Susan Niknami, PhD in economics at SOFI, is one of the researchers behind an extensive study on Swedish children that is carried out right now, with the help from several departments at Stockholm University. In this video she describes the results they have discovered, why this kind of research is done, and how come it is done in Sweden. We also meet Lina, whose mother was imprisoned during her childhood.
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“In this study we’re following children with parents in prison during their childhood, and we examine to what extent this affects their chances in life in a wider perspective.” says Susan Niknami.
By looking at register data on individual level and information from the Swedish courts the researchers can study how an incarceration affect the children, and they can also exclude other factors. The results are presented in a report from IFAU, the Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy.
So far the researchers have been able to see that the risk of being prosecuted yourself if you’ve had a parent in prison increases by 23 percent. The grades after nine years of school are lowered by an average of 7 percent, and the probability of having a job at age 25 decreases by 37 percent.
The video is produced within a Stockholm University project around the goals for Agenda 2030, by SU Media production.