Can't Catch a Break: Gender, Jail, Drugs, and the Limits of Personal Responsibility

Based on five years of fieldwork in Boston, Can't Catch a Break documents the day-to-day lives of forty women as they struggle to survive sexual abuse, violent communities, ineffective social and therapeutic programs, discriminatory local and federal policies, criminalization, incarceration, and a broad cultural consensus that views suffering as a consequence of personal flaws and bad choices. Combining hard-hitting policy analysis with an intimate account of how marginalized women navigate an unforgiving world, Susan Sered and Maureen Norton-Hawk shine new light on the deep and complex connections between suffering and social inequality.

As an additional teaching tool, instructors can find updates about the women in Can't Catch a Break on Susan's blog at http: //susan.sered.name/blog/category/cant-catch-a-break/.

Author: Susan Starr Sered, Maureen Norton-Hawk
Publisher: University of California Press
Published: 09/12/2014
Pages: 232
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.72lbs
Size: 9.18h x 5.94w x 0.58d
ISBN13: 9780520282797
ISBN10: 0520282795
BISAC Categories:
- Social Science | Women's Studies
- Social Science | Criminology
- Social Science | Violence in Society

About the Author
Susan Starr Sered is Professor of Sociology and Senior Researcher at the Center for Women's Health and Human Rights at Suffolk University in Boston. She is the author of Uninsured in America: Life and Death in the Land of Opportunity. Read more about the women in Can't Catch a Break and Susan's research on her blog at http: //susan.sered.name/blog/.

Maureen Norton-Hawk is Professor of Sociology and Codirector of the Center for Crime and Justice Policy Research at Suffolk University in Boston. She has published widely in the field of women and prostitution.