Peer-reviewed article

Adverse childhood experiences in the context of maternal criminal justice system involvement.

Lowenthal G, Font S · 2 Apr 2026

Abstract

Background Maternal incarceration has great potential to disrupt children's lives. Yet, children whose mothers become involved with the criminal justice system (CJS) may also experience myriad other adversities, regardless of whether their mother is subsequently incarcerated. A failure to account for concurrent adversities is likely to mischaracterize the impact of maternal incarceration itself and obfuscate the needs of children whose mothers are CJS involved but not incarcerated. Prior research has been unable to characterize these environments due to small samples of incarcerated women, lack of data on criminal offending and noncustodial CJS involvement, and other methodological barriers. Objectives (1) To characterize adverse childhood experiences, including child maltreatment, domestic violence exposure, victimization risk, parental substance use, and parental mental illness, by the level of mothers' CJS involvement; and (2) To assess whether adversity precedes, follows, or surrounds maternal CJS involvement, including incarceration. Participants and setting This study uses linked administrative data from Wisconsin on a cohort of children born to low-income mothers in 2009-2011 (N = 108,396), of whom 16.4% (N = 17,748) experienced maternal CJS involvement by age 10 years. Method Measures of adverse childhood experiences are generated using CJS, child welfare, and medical claims records. Descriptive statistics are used to characterize variation in ACE types and timing by maternal CJS involvement. Results Childhood adversities are identified for a vast majority of children with maternal CJS involvement. The prevalence of adversity was highest among children whose mothers experienced prison incarceration, with nearly 99% experiencing at least one ACE. Yet, their exposure to adversity typically began in infancy and persisted throughout early childhood, rather than being precipitated by maternal incarceration. Conclusion Children of CJS-involved mothers, regardless of maternal incarceration, may face substantial risks to healthy development due to their high rates of exposure to multiple forms of adversity.