerable the children are to the associated risk factors.

Body Paragraph 4: Another reason for providing incarcerated parents' children with focused therapy is to uphold the social justice principles establish and expected from society.

Supporting Evidence : Three social justice principles empowered by the provision of trauma-focused therapy to children include: the fundamental option for the vulnerable and the poor, the primacy of the common good, and dignity of the human race (Hibbert, 2017).

Explanation: The documents elaborate on the principle of social justice and how they can be achieved, whereas developing a similarity with how trauma-focused therapy shall mitigate risk factors associated with parental imprisonment.

So what?: Associating the relationship between the principles of social justice and how focused therapy could impact the children demonstrates the benefits of the therapy to the affected population.

Body Paragraph 5: Additionally, cultural and diversity issues affecting parental imprisonment also play a crucial role in influencing the prevalence of risk factors among the affected children.

Supporting Evidence : Fathers are the mos incarcerated parent, 92 percent, compared to mothers, therefore, removing the primary breadwinners from the affected communities causing the children to experience home instability, homelessness, low achievements in academics, and food insecurity (Tadros et al. 2019).

Explanation: The evidence presents the racial disparities among the held parents as a cultural and diverse issue, which affects the children explaining why the risk factors are rampant within certain communities.

So what?: Demonstrating how risk factor becomes rampant within a particular community develops feasible solutions towards addressing the risk factors and improving the effectiveness of the focused therapies.

Body Paragraph 6: Addressing parental incarceration issues within society creates a positive perception of the affected children and how they choose to lead their lives.

Supporting Evidence : Using models adopting focused therapy allows children to address their trauma with a conceptualization of the community, cultural and ethnic background, whereas policy changes have played a vital role over the years in facilitating prison and jail downsizing (Grattet & Bird, 2018; Morgan-Mullane, 2018).

Evidence: The sources allude to how focused therapy as an intervention impacts on the children's and their families' lives by addressing the risk factors associated with the imprisonment of their parents and how it changes their lives.

So what?: Demonstrating the impact of the interventions adopted to address issues relating to the detainment of parents shows the benefit of employing further interventions to address parental incarceration issues.

Body Paragraph 7: Also, empirical evidence on focused therapy as an intervention measure shows how parental incarceration, among other factors, contributes to the development of trauma among the affected children.

Supporting evidence : Using focused therapy models it allows the identification of various causes of trauma and helps the children along the treatment program to address their traumas and adopt being comfortable to speak of the events (Tadros et al. 2019; Morgan-Mullane, 2018).

Explanation: The evidence demonstrates how children with detained parents can develop trauma accumulatively from external factors and how focused therapy can address it to mitigate the risk factors.

So what?: Presenting the causative factors and how focused therapy addresses the issues allows shows the need to address parental incarceration in achieving criminal and social justice.

Body Paragraph 8: Having conceptualized how parental imprisonment contributed to the risk factors among the affected children, Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavior Therapy (TF-CBT) offers solutions that adequately address their trauma and PTSD symptoms.

Supporting Evidence : The model can be incorporated into family therapy offered to all family members based on their cultural and ethnic diversity to understand their backgrounds better and to identify possible preexisting trauma even before the incarceration happened (Morgan-Mullane, 2018).

Explanation: The author shows how TF-CBT can be used to address trauma in children affected by their parental imprisonment.

So what?: Validating the intervention measure's effectiveness in addressing family trauma deliberated on the quest for instituting criminal and social justice in society.

Body paragraph 9: The branches of the criminal justice system have also contributed to the prevalence of risk factors associated with parental detainment. 

Supporting Evidence: The branches of the criminal justice system, such as law enforcement, provide criminal information to the public allowing employers to perform criminal background screening and result in finding it hard to get employment for the incarcerated parents long after serving their sentence.

Explanation: The provision of criminal data to the public play is both a positive and a negative as it affects even those with good intentions such as parents.

So what?: Established laws oppress parents with a criminal record from finding a legitimate source of income that increases the risk of recidivism.

Body paragraph 10: Additionally, social and criminal justice theories, including the 2005 landmark case of the Supreme Court United States v. Booker influences how parental imprisonment is perceived.

Supporting Evidence : The landmark case of the Supreme Court, United States v. Booker, in 2005 showed a significant change during procedures of criminal sentencing guidelines from mandatory as provisioned by the Federal Sentencing Act to an advisory (Boudin, 2013).

Explanation: The theoretical perspective within the social and criminal justice allows the conceptualization of the parental imprisonment process and, at what stage, the families, especially the children, need support.

So what?: This allows the employment of intervention initiatives appropriately and effectively to minimize the effects of the risk factors.

Body Paragraph 11: Each branch of the criminal justice system employs various processes that can be used in facilitating social justice on individuals affected by parental incarceration.

Supporting Evidence : They include upholding social justice in court through sentencing guidelines, adversarial system, and due process; prevention of crime, protecting human rights, enforcing the law, services provision, and upholding law enforcement code of conduct; and provision of vocational training and education, and custody and care for the inmates in correctional facilities (Robinson, 2010).

Evidence: Such processes are essential in creating a perception in children about their parents, depending on how they are treated during arrests and other criminal justice system processes.

So what?: If the processes treat parents following the law, upholding the ethics required, it can have an impact on the severity of the children's trauma.

Body Paragraph 12: Lastly, social and criminal justice is directly affected by socio-cultural factors affecting the family with incarcerated parents.

Supporting evidence : Social identity gives people a group identity and conceptualizes the group's perception with regards to critical social issues and cultural context as per the group's ideologies on what can justify their values and actions (Johnson, Matthews, and Ayers, 2018).

Explanation: an individual's identity based on their socio-cultural conceptualization allows them to perceive what is acceptable and unacceptable in terms of achieving justice.

So what?: elaborating the conceived ideas within a community can also be useful in identifying trauma solutions for imprisoned parents' children.

Conclusion

Rephrased thesis : Focused therapy is an effective initiative in addressing risk factors in incarcerated parents' children. Therefore, its implementation is elaborate in establishing social justice for the affected families and within the society

Strong closing : Focused therapy intervention is an essential measure towards minimizing the risk factors associated with parental incarceration before the children are also admitted to the criminal justice system.

References 

Boudin, C. (2013). Children of Incarcerated Parents: The Child's Constitutional Right to the Family Relationship. Journal of Criminal Law & Criminology. 101(1), 77-118.

Bystrova, E. G. & Gottschalk, P. (2015). Social Conflict Theory and White-collar Criminals: Why Does the Ruling Class Punish their Own? Pakistan Journal of Criminology, 7 (1), 1 -15.

Casey, E. C., Shlafer, R. J., & Masten, A. S. (2015). Parental incarceration as a risk factor for children in homeless families.  Family Relations ,  64 (4), 490-504.

Grattet, R., & Bird, M. (2018). Next steps in jail and prison downsizing.  Criminology & Public Policy ,  17 (3), 717-726.

Hibbert, N. (2017). Human Rights and Social Justice.  Laws ,  6 (2), 7.

Johnson, L. M., Matthews, T. L., & Ayers, E. K. (2018). Religious Identity and Perceptions of Criminal Justice Effectiveness.  Religions ,  9 (5), 157.

Meyers, R. (2018). The Impact of Collateral Consequences of Criminal Conviction on Children and Families. In (Eds.) LaLiberte, T., Barry, K. & Walthour, K. (2018). Criminal Justice Involvement of Families in Child Welfare. Center for Advanced Studies in Child Welfare.

Morgan-Mullane, A. (2018). Trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy with children of incarcerated parents. Clinical social work journal , 46(3), 200-209.

Robinson, D. M., & Landrum, R. E. (2013). Social and criminal justice: A capstone . Retrieved from https://content.ashford.edu/ 

Robinson, M. (2010). Assessing Criminal Justice Practice Using Social Justice Theory.  Social Justice Research ,  23 (1), 77-97. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11211-010-0108-1

Tadros, E., Fye, J. M., McCrone, C. L., & Finney, N. (2019). Incorporating multicultural couple and family therapy into incarcerated settings.  International journal of offender therapy and comparative criminology ,  63 (4), 641-658.