Invisible Sentences: Exploring the Intergenerational Social Effects of Parental Incarceration on Children in Uganda.

Invisible Sentences: Exploring the Intergenerational Social Effects of Parental Incarceration on Children in Uganda. | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Invisible Sentences: Exploring the Intergenerational Social Effects of Parental Incarceration on Children in Uganda. Elemegious Mugamba This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-7388718/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Parental incarceration in Uganda constitutes a deeply entrenched form of structural violence, producing recursive and trans-generational harms that disproportionately affect children in already marginalised socio-economic contexts. This article investigates the intergenerational social effects of parental imprisonment on children, advancing a critical criminological analysis rooted in southern epistemologies and relational justice. Employing a multi-method research design, the study integrates grounded theory (Charmaz, 2014), legal hermeneutics, and spatial-criminological analysis, underpinned by 18 months of ethnographic fieldwork, narrative interviews with children and caregivers, and doctrinal reviews of Ugandan sentencing and child protection jurisprudence. Findings reveal a spectrum of collateral harms, including educational attrition, psychosocial distress, community-based stigmatisation, and administrative neglect, reproduced through institutional logics that systematically erase the juridical subjectivity of children with incarcerated parents. Quantitative data, triangulated with GIS-based spatial mapping, demonstrate statistically significant overlaps between incarceration clusters and zones of chronic child welfare deprivation, illuminating carceral spillover effects at both household and community levels. Theoretically, the article critiques the prevailing offender-centric logic embedded in Ugandan penal regimes, advocating instead for a relational penology that centres the interdependence of caregivers and children. By conceptualising affected children as juridically invisible and structurally occluded, the study reinterprets institutional silence and policy inertia as modalities of secondary penalisation. The research advances an urgent call for the codification of child-sensitive sentencing guidelines, cross-sectoral data accountability systems, and investments in kinship-based care infrastructures. Situated within broader global critiques of penal excess and intergenerational justice (Cunneen, 2020; Hannah-Moffat, 2019), this article positions Uganda as a paradigmatic site for theorising global carceral rationalities. It contributes to the growing field of Southern criminology and human rights centred penal reform by foregrounding the rights, vulnerabilities, and social futures of children entangled in the shadows of criminal justice systems. Criminal Law Civil Rights Law Family Law Social Policy Social Work Criminology Parental incarceration Intergenerational harm Relational penology Grounded theory Uganda Collateral consequences Child invisibility Southern criminology Legal erasure Penal reform Full Text Additional Declarations The authors declare no competing interests. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. 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Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-7388718","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":501321165,"identity":"9beded28-4466-4d78-9adf-3cb8eeed1994","order_by":0,"name":"Elemegious Mugamba","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAAx0lEQVRIiWNgGAWjYLACxgYGBn4GBjYStUg2kKzF4ACxWnRnpF/8dHOHnZzxjeRnDz5UMMjzix3Ar8XsRk6xdO6ZZGOzG2nmhjPOMBjOnJ1AUEuCdG4bc+K2Gwlm0rxtDAkGtwlrSf6d21Zfv3lG+jditaQfA9pyOMFAIodYW868YbPOPXMc6I03ZZIzzkgQ4Zfj6Y9v5+6oludvT98m8aHCRp5fmoAWBgYeAwgtAFYpQUg5CLA/gND8B4hRPQpGwSgYBSMRAADzzUYbFo97agAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0009-0002-0262-4098","institution":"Makerere University School of Law/Justice Centres Uganda","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Elemegious","middleName":"","lastName":"Mugamba","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2025-08-16 16:39:43","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":{"humanSubjects":true,"vertebrateSubjects":false,"conflictsOfInterestStatement":false,"humanSubjectEthicalGuidelines":true,"humanSubjectConsent":true,"humanSubjectClinicalTrial":false,"humanSubjectCaseReport":false,"vertebrateSubjectEthicalGuidelines":false},"doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-7388718/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-7388718/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":89338119,"identity":"dc5007e2-0a67-4b71-9db5-e77448d19af7","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-08-19 02:42:42","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":1678633,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"MugambaE.2024.InvisibleSentences.ExploringtheIntergenerationalSocialEffectsofParentalIncarcerationonChildreninUganda....pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7388718/v1_covered_c7883b2b-c7e6-4f56-903f-1d7d2af055bf.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"The authors declare no competing interests.","formattedTitle":"\u003cp\u003eInvisible Sentences: Exploring the Intergenerational Social Effects of Parental Incarceration on Children in Uganda.\u003c/p\u003e","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":true,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":" Makerere University, Uganda","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"Parental incarceration, Intergenerational harm, Relational penology, Grounded theory, Uganda, Collateral consequences, Child invisibility, Southern criminology, Legal erasure, Penal reform","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-7388718/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-7388718/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eParental incarceration in Uganda constitutes a deeply entrenched form of structural violence, producing recursive and trans-generational harms that \u0026nbsp;disproportionately affect children in already marginalised socio-economic contexts. This article investigates the intergenerational social effects of \u0026nbsp;parental imprisonment on children, advancing a critical criminological analysis rooted in southern epistemologies and relational justice. Employing a \u0026nbsp;multi-method research design, the study integrates grounded theory (Charmaz, 2014), legal hermeneutics, and spatial-criminological analysis, \u0026nbsp;underpinned by 18 months of ethnographic fieldwork, narrative interviews with children and caregivers, and doctrinal reviews of Ugandan sentencing \u0026nbsp;and child protection jurisprudence. \u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFindings reveal a spectrum of collateral harms, including educational attrition, psychosocial distress, community-based stigmatisation, and \u0026nbsp;administrative neglect, reproduced through institutional logics that systematically erase the juridical subjectivity of children with incarcerated parents. \u0026nbsp;Quantitative data, triangulated with GIS-based spatial mapping, demonstrate statistically significant overlaps between incarceration clusters and zones of \u0026nbsp;chronic child welfare deprivation, illuminating carceral spillover effects at both household and community levels. \u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTheoretically, the article critiques the prevailing offender-centric logic embedded in Ugandan penal regimes, advocating instead for a relational \u0026nbsp;penology that centres the interdependence of caregivers and children. By conceptualising affected children as juridically invisible and structurally \u0026nbsp;occluded, the study reinterprets institutional silence and policy inertia as modalities of secondary penalisation. The research advances an urgent call for \u0026nbsp;the codification of child-sensitive sentencing guidelines, cross-sectoral data accountability systems, and investments in kinship-based care \u0026nbsp;infrastructures. \u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSituated within broader global critiques of penal excess and intergenerational justice (Cunneen, 2020; Hannah-Moffat, 2019), this article positions \u0026nbsp;Uganda as a paradigmatic site for theorising global carceral rationalities. It contributes to the growing field of Southern criminology and human rights centred penal reform by foregrounding the rights, vulnerabilities, and social futures of children entangled in the shadows of criminal justice systems.\u003c/p\u003e","manuscriptTitle":"Invisible Sentences: Exploring the Intergenerational Social Effects of Parental Incarceration on Children in Uganda.","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2025-08-19 02:34:32","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-7388718/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"e9ce4178-3ee8-4b8d-9ad5-67336da912ab","owner":[],"postedDate":"August 19th, 2025","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"posted","subjectAreas":[{"id":53250522,"name":"Criminal Law"},{"id":53250523,"name":"Civil Rights Law"},{"id":53250524,"name":"Family Law"},{"id":53250525,"name":"Social Policy"},{"id":53250526,"name":"Social Work"},{"id":53250527,"name":"Criminology"}],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2025-08-19T02:34:32+00:00","versionOfRecord":[],"versionCreatedAt":"2025-08-19 02:34:32","video":"","vorDoi":"","vorDoiUrl":"","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-7388718","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-7388718","identity":"rs-7388718","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"XKTyCvWXoU3ODBz1xrDgd","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}