This book draws international attention to the autonomy of the child accompanying incarcerated mothers, and those they leave behind in the community, despite being dependent on the convicted caregiver. Adopting a child rights perspective, the study explores how courts could go about sentencing mothers of young children for the commission of criminal offences, whilst protecting the rights of the child as envisaged under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). Drawing on the author’s experience as a sentencer in the Kenyan court and with reference to domestic, regional and international law, the book argues that children’s rights are presently left in abeyance when their mothers are sentenced to imprisonment, and that greater efforts should be made to recognize and give effect to the child’s existence as an autonomous equal holder of human rights, despite being dependent on the convicted caregiver. It explores the application of precedence as well as the court’s discretion in view of the dependent child, and concludes that policy reform in this respect calls for change in attitude and approach on women and children’s issues. Observing that internationally, most women imprisoned with their children fall beneath the custodial threshold set by law, the research examines how current sentencing practices could be reformed, and suggests harnessing the Power of Mercy Committee, the Sentencing Guidelines and progressive practices from developed countries in protecting the child’s rights by imposing non-custodial sentences for the offending mothers. It is concluded that in all jurisdictions, strict accountability for the dependent child should be situated with the judiciary, and that the same should be pronounced as a mandatory legal requirement. The book will be a valuable resource for academic, researchers and policy-makers working in the area of international children’s rights law and criminal law.

This book brings to life the experiences of children affected by maternal imprisonment, and provides unique, in-depth analysis of judicial thinking on this issue. It explores the experiences of children whose mothers are sentenced to imprisonment in England and Wales and contrasts their state-sanctioned separation from their mothers in the criminal courts (where the court may not even be aware of the existence of a child) to the state-sanctioned separation of children from their parents in the family courts, where the child has legal representation and their best interests are the court’s paramount consideration. Drawing on detailed empirical research with children, caregivers, and Crown Court judiciary, Maternal Sentencing and the Rights of the Child brings together relevant literature on law, criminology, and human rights to provide insight into the reasons for the differentiated treatment and its implications for children, their caregivers, and wider society.

This book brings together internationally renowned academics and professionals from a variety of disciplines who, in a variety of ways, seek to understand the legal, conceptual and practical consequences of parental imprisonment through a children’s rights lens. Children whose parents have been incarcerated are often referred to as "invisible victims of crime and the penal system." It is well accepted that the imprisonment of a parent, even for a short period of time, not only negatively affects the lives of children but it can also result in a gross violation of their fundamental human rights, such as the right of access to their parent and the right to have an input into decision-making processes affecting them, the outcomes of which will without doubt affect the life of the child concerned. This collection foregrounds the voice of these children as it explores transdisciplinary boundaries and examines the practice and development of the rights of both children and their families within the wider dynamic of criminal justice and penology practice. The text is divided into three parts which are dedicated to 1) hearing the voices of children with parents in prison, 2) understanding to what extent children’s rights informs prison policy, and 3) demonstrating how law in the form of children’s rights can help frame both court sentencing and prison practice in a way that minimises the harm that contact with the prison system can cause. The research drawn upon in this book has been conducted in a number of European countries and demonstrates both good and bad practice as far as the implementation of children’s rights is concerned in the context of parental incarceration. An accessible and compelling read, this book will appeal to students and scholars of law, children’s rights, criminology, sociology, social work, psychology, penology and all those interested in, and working towards, protecting the rights of children who have a parent in prison.

The core of this book is a detailed analysis of the status of corporal punishment of children, including Areasonable spankings by parents, under international human rights law. The analysis leads compellingly to the conclusion that such punishment is indeed a human rights violation, consonant with modern norms about right and decent treatment of juveniles. The book further provides a comparative analysis between the domestic laws of the seventeen nations that ban all corporal punishment of children (Sweden, Finland, Norway, Austria, Cyprus, Denmark, Germany, Iceland, Bulgaria, Croatia, Latvia, Hungary, Romania, Ukraine, Israel, Italy, and Portugal) and examples of the domestic laws in the countries that still permit some physical chastisement of children (United States and Canada). Because it is anticipated that a good number of readers will be surprised to learn that this disciplinary practice has become a human rights law violation, the book also engages in an in-depth exegesis of the psychological evidence and historical and philosophical reasons warranting prohibition of all corporal punishment of children as an imperative policy choice. The work probes as well why, once that choice is made, it is essential to use legal bans on the punishment inasmuch as they have uniquely effective pedagogical and therapeutic roles and give some permanence to humanity’s hard won understanding about protecting the young from violence. Published under the Transnational Publishers imprint.

Available at: 0102+0+DOC+XML+V0//EN 15 The Impact of Sentencing and Other Judicial Decisions on the Children of Parents in Conflict with the Law Anniversary of the UN CRC, calling on the Commission "... to assess the impact of detention policies and criminal justice systems on children".60 In the Americas, the Organizati [...] She observed that the provincial government could not "sidestep the principle that in all state actions concerning a child, the best interests of the child shall be a primary consideration."84 In particular, the court concluded that the interests of mothers and infants to remain together is an aspect of security of the person (for both the mother and the child in relation to the benefits of stayin [...] In commenting on the jurisprudence on this Article 8 obligation to consider the interests of a dependent child and the consequences of a custodial sentence on family life, Minson, Nadin and Earle summarize a set of four guiding principles emerging from the case law, including: (1) The sentencing of a parent for a criminal offence engages the right to family life of both the parent and the child (... [...] A confluence of factors arguably were influential in this judgment, including, firstly, constitutional protection of the paramountcy of the best interests of the child conjoined with constitutional protection of a right to family or parental care; secondly, application of the ACRWC, including Article 97 See, e.g., R Epstein, 'Sentencing mothers: the rights of the child and the duties of the crimin [...] In making a decision to accept an offender into the FOSA program, the court is expected to balance a range of factors, such as the seriousness of the offence, the appropriateness of the alternative for the offender, and the safety and needs of the victim, the child, the public and the offender.155 A core principle in guiding such decisions is the best interests of the child, defined as a parenting.

There are millions of children experiencing parental imprisonment all over the world. This book is about their problems, human rights and how they are treated throughout the justice process from the arrest of a parent to imprisonment and release.