Race, Ethnicity, and Gender in Studies of Incarceration (From States of Confinement: Policing, Detention, and Prisons, P 122-131, 2000, Joy James, ed. -- See NCJ-183621)

• NCJ Number: 183627
• Author(s): Juanita Diaz-Cotto
• Date Published: 2000
• Length: 10 pages
• Sale Source: St. Martin's Press
• Publication Format: Book (Hardbound)
• Publication Type: Collected Work
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

Mainstream social scientists studying women's prisons have tended to focus their research on emotional and sexual relationships among female prisoners, to the almost total exclusion of other types of alliances.

Abstract

With few exceptions, studies have highlighted gender issues while ignoring the importance of racism, ethnocentrism, and class biases within prison settings. By discussing the experiences of imprisoned women as if devoid of significant influences from correctional personnel, government policies, and social movements, the experiences of prisoners have been portrayed as taking place within a social vacuum. As a result, social scientists have distorted the experiences not only of minority prisoners but also of white prisoners and prison staff. Given the racial and ethnic diversity present in women's prisons, homogeneous descriptions of female prisoners appear to be the result of the racial, ethnic, gender, and class biases of researchers. Further research on women's prisons should consider how researcher privileges and biases distort the analysis and should address economic and political factors that affect individual actions of prisoners. 26 notes