RT Article
T1 The Construction of Capital Among Family Members of People in Prison
JF The British journal of criminology
VO 64
IS 6
SP 1259
OP 1274
A1 Umamaheswar, Janani
LA English
YR 2024
UL https://krimdok.uni-tuebingen.de/Record/1914459156
AB Researchers have documented the harms of imprisonment on family life, but much less is known about how family members seek support to cope with the challenges of familial imprisonment. In this article, I draw on 8 months of ethnographic observations of a virtual family support group and in-depth interviews with 27 family members of people in prison to explore participants’ need for, and construction of, communities of support. Drawing on Bourdieu’s concepts of social and cultural capital, I reveal how family members cultivated and leveraged networks of support to develop the social connections, knowledge, skills and resources needed to cope with familial imprisonment. I argue, however, that the persistence of participants’ struggles underscores the intractable nature of the inequality produced by familial imprisonment.
K1 Families
K1 Prison
K1 SUPPORT groups
K1 Social Capital
K1 Cultural Capital
DO 10.1093/bjc/azae013