Can't Catch a Break

Susan Starr Sered is Professor of Sociology and Senior Researcher at the Center for Women's Health and Human Rights at Suffolk University in Boston. She is the author of Uninsured in America: Life and Death in the Land of Opportunity. Read more about the women in Can't Catch a Break and Susan's research on her blog at http://susan.sered.name/blog/. Maureen Norton-Hawk is Professor of Sociology and Codirector of the Center for Crime and Justice Policy Research at Suffolk University in Boston. She has published widely in the field of women and prostitution.

"This compelling and important book deserves to be widely read." Publishers Weekly "Compelling ... engaging ... a thorough yet concise testament to the social inequalities that drive mass incarceration." -- Dana DeHart Criminal Law and Criminal Justice Books "The authors convincingly show that the fragmented way we attempt to help poor criminalized women is not working." -- Veronica Horowitz Criminal Justice Review "By the time you've finished the book, plaguing questions about how 'America deals with human suffering' (p. 3) unsettles you to the point you're almost forced in to action." -- Brittney Hannah Affilia "In the hands of Sered and Norton-Hawk, the politics of personal story insist that the reader consider the woman storyteller as real and whole, a person who must be heard. The authors give her space and allow her a history so that her story is round and complicated-not salaciously sensationalized.; Can't Catch a Break is an activistdemand for the full personhood of the Boston women and their human rights." -- Rickie solinger Women's Review of Books " This book makes a significant contribution to our understanding of the women who cycle through homeless shelters and jails... these authors open the way for better strategies that do not blame the victim." -- Michele Hoffnung PsycCRITIQUES "A refreshingly authentic book that does not fall into the academic trap of constructing this community of women as mad, bad, victims or villains. The participants themselves-as well as the complex array of institutional actors, practices and discourses (and the researchers!)-are portrayed in their multifaceted complexity, from which a searing critique of the "American Dream" and cultural practices of individual responsibility and choice is levied." -- Shoshana Pollack Punishment & Society "Can't Catch a Break is an engaging read and serves as a good primer for those interested in how policies and institutions maintain gender inequality." -- Brandy Henry Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare "An important book for both scholars and students ... it provides informative statistics along with eye-opening examples of what life is really like for those struggling within and against powerful government and social institutions." -- Laura Valcore The Social Science Journal "An impressive ethnographic study ... A valuable addition. -- Andrea Leverentz American Journal of Sociology (AJS)

• List of Illustrations List of Tables Acknowledgments Introduction 1. "Joey Spit on Me": How Gender Inequality and Sexual Violence Make Women Sick 2. "Nowhere to Go": Poverty, Homelessness, and the Limits of Personal Responsibility 3. "The Little Rock of the North": Race, Gender, Class, and the Consequences of Mass Incarceration 4. Suffer the Women: Pain and Perfection in a Medicalized World 5. "It's All in My Head": Suffering, PTSD, and the Triumph of the Therapeutic 6. Higher Powers: The Unholy Alliance of Religion, Self-Help Ideology, and the State 7. "Suffer the Children": Fostering the Caste of the Ill and Afflicted 8. Gender, Drugs, and Jail: "A System Designed for Us to Fail" Conclusion: The Real Questions and a Blueprint for Moving Forward Appendix: Methodology and Project Participant Overview Notes References Index