Children in Prison?

Discover the sixth session of the 2025–2026 seminar series "Crossed Perspectives on Early Childhood": "Children in Prison? Developments and Tensions in the Care of Children Accommodated with Their Mothers in Detention (France)."

The seminar approaches early childhood as a social, historical, and cultural construct. Knowledge and theories relating to conception, birth, and child development are analysed in terms of the child’s interactions with their surroundings and according to gender norms. The seminar also explores the boundaries of this age category and its temporality, according to medical, international, anthropological, and historical standards.

"There are currently approximately sixty places across several penitentiary institutions in France that enable incarcerated women to keep their infants with them until the age of 18 months. This arrangement may appear surprising: how can we make sense of an innocent child being required to live in detention? It is this paradox that we sought to elucidate through a field study, funded by the City of Paris (Emergence(s) programme), carried out over nearly two years in two remand prisons where these arrangements were formalized to varying degrees. In so doing, we were able to document both the developments and the tensions presently underway."

• Edouard Gardella: Sociologist and Research Fellow at the CNRS (LIER‑FYT)
• Florence Lafine: Sociologist (LIER‑FYT)
• Discussant: Gladys Chicharro: Anthropologist at Paris 8, on secondment to LESC