Recursive categories parsing

parseCategories.java

private void parseResponse(JSONObject response) {

        try {

            JSONArray categoriesArray = response.getJSONArray("categories");
            parseCategoriesArray(categoriesArray);

        } catch (JSONException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }

    }

    private List<Category> parseCategoriesArray(JSONArray categories) {

        List<Category> categoriesList = new ArrayList<>();

        try {

            if(categories.length() == 0) {

                return categoriesList;

            } else {

                JSONObject categoryObject;

                for (int i=0 ; i<categories.length() ; i++) {

                    categoryObject = categories.getJSONObject(i);

                    String id = Utilities.getValidJsonString(categoryObject, "_id");
                    String name = Utilities.getValidJsonString(categoryObject, "name");
                    String father = Utilities.getValidJsonString(categoryObject, "father");

                    List<Category> children =  parseCategoriesArray(categoryObject.getJSONArray("children"));

                    categoriesList.add(new Category(id, name, father, children));

                }
            }

        } catch (JSONException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }

        return categoriesList;

    }