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Interrogating the Construction and Representations of Criminalized Women in the Academic Social Work Literature: a Critical Discourse Analysis

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Interrogating the Construction and Representations of Criminalized Women in the Academic Social Work Literature: a Critical Discourse Analysis Portland State University PDXScholar Dissertations and Theses Dissertations and Theses Summer 7-31-2019 Interrogating the Construction and Representations of Criminalized Women in the Academic Social Work Literature: a Critical Discourse Analysis Sandra Marie Leotti Portland State University Follow this and additional works at: https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds Part of the Criminology Commons, and the Social Work Commons Let us know how access to this document benefits ou.y Recommended Citation Leotti, Sandra Marie, "Interrogating the Construction and Representations of Criminalized Women in the Academic Social Work Literature: a Critical Discourse Analysis" (2019). Dissertations and Theses. Paper 5117. https://doi.org/10.15760/etd.6996 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations and Theses by an authorized administrator of PDXScholar. Please contact us if we can make this document more accessible: [email protected]. Interrogating the Construction and Representations of Criminalized Women in the Academic Social Work Literature: A Critical Discourse Analysis by Sandra Marie Leotti A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Social Work and Social Research Dissertation Committee: Stéphanie Wahab, Chair Ben Anderson-Nathe Mary Oschwald Melissa Thompson Portland State University 2019 © 2019 Sandra Marie Leotti i Abstract In the United States today, there are 2.3 million people behind bars in jails and prisons. Mass incarceration has swept up the United States to such a degree that we are known globally for holding more people in correctional facilities than any other country in the world. Although women have always reflected, and still do reflect, a smaller proportion of the correctional population, over the last 40 years, their rates of criminalization and imprisonment have far outpaced that of men. Drastic increases in the criminalization of women are intimately connected to the entrenchment of social disadvantage enabled under neoliberal globalization. Neoliberal transformations in the economy have contributed to women’s poverty across the globe and have brought an increasing number of women into contact with the criminal justice system. The rising incarceration rate of women, and the disproportionate rate of women of color in U.S. prisons is a timely and urgent issue and one that social work is poised to address. Indeed, some of our most prominent national organizations recognize mass incarceration as an urgent issue that merits the attention of social workers. As such, it is prudent to examine social work’s engagement with this issue. This study employed a Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) of social work scholarship in order to: 1) explore current constructions of criminalized women in social work; 2) understand the knowledge produced through such constructions; and 3) explore how that knowledge supports/shapes practice with criminalized women. Specifically, this study draws on Jäger and Maier’s (2009) framework for performing a Foucauldian- inspired CDA. This approach centers Foucault’s conceptualizations of discourse and the ii workings of power and builds on the work of Jürgen Link to examine the function of discourse in legitimizing and securing dominance. Data include a sample of 49 articles published in social work high impact journals from 2000-2018. A keyword search was performed to locate articles with an explicit focus on incarcerated/criminalized women. Only articles dealing with a U.S. context were included. Analysis occurred on two levels consisting of a structural analysis to identify initial coding schema and a detailed analysis of select articles. Detailed analysis attended to: context of text; surface of text; rhetorical means; content and ideological statements. These two levels of analysis led to an overall synoptic analysis, or final assessment of the overall discourse. Multiracial feminism, discourse theory, and Foucault’s concept of governmentality anchored the research and provided the theoretical framework for analysis. The overarching finding is that social work high impact journals privilege a psychological discourse and that the assessment and management of risk has supplanted a holistic approach to meeting client needs and addressing mass incarceration. This, I conclude, reflects a neoliberal political climate and aligns social work with penal institutions in troubling ways. Criminalized women are overwhelmingly constructed as risky in the sample. Embedded in this construction is a strong neoliberal discourse on knowing and changing the “responsibilized” self. The implied knowledge claims that flow from these constructions rely on the use of “objective” and often depoliticized explanations for crime and criminal justice involvement. I show how this depoliticization is accomplished through a variety of neutralizing strategies, which ultimately serve to depoliticize social work itself. I highlight how, by primarily constituting criminalized iii women as risky, social work necessarily responds to her with individualized service delivery aimed at regulating and changing the behavior of individuals. I argue that in its reliance on practices of risk management and a preference for micro-level service delivery, social work deploys regulatory practices that further neoliberal governance (Parton, 1998; Webb, 2003). Further, I discovered a profound ethical dissonance between social work’s engagement with criminalized women and social work values. Specifically, I found that social work discourse passively accepts the logic of punishment and supports dominant ideology surrounding gender and crime while concurrently attempting to redress the consequences of such constructions through social justice values. I conceptualize this as a discursive struggle over the meaning and purpose of social work, a struggle that embodies some of the most salient historical and contemporary tensions in our field related to our professional identity and an increasing drive toward professionalization (Reisch, 2013). I argue that social work’s growing dedication to practices that seek to adjust the psychological fortitude of criminalized women relies on broader cultural discourses of responsibilization, which reproduce, rather than interrupt, criminalization, and divert attention away from the need for social and economic change. My analysis exposes how social work is implicated in processes of criminalization, and propels a shift in emphasis from individualized service delivery, aimed at changing the behavior of individuals, to launching interventions that tackle structural injustice and inequity. Understanding the subtle and productive work of power to undermine our “good intentions” and aspirations iv for social justice requires us to rethink explanations for crime and our understandings regarding the purpose and necessity of the criminal justice system. v Dedication To my dear friend Mac, who had to take leave of this world before finishing his own Ph.D. I miss you and think about you every day. And to my sweet grandmother who couldn't wait to have a “doctor” in the family. I’m sorry it took so long. May you both rest in peace. And To my 30s, it’s been nice knowing you. vi Acknowledgements First and foremost, I would like to thank my chair, Stéphanie Wahab. There are not words to describe my gratitude and indebtedness to you. I never imagined that my path would be graced by such a brilliant, fierce, and deeply generous scholar. I am in awe of your intellectual bravery and human decency. Thank you for your support and guidance, and for always drawing me into a deeper dialogue with my work. I would also like to thank the rest of my committee: Ben Anderson-Nathe, Mary Oschwald, and Melissa Thompson. It has been an honor and a privilege to work with each of you through the years. Your input and feedback have made me a better thinker and scholar. The road to this dissertation has been long and circuitous. The list of people who have accompanied me, endured me, supported me, and nurtured me along the way is vast. I specifically want to thank Jennifer Muthanna and Kevin Cherry. We have been in this together from the beginning, or very close to the beginning. You have stuck by me through it all. Thank you for believing in me, inspiring me, and proofreading for me. I love you both. I also want to thank my oldest friends Courtney Johnson and Jacob Amadon. In spite of geographical distance and vastly different lives, you both remain a force that keeps me grounded, continually reminding me of who I am in this world. To everyone else who has been in, out, and around, you know who you are. You are in my heart. Finally, this past year has been full of surprising connections and reconnections with people who have helped me remember why a career in academia is still a worthwhile pursuit. I’m looking forward to the next chapter together. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ......................................................................................................................... .i DEDICATION .....................................................................................................................v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .............................................................................................. ..vi LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................ ..ix CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................
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