Romantic (In)Justice: Criminal-Legal System-Impacted Black Women’s Romantic Relationship Status and Quality

Abstract

This study of working class, heterosexual, criminal-legal system-impacted Black women described the women’s romantic histories and current romantic relationship statuses in terms of commitment, exclusivity, and perceived quality. Using intersectional research methods, qualitative interviews were conducted with 31 Black women between the ages of 18 and 65 years who were working class, resided in Southern California, and were impacted by the criminal-legal system. Data were analyzed using an intersectional Black feminist criminological framework and findings revealed six types of relationship statuses. These relationship statuses did not live up to the women’s aspirations and yielded disparate levels of emotional and psychological strain across relationship statuses.

Keywords

women and social policy justice goals intersections of race/class/gender intimate partner violence romantic precarity

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Alexander

(2010). The new Jim Crow: Mass incarceration in the age of colorblindness. The New Press.

Anyikwa

V. A.

(2015). The intersections of race and gender in help-seeking strategies among a battered sample of low-income African American women. Journal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment, 25(8), 948–959.

Barr

A. B.

Simons

R. L.

(2012). Marriage expectations among African American couples in early adulthood: A dyadic analysis. Journal of Marriage and Family, 74(4), 726–742.

Becker

H. S.

(2009). How to find out how to do qualitative research. International Journal of Communication, 3, 9.

Bedi

(2015). Sexual racism: Intimacy as a matter of justice. The Journal of Politics, 77(4), 998–1011.

Bell

D. A.

(1995). Who’s afraid of critical race theory. University of Illinois Law Review, 1995(4), 893–910.

Berlant

Warner

(1998). Sex in Public. Critical Inquiry, 24(2), 547–566. Retrieved May 21, 2021 from http://www.jstor.org/stable/1344178

Broman

C. L.

(2005). Marital quality in Black and White marriages. Journal of Family Issues, 26(4), 431–441. https://doi.org/10.1177/0192513X04272439

Burgess-Proctor

(2006). Intersections of race, class, gender, and crime: Future directions for feminist criminology. Feminist Criminology, 1(1), 27–47. https://doi.org/10.1177/1557085105282899

10.

Butler

(2006). Precarious life: The powers of mourning and violence. Verso.

11.

Carby

H. V.

(1987). Reconstructing womanhood: The emergence of the Afro-American woman novelist. Oxford University Press on Demand.

12.

Chesney-Lind

(2020). Feminist criminology in an era of misogyny. Criminology, 58(3), 407–422.

13.

Clarke

A. Y.

(2011). Inequalities of love: College-educated Black women and the barriers to romance and family. Duke University Press.

14.

Clear

T. R.

(2009). Imprisoning communities: How mass incarceration makes disadvantaged neighborhoods worse. Oxford University Press.

15.

Cohen

C. J.

(2005). Punks, bulldaggers, and welfare queens: The real radical potential of queer politics? In Johnson

E. P.

Henderson

M. G.

(Eds.), Black queer studies: A critical anthology (pp. 21–51). Duke University Press.

16.

Cohen

P. N.

Pepin

J. R.

(2018). Unequal marriage markets: Sex ratios and first marriage among Black and White women. Socius: Sociological Research for a Dynamic World. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1177/2378023118791084

17.

Cole

(2017). Precarious politics: Anzaldúa’s reparative reworking. Women’s Studies Quarterly, 45(3/4), 77–93.

18.

Combahee River Collective. (1974). A Black feminist statement. In Nicholson

(Ed.), The second wave: A reader in feminist theory (pp. 63–70). Routledge.

19.

Comfort

M. L.

(2003). In the tube at San Quentin: The “secondary prisonization” of women visiting inmates. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, 32(1), 77–107.

20.

Cooper

B. C.

(2017). Beyond respectability: The intellectual thought of race women. University of Illinois Press.

21.

Cooper

B. C.

(2018). Eloquent rage: A black feminist discovers her superpower (1st ed.). St. Martin’s Press.

22.

Corbin

Strauss

(2008). Theoretical sampling. In Corbin

Strauss

(Eds.), Basics of qualitative research (3rd ed., pp. 143–158). Sage Publications, Inc.

23.

Cottom

T. M.

(2019). Thick: And other essays. The New Press.

24.

Crenshaw

(1988). Race, reform, and retrenchment: Transformation and legitimation in antidiscrimination law. Harvard Law Review, 101(7), 1331–1387.

25.

Crenshaw

(1989). Demarginalizing the intersection of race and sex: A Black feminist critique of antidiscrimination doctrine, feminist theory and antiracist politics. University of Chicago Legal Forum, 1989(1), 139–167.

26.

Crenshaw

(1991). Mapping the margins: Intersectionality, identity politics, and violence against women of color. Stanford Law Review, 43(6), 1241–1299.

27.

Crenshaw

Gotanda

Peller

Thomas

(Eds.). (1995). Critical race theory: The key writings that formed the movement. The New Press.

28.

Creswell

J. W.

Creswell

J. D.

(2017). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches. Sage Publications.

29.

Crissey

S. R.

(2005). Race/ethnic differences in the marital expectations of adolescents: The role of romantic relationships. Journal of Marriage and Family, 67(3), 697–709.

30.

Darawsheh

(2014). Reflexivity in research: Promoting rigour, reliability and validity in qualitative research. International Journal of Therapy and Rehabilitation, 21(12), 560–568.

31.

Davis

(1972). Reflections on the Black woman’s role in the community of slaves. Massachusetts Review, 13(1/2), 81–100.

32.

deVuono-powell

Schweidler

Walters

Zohrabi

(2015). Who pays? The true cost of incarceration on families. Ella Baker Center, Forward Together, Research Action Design. https://ellabakercenter.org/who-pays-the-true-cost-of-incarceration-on-families/

33.

Edusi

(2014, November 28). Situationships. The Promiscuous Pen. http://thepromiscuouspen.com/2014/11/situationships/

34.

Evans

D. N.

(2019). Full disclosure: Experimental analysis of female online dating on parole. Journal of Experimental Criminology, 15(2), 179–199.

35.

Evans

D. N.

Blount-Hill

K. L.

(2020). Swipe right? Experimental analyses of app-based dating in the age of criminal stigma. Corrections. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/23774657.2020.1799726

36.

Evans

D. N.

Vega

(2020). Experimental analysis of male online dating on parole. Journal of Crime and Justice, 44(1), 33–48. https://doi.org/10.1080/0735648x.2020.1781678

37.

Feliciano

Robnett

Komaie

(2009). Gendered racial exclusion among white Internet daters. Social Science Research, 38(1), 39–54.

38.

Finlay

(2006). ‘Rigour’, ‘Ethical Integrity’ or ‘Artistry’? Reflexively reviewing criteria for evaluating qualitative research. British Journal of Occupational Therapy, 69(7), 319–326. https://doi.org/10.1177/030802260606900704

39.

Fontana

Frey

J. H.

(1994). Interviewing: The art of science. In Denzin

N. K.

Lincoln

Y. S.

(Eds.), Handbook of qualitative research (pp. 361–376). Sage Publications.

40.

Freire

(1970). Pedagogy of the oppressed. Continuum, 72, 43–70.

41.

Gilgun

J. F.

(2012). Enduring themes of qualitative family research. Journal of Family Theory & Review, 4, 80–95. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1756-2589.2012.00118.x

42.

Glymph

(2008). Out of the house of bondage: The transformation of the plantation household. Cambridge University Press.

43.

Goldstein

J. R.

Kenney

C. T.

(2001). Marriage delayed or marriage forgone? New cohort forecasts of first marriage for U.S. women. American Sociological Review, 66(4), 506–519.

44.

Gramlich

(2020). Black imprisonment rate in the U.S. has fallen by a third since 2006. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/05/06/share-of-black-white-hispanic-americans-in-prison-2018-vs-2006/

45.

Gurusami

(2017). Working for redemption: Formerly incarcerated Black women and punishment in the labor market. Gender & Society, 31(4), 433–456.

46.

Haley

(2016). No mercy here: Gender, punishment, and the making of Jim Crow modernity. University of North Carolina Press.

47.

Harris

(1993). Whiteness as property. Harvard Law Review, 106(8), 1707–1791.

48.

Hartman

(2019). Wayward lives, beautiful experiments (1st ed.). W.W. Norton & Company.

49.

Hattery

A. J.

Smith

(2012). African American families today: Myths and realities. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.

50.

Hill

S. A.

(2005). Black intimacies: A gender perspective on families and relationships. Rowman Altamira.

51.

Hill Collins

. (1989). The social construction of Black feminist thought. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 14(4), 745–773.

52.

Hill Collins

. (2000). Black feminist thought. Routledge.

53.

Hill Collins

. (2004). Black sexual politics: African Americans, gender, and the new racism. Routledge.

54.

hooks

(1981). Ain’t I a woman: Black women and feminism (Vol. 3). South End Press.

55.

Hull

A. G.

Bell-Scott

Smith

(1982). All the women are White, all the Blacks are men, but some of us are brave: Black women’s studies. Feminist Press.

56.

Hunter

T. W.

(2017). Bound in wedlock: Slave and free Black marriage in the nineteenth century. Harvard University Press.

57.

Hutson

J. A.

Taft

J. G.

Barocas

Levy

(2018). Debiasing desire: Addressing bias & discrimination on intimate platforms. Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, 2(CSCW), 1–18.

58.

Jones

(2009). Between good and ghetto: African American girls and inner-city violence. Rutgers University Press.

59.

Jones

(2018). The chosen ones: Black men and the politics of redemption (Vol. 6). University of California Press.

60.

Kao

Balistreri

K. S.

Joyner

(2018). Asian American men in romantic dating markets. Contexts, 17(4), 48–53. https://doi.org/10.1177/1536504218812869

61.

Kaukinen

(2014). Dating violence among college students: The risk and protective factors. Trauma, Violence, & Abuse, 15(4), 283–296. https://doi.org/10.1177/1524838014521321

62.

Lay

K. J.

(1993). Sexual racism: A legacy of slavery. Nat’l Black LJ, 13, 165.

63.

Lindsey

Johnson

(2014). Searching for climax: Black erotic lives in slavery and freedom. Meridians, 12(2), 169–195. https://doi.org/10.2979/meridians.12.2.169

64.

Link

B. G.

Phelan

J. C.

(2001). Conceptualizing stigma. Annual Review of Sociology, 27(1), 363–385.

65.

Lofland

L. H.

(1995). Analyzing social settings: A guide to qualitative observation and analysis. Wadsworth.

66.

Lopoo

L. M.

Western

(2005). Incarceration and the formation and stability of marital unions. Journal of Marriage and Family, 67(3), 721–734.

67.

Lorde

(1977). The transformation of silence into language and action. In Ryan

(Ed.), Identity politics in the women’s movement (pp. 81–84). New York University Press.

68.

Miller

A. M.

(2019, May 17). Signs you’re in a ‘situationship’—And how to get TF out of it. Women’s Health. https://www.womenshealthmag.com/relationships/a27478820/situationship/

69.

Miller

(2008). Getting played: African American girls, urban inequality, and gendered violence. New York University Press.

70.

Mills

(1959). The sociological imagination. Oxford University Press.

71.

Monterrosa

(2019). How race and gender stereotypes influence help-seeking for intimate partner violence. Journal of Interpersonal Violence. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1177/0886260519853403

72.

Moraga

Anzaldúa

(2015). This bridge called my back: Writings by radical women of color (4th ed.). SUNY Press.

73.

Naegler

Salman

(2016). Cultural criminology and gender consciousness: Moving feminist theory from margin to center. Feminist Criminology, 11(4), 354–374.

74.

Oswin

Olund

(2010). Governing intimacy. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 28(1), 60–67. https://doi.org/10.1068/d2801ed

75.

Pager

Western

Sugie

(2009). Sequencing disadvantage: Barriers to employment facing young Black and white men with criminal records. The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 623(1), 195–213.

76.

Petrosky

Blair

J. M.

Betz

C. J.

Fowler

K. A.

Jack

S. P.

Lyons

B. H.

(2017). Racial and ethnic differences in homicides of adult women and the role of intimate partner violence—United States, 2003–2014. MMWR Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 66(28), 741.

77.

Pittman

D. M.

Rush

C. R.

Hurley

Minges

M. L.

(2020). Double jeopardy: Understanding intimate partner violence vulnerability among emerging adult women in college through lenses of race and sexual orientation. Journal of American College Health. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/07448481.2020.1740710

78.

Potter

(2006). An argument for Black feminist criminology: Understanding African American women’s experiences with intimate partner abuse using an integrated approach. Feminist Criminology, 1(2), 106–124.

79.

Public Policy Institute of California. (2006). Who is in prison? The changing demographics of incarceration. https://www.ppic.org/content/pubs/cacounts/CC_806ABCC.pdf

80.

Public Policy Institute of California. (2017). California’s changing prison population. http://www.ppic.org/main/publication_show.asp?i=702

81.

Richie

(1996). Compelled to crime: The gender entrapment of battered Black women. Psychology Press.

82.

Richie

(2012). Arrested justice: Black women, violence, and America’s prison nation. New York University Press.

83.

Richie

B. E.

Kanuha

V. K.

Martensen

K. M.

(2021). Colluding with and resisting the state: Organizing against gender violence in the U.S. Feminist Criminology. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1177/1557085120987607

84.

Ridout

Schneider

(2012). Precarity and performance: An introduction. The Drama Review, 56(4), 5–9.

85.

Robnett

Feliciano

(2011). Patterns of racial–ethnic exclusion by Internet daters. Social Forces, 89(3), 807–828.

86.

Rose

(2004). Longing to tell: Black women talk about sexuality and intimacy. Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

87.

Sweeney

M. M.

Phillips

J. A.

(2004). Understanding racial differences in marital disruption: Recent trends and explanations. Journal of Marriage and Family, 66(3), 639–650.

88.

Taylor

K. Y.

(Ed.). (2017). How we get free: Black feminism and the Combahee River Collective. Haymarket Books.

89.

Underground Scholars Language Guide. (2019, March 7). Language guide for communicating about those involved in the carceral system. https://undergroundscholars.berkeley.edu/blog/2019/3/6/language-guide-for-communicating-about-those-involved-in-the-carceral-system

90.

U.S. Census Bureau. (2019). African American: American Community Survey (ACS) reports. https://www.census.gov/about/partners/cic/resources/data-links/african-american/acs.2020.html

91.

U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. (2019). Transmittal of fiscal year (FY) 1998 public housing/section 8 income limits. https://www.huduser.gov/portal/datasets/il/fmr98/sect8.html

92.

Walker

A. J.

Guttentag

Secord

P. F.

(1985). Too many women? The sex ratio question. Family Relations, 34(1), 146. https://doi.org/10.2307/583778

93.

Ward

(2020). The tragedy of heterosexuality. New York University Press.

94.

Weiss

R. S.

(1994). Learning from strangers: The art and method of qualitative interview studies. Simon and Schuster.

95.

Welsh

Rajah

(2014). Rendering invisible punishments visible: Using institutional ethnography in feminist criminology. Feminist Criminology, 9(4), 323–343.

96.

Western

(2002). The impact of incarceration on wage mobility and inequality. American Sociological Review, 67(4), 526–546.

97.

Western

Wildeman

(2009). The Black family and mass incarceration. The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 621(1), 221–242.

98.

Women of Color Network. (2006). Domestic violence in communities of color. https://wocninc.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/DVFAQ-1.pdf