NCJ Number
101781
Journal
Federal Probation Volume: 50 Issue: 1 Dated: (March 1986) Pages: 44-54
Date Published
1986
Length
11 pages
Annotation
This study examines the social accommodations made by parolees' wives and their effects on parole performance.
Abstract
Data were obtained from 30 northern New England women who had lived in common-law or legal marriages with parolees for at least 6 months before their husbands were arrested and whose husbands had been imprisoned at least 6 months in the Londonderry Correctional Facility or the Newport Community Correctional Center. Data were obtained from indepth interviews with the wives, prison records, summaries of women's 'rap sessions,' and other sources. Only 15 of the women reported that their husbands returned home upon being paroled. These women used a variety of accommodative strategies to encourage their husbands' settling down and to deter them from resuming disruptive and criminal patterns. At best, wives were able to achieve a momentary attenuation of their husbands disruptive behavior. Most wives felt a sense of powerlessness in attempting to change their husbands' behavior toward more settled patterns. Overall, the wives did not apparently have much effect in determining whether or not their husbands recidivated. The husbands' return to problem behaviors tended to precipitate marital conflict, which in turn fueled more deviant activity by husbands. 17 references.