Document Type
Article
Publication Date
Winter 11-24-2020
Journal / Book Title
Crime & Delinquency
Abstract
Black women are increasingly targets of mass incarceration and reentry. Black feminist writers call attention to scholars’ need to intersectionalize analyses around how Black women interface with state systems and social institutions. This study foregrounds narratives from Black women to understand their plight while navigating reentry through a phenomenological approach. Through semi-structured interviews, narratives are analyzed using critical frameworks that authentically unearths the lived realities of participants. Themes reveal that for Black mothers, reentry can be just as criminalizing as engaging crime itself. These women face dire consequences around their mothering that induce them into tremendous bouts of trauma. Existing interlocking oppressions enflame newfound barriers due to their contact with the criminal legal system—yet they survive via divergent forms of resilience.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1177/0011128720974316
MSU Digital Commons Citation
Williams, Jason M.; Spencer, Zoe; and Wilson, Sean K., "I am Not Your Felon: Decoding the Trauma, Resilience, and Recovering Mothering of Formerly Incarcerated Black Women" (2020). Department of Justice Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works. 144.
https://digitalcommons.montclair.edu/justice-studies-facpubs/144
Published Citation
Williams, J. M., Spencer, Z., & Wilson, S. K. (2020). I am Not Your Felon: Decoding the Trauma, Resilience, and Recovering Mothering of Formerly Incarcerated Black Women. Crime & Delinquency, 0011128720974316.
Included in
Criminal Law Commons, Criminology and Criminal Justice Commons, Forensic Science and Technology Commons, Law and Race Commons, Law and Society Commons, Legal Theory Commons, Other Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons, Other Legal Studies Commons, Race and Ethnicity Commons, Social Justice Commons, Women's Studies Commons