Dual Liminars: Teenagers and Young People with a Family Member in Prison

Published online on July 26, 2022

Abstract

Young people’s voices are rarely heard within research or policy discourse, including in respect of familial imprisonment. This article centralizes their voices and specific experiences of parental and/or sibling imprisonment by drawing on in-depth interviews with 17 young people aged 17–25 at the time of interview, though also reflecting back on when they were younger. Drawing on the concept of liminality, and specifically dual liminality, it argues that in order to fully recognize and understand these experiences, we must consider the interactions between the multiple forms of liminality they are subject to – in places, as people with a family member in prison and as adolescents – in order to understand their experiences as the family member of a prisoner and as young people.