Can't catch a break : gender, jail, drugs and the limits of personal responsibility / Susan Starr Sered and Maureen Norton-Hawk.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Sered, Susan Starr, author.

Norton-Hawk, Maureen, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Abused women--Massachusetts--Boston--Social conditions.

Abused women.

Female offenders--Massachusetts--Boston--Social conditions.

Female offenders.

Women drug addicts--Massachusetts--Boston--Social conditions.

Women drug addicts.

Responsibility--Social aspects--Massachusetts--Boston.

Responsibility.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (231 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Oakland, California : University of California Press, 2014.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

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.

Contents:

Front matter

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

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780520958708

0520958705

OCLC:

883632076