This article examines how wives of currently incarcerated prisoners had accommodated to their husbands' involvement in criminal activities and other “fast-living” lifestyle patterns prior to their husbands' arrest. In-depth interviews with 30 such women and observations of “rap sessions” in which a number of them participated allowed identification of a succession of accommodative strategies used to deter their husbands from “troublesome” patterns of behavior and to allow their marriages to continue.
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