Rendering Invisible Punishments Visible: Using Institutional Ethnography in Feminist Criminology. (October 2014)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Welsh, Megan; Rajah, Valli
• Other Names: Burgess-Proctor Amanda guest-editor.; Sharp Susan F. guest-editor.
• Is Part Of: Feminist criminology. Volume 9:Number 4(2014:Oct.)
• Page Start: 323
• Page End: 343
• Publication Date: 2014-10
• Subjects: women's incarceration and reentry -- carceral realignment -- institutional ethnography; Feminist criminology -- Periodicals; Female offenders -- Periodicals; 364.37405
• DOI: 10.1177/1557085114524616
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1557-0851

Abstract

As the pendulum swings away from mass incarceration, feminist criminologists must be alert to the ways in which forms of invisible punishment continue to oppress and marginalize crime-processed women. Institutional ethnography is a mode of inquiry that examines work processes and how they are coordinated, often through texts and discourses. Through illustrative examples from a sample of formerly incarcerated women in post-realignment California, we demonstrate institutional ethnography's importance as a feminist research tool that places the reentry work of crime-processed women in conversation with the invisible punishments imposed on them after and in lieu of incarceration.