Enduring Harm: Exploring the Impacts of Wrongful Convictions on the Children of Exonerees

Wrongful convictions represent profound failures of the criminal legal system, causing extensive harm that reaches beyond the exoneree. While existing scholarship frequently focuses on the factors that contribute to wrongful convictions and exonerees' challenges after release, the experiences of their children remain largely overlooked. This dissertation addresses this gap by centering the lived realities of children of exonerees, revealing the long-term effects of a parent's wrongful imprisonment. Informed by a life-course perspective, this research explored how these individuals understand, navigate, and cope with the multifaceted consequences of this unique form of family trauma. The study was guided by key questions exploring the impacts on children's lives, the challenges faced across different phases of the wrongful conviction, coping strategies, and the influence on relationships and personal trajectories. Data collection involved in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 16 adult children of exonerees, as well as five innocence advocates, to offer diverse insights. The study's findings highlight three interrelated themes: (1) Family Dynamics and Relationships, (2) Social, Developmental, and Financial Consequences, and (3) Emotional and Psychological Impacts. Parental wrongful conviction alters family structures, shifting roles and straining relationships. Children frequently encounter social stigma, isolation, and complications in their personal growth. They carry the emotional weight of their parent’s absence, deal with the difficulties of maintaining contact during incarceration, and manage the complexities of rebuilding bonds after release. Despite these hardships, many participants demonstrated remarkable strength, advocating for change, finding support networks, and reshaping their experiences into sources of resilience. My dissertation emphasizes the need for targeted support for children of exonerees, advocating for policy changes such as improved post-exoneration assistance, record expungement, programs to reduce stigma, and family-focused assistance. By highlighting the intergenerational effects of systemic errors within the criminal legal system, this work calls for changes that acknowledge not only the immediate injustice of wrongful convictions but also the lasting damage to families.

Author

• Madrigal, Andrew Jason

• Children of Exonerees
• Children of Incarcerated Parents
• Exonerees
• Incarceration
• Reintegration
• Wrongful Convictions

Identifier

hdl:1920/14710

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:MARS:1920/14710