Policing Parenting, Family ‘Support’ and the Discipline and Punishment of Poor Families

Abstract

This chapter explores the void between the social and economic realities of working class parenting and family life and the unrealities of what working class parents and families are expected to achieve. Forays into Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) research and programmatic interventions (Family Nurse Partnership and Troubled Families Programmes) into working class families, show how the responsibilisation of parents, who are being identified as deficient, is increasingly constructed as the solution to addressing the ‘reproduction’ of crime and poverty in legislation, policy and practice.  As is argued in the chapter, poverty informed policies and unconditional, relational family support are approaches to working with families that are required more than ever.