Fängslad förälder - Ett straff för barnet

Sammanfattning: The aim of this study was to reiterate and analyze children’s stories about what it was like to grow up with a parent in prison. We intended to interpret the individuals’ childhood experiences and memories. We have limited the respondents to people who grew up with a parent in prison. These individuals were during the essay adults, recounting stories from their childhood. An incarceration does not only affect the detained individual but also the people around them, perhaps most severely their children. The empirical material for this essay was obtained through semi-structured interviews. The interviews were divided into time aspects, more specifically narrated life stories relating to the period before, during and after the parents detention. We have chosen to frame the questions with focus on contact, relationship and emotions. In order to analyze the individual’s experiences, we have used attachment theory and Erving Goffmans theory about stigma. When a sudden separation between a parent and a child occurs the child is often affected negatively. Those children who had good contact with their parent before the separation usually sustained a better relationship during and after the parent’s incarceration. The relationship depended on the attachment between the child and the detained parent prior to incarceration. However, the study also showed that the prior relationship between the incarcerated parent and the child might have less significance to the child’s emotional well-being if the child is exposed to a supporting environment.