Abstract
I have long bristled at the persistent conceptualization of justice-involved women as mothers. Focus on this single aspect of women’s lives obfuscates other identities, renders women without children invisible, and bolsters the idea that women’s only value to society is derived from caring for others. Yet, at the same time, most justice-involved women are mothers. And while many may not be custodial parents, because their parental rights have been terminated or their children are adults, or dead, or not living with them, women’s relationships with their children, real and imagined, persist and impact their psychological and material lives. Therefore, as social workers who teach, collaborate, and conduct research with and about justice-involved women, we must grapple with their role as mothers and its impact on their psychosocial outcomes.
Mothering and Desistance in Re-Entry, written by sociologist Dr. Venezia Michalsen, provides a comprehensive and nuanced foundation for this endeavor. The book is succinct and powerful, offering a detailed review of the existing literature about justice-involved women (including sociological theory about criminal behavior), compelling qualitative research findings that illustrate the strengths and challenges of this population, and specific policy and program recommendations designed to ameliorate our response to women’s law-breaking behaviors. Factors at the micro-, mezzo-, and macro-levels are explored. The language and style of the book, including thoughtful definitions of key terms like desistance and reentry, would make it a welcome addition to any undergraduate class. Simultaneously, the author’s tremendous organization of and engagement with complicated data and themes will keep the attention of graduate students and other more seasoned scholars. The book is accessible, not simple.
Michalsen begins each chapter with a vignette from her data set, centering the expertise of justice-involved women and enacting her recommendation that “the movement to more effectively and humanely address the harm in the lives of mothers in the criminal justice system…must be informed by the voices of women who have lived in these systems” (p. 118). Her masterful editing of these introductory vignettes and the quotes presented in her research findings allow the reader to hear these individuals’ voices without being inundated with narratives. Another remarkable aspect of this book is the consistent presentation of women’s incarceration as a global phenomenon. While her data were collected in the United States, Michalsen incorporates and engages with research from countries around the world, including Afghanistan, Russia, South Africa, and Sweden, among others. This text is a valuable tool for instructors who are seeking to include global perspectives in their teaching.
One of the primary messages of this book is that when it comes to understanding women’s pathways in and out of crime, “it’s complicated” (p. 87). However, in her conclusion, rather than leaning into this morass, Michalsen tries to clean it up. In the beginning of the final chapter, she seems almost apologetic for painting a “dismal” picture (p. 106). She goes onto present a detailed list of what can be done to decrease women’s incarceration and improve individual, family, and community outcomes. While these promising ideas do inspire hope, the suggestion that they might actually be implemented is predicated on the idea that if policy makers are presented with evidence-based ideas, they will make a rational choice. However, Michalsen’s own explication of social behavioral theory suggests that desistance from harmful behavior is not that simple. Rational choice theories are appealing because they “make [people] feel like they are ultimately in control of their lives” (p. 36), but the idea that we use rational thought to make complicated decisions has been largely disproved. Clearly, society could save money and lives with this book’s recommendations. However, there is little evidence that our global society does, in fact, want to change its treatment of justice-involved women. In order to implement the innovative, evidence-based solutions that Michalsen outlines, we must first figure out how to allow state administrators, elected officials, and the general public to care about the 700,000 women who live in cages throughout the world. Reading this excellent book is a powerful step toward that goal.
