SUNY series in Women, Crime, and Criminology – serie

Describes life inside the world's largest women's prison, from the point of view of the women themselves.The first book-length treatment of the nature of prison culture among women in thirty years, "In the Mix" describes the prison culture in a large California prison, from the point of view of the women themselves. Based on three years of study, including participant-observation, in-depth interviews and surveys, this book describes the daily life of the prison from a variety of perspectives, with an emphasis on the gendered nature of its social organization, roles and normative frameworks.The title, "In the Mix," describes the contours of prison culture and its themes of trouble, programming and relationships. Common themes, such as the impact of substance use, limited economic opportunity, patriarchy, survival on the streets and in the prison, thread through the individual chapters. Owen argues that prison culture for women is tied directly to the role of women in society as well as a dynamic social structure that is shaped by the conditions of women's lives in prison and in the "free world."

Explores how women in prison manage to mother their children from behind bars.The majority of female inmates are also mothers of children under the age of eighteen. These women don't stop being mothers when they receive a prison sentence, but in fact try a variety of means to maintain motherhood and mothering while away from their children. Based on research conducted in a women's prison, Mothering from the Inside reveals how inmate mothers find places for their children to live, manage relationships with caregivers, demonstrate their fitness as mothers, and negotiate rights to their children under challenging circumstances. The impact of race, ethnicity, and marginality on women in prison is traced through the development of the women's motherhood careers.

Explores how women inmates make the transition from prison back into society.This is the first study to address the important but neglected topic of how women return to the "free world" after single or multiple experiences of incarceration. It uses first-person narratives and a comprehensive review of contemporary theory to provide useful suggestions for practitioners and policymakers concerned with responding to the increasing number of women in the criminal justice system.Patricia O'Brien provides an in-depth description of the experiences of women with a variety of criminal histories to elucidate elements that contributed to their desistance from crime. The book challenges practitioners to be more proactive in recognizing the needs of this population and more responsive to these needs. O'Brien suggests policy changes, especially related to alternatives to incarceration. The first-person narratives of non-recidivist women provide concrete and powerful examples of the crucial mix of ingredients any woman needs to remain free and empowered in a context of powerlessness and increasing social control.

A critical look at the perceived increase in girls' violence from a range of disciplinary and geographical perspectives.This critical collection brings together some of the best contemporary research on the perceived increase in girls' violence. With perspectives from the United States, Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom, the work challenges official definitions and media representations of girls and violence. Contributors discuss whether violence by girls has actually increased, what kind of behavior by girls is classified as "violent," how attitudes toward girls' behavior have changed, in what contexts girls behave violently, and look at the links between girls' violence and the broader issues of the social construction and social control of adolescent femininities. With diverse essays representing different geographical and disciplinary perspectives, this book offers, at times, contradictory evidence and conflicting views. However, common concerns are clear and the reader is rewarded with a rich exploration of the struggles of girls and young women to take control of their lives in material and ideological conditions that continue to restrict their options and opportunities.

Shows how radical women advocate for women in prison while acknowledging the racial and class division between them.How can radical women activists for women prisoners be a "voice and a presence" for people so different from themselves? The radical activists who envision a postprison society are predominantly white, middle class, and well educated; the prisoners they advocate for are predominantly disenfranchised women of color. While the activists lead lives of relative comfort, conditions in women's prisons may include sexual and emotional abuse and medical neglect. Jodie Michelle Lawston examines the dilemmas that arise as activists attempt to challenge injustices and oppression in these prisons. Activists question their place in leading organizations speaking for incarcerated women of color, and they question whether they will be accepted by these women as legitimate representatives. Knowing that their radical goals are generally not well received by the mainstream public, activists realize they must cast their efforts as a credible social movement when dealing with that public. Lawston maps the discourses that activists from a radical group in California generate in order to overcome these tensions and provides comments from the activists themselves.

The first contemporary biography of Abby Hopper Gibbons, a nineteenth-century American social activist. Involved in a broad range of reform activities, she is particularly known for her pioneering efforts to improve the treatment of women prisoners.This first contemporary biography of nineteenth-century American social activist and prison reformer Abigail Hopper Gibbons (1801–1893) illuminates women's changing role in the various reform movements of the period. Beginning as an abolitionist/feminist, Gibbons helped to found the Women's Prison Association of New York City in 1845. This group established the Isaac T. Hopper Home for discharged women prisoners, the first such institution in the world. Gibbons later became an advocate and lobbyist for improvements in the care of women in the city prisons, for the employment of police matrons, and for the establishment of separate correctional facilities for women prisoners.Though born a pacifist Quaker, Gibbons became a Civil War nurse who protected escaping slaves. During the 1863 Draft Riots, her house in New York City was sacked. Following the war, she was involved in establishing several New York charities. In the 1870s she became a leader and lobbyist for the Moral Reform Movement, both locally and nationally. Her story is intrinsically interesting, and illustrates the political action employed by women of her period.

Explores the experiences of women imprisoned for killing their male abusers and their treatment by the criminal justice system.When a woman survives a deadly assault by her male abuser by using lethal self-defense, she often faces a punitive criminal justice system-one that largely failed to respond to her earlier calls for help. In this book, Elizabeth Dermody Leonard examines the lives and experiences of more than forty women in California who are serving lengthy prison sentences for killing their male abusers. She contrasts them with other women prisoners in the state and finds substantial differences. Leonard's in-depth interviews reveal that the women are slow to identify themselves as battered women and continue to minimize the violence done to them, make numerous and varied attempts to end abusive relationships, and are systematically failed by the systems they look to for help. While in jail, these women receive liberal dosages of psychotropic drugs, damaging their ability to aid in their self-defense. Moreover, trials and plea bargains feature little or no evidence of the severe intimate abuse inflicted upon them. Despite a clear lack of criminal or violent histories, the majority of women found guilty of the death of abusive men receive first- or second-degree murder convictions and serve long, harsh sentences. Leonard concludes the book with a discussion of policy implications and recommendations arising from this research.

A critical look at the perceived increase in girls' violence from a range of disciplinary and geographical perspectives.This critical collection brings together some of the best contemporary research on the perceived increase in girls' violence. With perspectives from the United States, Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom, the work challenges official definitions and media representations of girls and violence. Contributors discuss whether violence by girls has actually increased, what kind of behavior by girls is classified as "violent," how attitudes toward girls' behavior have changed, in what contexts girls behave violently, and look at the links between girls' violence and the broader issues of the social construction and social control of adolescent femininities. With diverse essays representing different geographical and disciplinary perspectives, this book offers, at times, contradictory evidence and conflicting views. However, common concerns are clear and the reader is rewarded with a rich exploration of the struggles of girls and young women to take control of their lives in material and ideological conditions that continue to restrict their options and opportunities.

Shows how radical women advocate for women in prison while acknowledging the racial and class division between them.How can radical women activists for women prisoners be a "voice and a presence" for people so different from themselves? The radical activists who envision a postprison society are predominantly white, middle class, and well educated; the prisoners they advocate for are predominantly disenfranchised women of color. While the activists lead lives of relative comfort, conditions in women's prisons may include sexual and emotional abuse and medical neglect. Jodie Michelle Lawston examines the dilemmas that arise as activists attempt to challenge injustices and oppression in these prisons. Activists question their place in leading organizations speaking for incarcerated women of color, and they question whether they will be accepted by these women as legitimate representatives. Knowing that their radical goals are generally not well received by the mainstream public, activists realize they must cast their efforts as a credible social movement when dealing with that public. Lawston maps the discourses that activists from a radical group in California generate in order to overcome these tensions and provides comments from the activists themselves.

Cutting edge research into trends and social contexts of girls' violence.Have girls really gone wild? Despite the media fascination with "bad girls," facts beyond the hype have remained unclear. Fighting for Girls focuses on these facts, and using the best data availabe about actual trends in girls' uses of violence, the scholars here find that by virtually any measure available, incidents of girls' violence are going down, not up. Additionally, rather than attributing girls violence to personality or to girls becoming "more like boys," Fighting for Girls focuses on the contexts that produce violence in girls, demonstrating how addressing the unique problems that confront girls in dating relationships, families, school hallways and classrooms, and in distressed urban neighborhoods can help reduce girls' use of violence. Often including girls' own voices, contributors to the volume illustrate why girls use violence in certain situations, encouraging us to pay attention to trauma in the girls' pasts as well as how violence becomes a tool girls use to survive toxic families, deteriorated neighborhoods, and neglectful schools.

Cutting edge research into trends and social contexts of girls' violence.Have girls really gone wild? Despite the media fascination with "bad girls," facts beyond the hype have remained unclear. Fighting for Girls focuses on these facts, and using the best data availabe about actual trends in girls' uses of violence, the scholars here find that by virtually any measure available, incidents of girls' violence are going down, not up. Additionally, rather than attributing girls violence to personality or to girls becoming "more like boys," Fighting for Girls focuses on the contexts that produce violence in girls, demonstrating how addressing the unique problems that confront girls in dating relationships, families, school hallways and classrooms, and in distressed urban neighborhoods can help reduce girls' use of violence. Often including girls' own voices, contributors to the volume illustrate why girls use violence in certain situations, encouraging us to pay attention to trauma in the girls' pasts as well as how violence becomes a tool girls use to survive toxic families, deteriorated neighborhoods, and neglectful schools.

Collection of essays and art by scholars, artists and activists both in and out of prison that reveal the many dimensions of women's incarcerated experiences.Offering nuanced portraits of women's lives inside razor wire and prison walls, Razor Wire Women puts incarcerated women in dialogue with scholars, artists, educators and activists who live outside of prisons but work on issues connected to the prison industrial complex. Women make up the fastest-growing group of the U.S. prison population, yet prison scholarship largely overlooks the struggles of incarcerated women, and their voices are often silenced both in and out of the prison infrastructure. From the vantage points of those both inside and outside of prisons, this collection of essays and art illuminates many of the distinct experiences and concerns of incarcerated women, including those of girls in prison, abuse and rape, the policing of women, incarcerated motherhood, mental health issues in prisons, incarcerated women's artistic and cultural production, and prisons' impact on families, health, and sexuality. Combining the transcendence, hope and clarity of art with powerful analytical and conceptual tools, Razor Wire Women reveals the gendered dimensions of the incarceration now experienced by a growing number of women in the U.S.