An exploratory study into the lives of formerly incarcerated Black women

The scholarly literature has addressed several instances in which Black women experience oppression in their daily lives and within their community (e.g., stigmatization, housing inequality, healthcare, education, employment, policing, and systemic racism in community infrastructure) (Unnever, Gabbidon, Chouhy 2019). Structural racism exposes Black women to harmful stressors in U.S. society and its institutions, especially the Criminal Justice System (CJS). In the CJS, Black women continue to remain overrepresented and more likely than their racial counterparts to be incarcerated (Hinton, Henderson, Red 2018). The literature has also examined and uncovered several pathways to involvement in the CJS for women. These pathways include early experiences of trauma and victimization, substance abuse, and intimate partner violence (Yingling 2016; Richie 1996; Potter 2006). For many women, prison exacerbates these experiences causing significant collateral consequences such as emotional distress, loss of income, and residential instability. Based on semi-structured interviews with six formerly incarcerated women, this study unearths the lived realities of these Black women with a history of involvement in the CJS. Three critical theoretical and frameworks were employed to guide the study: (1) Black Feminist Criminology (BFC)/ Intersectionality, (2) Pathways Perspective (PT), and (3) General Strain Theory (GST). These approaches were used to understand, research, and interpret interlocking pathways to women’s involvement in the Criminal Justice System. Several themes emerged in the findings that relate to the previous research including numerous instances of adverse childhood and adulthood experiences such as dysfunctional families, criminal and violent victimization, substance abuse, bullying, low self-esteem, and identity struggles. These themes are discussed as they connect to the women’s pathways to involvement in the CJS. The interviewees also faced various collateral consequences from their incarceration including, in-house violence, medical neglect, stigmatization, and exposure to more trauma, which are also connected to the extant criminological literature