How Jailed Mothers Envision Future Motherhood in the Context of State Intrusion: Fawn, Flight, or Fight
Incarceration simultaneously promotes hegemonic motherhood and, through policy and practice, effectively excludes incarcerated mothers from enacting “good motherhood.” An important question is how these experiences influence mothers’ plans to care for their children following acute, and often repeti...
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| Medienart: | Elektronisch Aufsatz |
| Sprache: | Englisch |
| Veröffentlicht: |
2025
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| In: |
Journal of contemporary criminal justice
Jahr: 2025, Band: 41, Heft: 3, Seiten: 539-555 |
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Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
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| Verfügbarkeit prüfen: | HBZ Gateway |
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| Zusammenfassung: | Incarceration simultaneously promotes hegemonic motherhood and, through policy and practice, effectively excludes incarcerated mothers from enacting “good motherhood.” An important question is how these experiences influence mothers’ plans to care for their children following acute, and often repetitive, state intrusion in the form of jailtime. Using interviews with 23 mothers in jail, we find that they are keenly aware of the mismatch between their maternal aspirations and the limited resources and routine surveillance that would characterize their lives postrelease. They respond in three distinct ways that resemble fawn, flight, or fight responses. Some mothers fawn, aiming to avoid conflict by submitting to state demands and vowing to do whatever it takes to get their kids back. Other mothers flee, disengaging from their maternal aspirations, having internalized messages of maternal failure. A third group vows to fight the system, remaining committed to active mothering postrelease despite state-imposed roadblocks to custodial parenting. In all three responses, the reality of the challenges mothers anticipated postrelease loomed large. By demonstrating how mothers react to the double-bind of state-sanctioned and state-promoted motherhood, we argue for the need to reinvest in social supports and reconsider punitive intrusions into families. |
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| ISSN: | 1552-5406 |
| DOI: | 10.1177/10439862251341180 |
