Criminologist / Author, Susan Magestro now merging her two passions; criminology and writing.
Susan Magestro and Associates has begun a series of YouTube videos to discuss our experiences with the children of incarcerated parents. Please watch the first video in the series. Part One: “Voices of Children of Incarcerated Parents” is a topic that no one is talking about yet it impacts more than 10 million children across the United States. Most of these children live with the secret that their parent(s) are incarcerated. Children of an incarcerated parent have unique characteristics. They are faced with tremendous trauma during various stages of their parent’s incarceration, probation, parole, as well as re-entry. Initially, the child has to find a way to understand or reconcile, within themselves, the crime their parent has committed. If the crime is infamous, the child sees the story of their parent’s crime over and over again in the media. In this early stage, many of these children try to handle themselves stoically as they walk by staff and students at school. They are well aware all those around them know about the crime their parent committed. If these children play sports, they wonder if their teammates or coaches are judging them for the crimes of the parent. If the child has a girlfriend, they worry, “Will she break up with me?” The child is often extremely distracted and pre-occupied during the course of their school day, questioning how their parent could have committed a crime. They wonder, “Why didn’t my parent think about me when they committed that crime?” They worry about their parent’s safety inside prison, and they worry about all the new stresses and challenges facing the family. These children have mixed emotions. They feel anger, sadness, confusion, betrayal, frustration, and exhaustion, to name just a few. Intrinsically, they feel anger within themselves for not being able to reconcile the turmoil of their mixed emotions. Who do they talk to about this? Most of the time, they keep their emotions and questions to themselves for fear of further upsetting their loved ones and creating even more stress in the house. What is the reason for this “code of secrecy” about the children of an incarcerated parent? Stay tuned to find out. This is the first of a series of six episodes that will be available over the coming months. “Through the Eyes of the Child” explores parental incarceration through the eyes of a child at various stages in their lives. https://lnkd.in/grJatUsx