Can't Catch a Break: Gender, Jail, Drugs, and the Limits of Personal Responsibility / Edition 1

by Susan Starr Sered, Maureen Norton-Hawk

Overview

Based on five years of fieldwork in Boston, Can’t Catch a Break documents the day-to-day lives of forty women as they struggle to survive sexual abuse, violent communities, ineffective social and therapeutic programs, discriminatory local and federal policies, criminalization, incarceration, and a broad cultural consensus that views suffering as a consequence of personal flaws and bad choices. Combining hard-hitting policy analysis with an intimate account of how marginalized women navigate an unforgiving world, Susan Sered and Maureen Norton-Hawk shine new light on the deep and complex connections between suffering and social inequality.

As an additional teaching tool, instructors can find updates about the women in Can't Catch a Break on Susan's blog at http://susan.sered.name/blog/category/cant-catch-a-break/.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780520282797
Publisher:	University of California Press
Publication date:	09/12/2014
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	232
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

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.

Table of Contents

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

Editorial Reviews

09/08/2014
In this passionate, deeply researched study, Suffolk University sociologists Sered and Norton-Hawk argue that prisons have "become the way that America deals with human suffering," especially the suffering of women, who are being incarcerated at ever higher numbers. The authors, who closely studied 47 formerly incarcerated women in the Boston area for 5 years, examine both how women land in prison and how fragile their lives are after release. They discuss the inarguable connections between being abused and getting arrested. Reaganomics and welfare reform, Sered and Norton-Hawk argue, have had disastrous consequences for these women, both before and after incarceration. In particular, lack of stable housing makes women who have been imprisoned more dependent on men. In the study's most original chapter, the authors argue that the therapeutic and mental health services available to the incarcerated and formerly incarcerated, rather than directing attention to how society has stacked the deck against marginal women and suggesting political solutions, teach that people's problems are the result of their own unhealed trauma. This compelling and important book deserves to be widely read. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

" 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."

PsycCRITIQUES

"An important book for both scholars and students . . . it provides informative statistics along with eye­opening examples of what life is really like for those struggling within and against powerful government and social institutions."

The Social Science Journal

"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."

Punishment & Society

"An impressive ethnographic study . . . A valuable addition.

American Journal of Sociology

"By the time you’ve finished the book, plaguing questions about how ‘America deals with human suffering’ unsettles you to the point you’re almost forced in to action."

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 activist demand for the full personhood of the Boston women and their human rights."

Women's Review of Books

"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."

Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

"Compelling . . . engaging . . . a thorough yet concise testament to the social inequalities that drive mass incarceration."

Criminal Law and Criminal Justice Books

"This book is more than a local social study. It is an advice for academic researchers to never forget the gap between theory and practice."

Sexuality & Culture

"The authors convincingly show that the fragmented way we attempt to help poor criminalized women is not working."

Criminal Justice Review

"An impressive ethnographic study . . . A valuable addition.

American Journal of Sociology (AJS) - Andrea Leverentz

"An important book for both scholars and students . . . it provides informative statistics along with eye­opening examples of what life is really like for those struggling within and against powerful government and social institutions."

The Social Science Journal - Laura Valcore

"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."

Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare - Brandy Henry

"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."

Punishment & Society - Shoshana Pollack

" 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."

PsycCRITIQUES - Michele Hoffnung

"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."

Women's Review of Books - Rickie solinger

"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."

Affilia - Brittney Hannah

"The authors convincingly show that the fragmented way we attempt to help poor criminalized women is not working."

Criminal Justice Review - Veronica Horowitz

"Compelling . . . engaging . . . a thorough yet concise testament to the social inequalities that drive mass incarceration."

Criminal Law and Criminal Justice Books - Dana DeHart