Criminalizing Motherhood and Reproduction

This book explores how motherhood and reproduction are subjected to legal, political, and ideological surveillance, regulation, and criminalization. It emphasizes the importance of cross-disciplinary frameworks and an attention to differences among mothers in analyzing how they face culture, policy, or practices that may criminalize their identities or actions. The six chapters cover themes such as socialized expectations of good mothers, the role of state actors and informal interactions in enforcing these expectations, and conflicts between motherhood ideologies and state control. Despite the criminalization, women and mothers are found to be resilient, choosing their identities and actions.

Format: Hardback
Length: 100 pages
Publication date: 08 February 2024
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd

In this thought-provoking book, motherhood and reproduction are revealed as focal points of legal, political, and ideological surveillance, regulation, and criminalization. Through a comprehensive and diverse collection of essays, this edited volume expands upon cross-disciplinary frameworks and a keen awareness of the unique experiences of mothers to examine various ways in which mothers and pregnant women encounter culture, policy, or practices that may criminalize their identities or actions.

Spanning six chapters, the book explores a range of themes, including the significance of and challenges associated with socialized expectations surrounding what "good mothers" should do, irrespective of their incarceration status, past incarceration, or lack thereof. It delves into the role of state actors and everyday informal interactions in enforcing these expectations, particularly against marginalized, Black, Brown, and young mothers in open-air prisons. Conflicts between motherhood ideologies and state control play a central role in the lives of many women under carceral motherhood. Moreover, nation-states are implicated in these analyses, particularly in the European Union, where nation-states outsource abortion across and within geopolitical borders, making migration a contested strategy for pregnant women.

Despite the criminalization of motherhood and reproduction depicted in the text, it is noteworthy that women and mothers exhibit remarkable resilience, actively choosing their identities and their actions. This book serves as a valuable resource for researchers, scholars, and practitioners in the fields of feminist criminology, motherhood studies, criminology and criminal justice, women's studies, gender studies, child and youth studies, and sociology. It was originally published as a special issue of Women & Criminal Justice.

Weight: 360g
Dimension: 254 x 178 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781032696737