From arrest to trial : the experience of being a family member of an accused felony offender

This qualitative body of work was designed as an exploratory, instrumental, collective case study, using multiple cases to provide insight into an infrequently researched area of inquiry concerning the issue of what happens with the family members of accused felony offenders during the time period from arrest to trial. The participants interviewed were 11 individuals from 8 families, and their demographics included a representative sample of a cross-section of races, ages, gender, socio-economic status, felony charges, and family roles of offenders and interviewees. Particular variables in each of the families' cases were different, but their similar experiences unified them as a representative sample of families of accused felony offenders. Analyses of the families' interviews demonstrated that they had similar concerns and issues they were confronted with after the arrest event, regardless of the diversity of their demographics and criminal cases. From these similarities it became apparent that certain themes were emerging. Cross-case analyses resulted in four patterns of themes emerging from the narrative data, and the comparisons of interviews revealed the family members' salient perspectives and descriptions of their experiences. The four themes were (a) immediate and future concerns, (b) systems, (c) relationships, and (d) wanting and needing help. The analyses of the data from this study supported the assumptions of McCubbin's and Patterson's (1983) Double ABC-X model of family crisis. Furthermore, these families of accused felony offenders also demonstrated characteristics associated with catastrophic stressors (Figley & McCubbin, 1983). These families experienced an additional factor that is embedded within the family crisis model but not attended by the catastrophe model. The family members who had not been part of the event of the arrest of the accused felon believed that their family had been stigmatized by society for being related to an accused criminal. This study challenged the concept of the family crisis theory and the characteristics of catastrophic stressors as capturing the full experience of this population of individuals.