Preventing Crime with Prenatal and Infancy Support of Parents: The Nurse-Family Partnership

Pregnancy and the early years of a child's life offer an opportune time to prevent a host of adverse outcomes that are important in their own right, but that also have significant implications for the development of criminal behavior. This paper summarizes a 27-year program of research that has attempted to improve early maternal and child health and future life prospects with prenatal and infancy home visiting by nurses. The program, known today as the Nurse-Family Partnership (NFP), is designed for low-income mothers who have had no previous live births. The home visiting nurses have three major goals: to improve the outcomes of pregnancy by helping women improve their prenatal health; to improve the child's health and development by helping parents provide more sensitive and competent care of the child; and to improve the parental life course by helping parents plan future pregnancies, complete their educations, and find work. Given consistent effects on prenatal health behaviors, parental care of the child, child abuse and neglect, child health and development, maternal life course, and criminal involvement of the mothers and children, the program is now being offered for public investment throughout the United States. Careful attention is being given to ensuring that the program is being conducted in accordance with the program model tested in the randomized trials.