Description
Book SynopsisThere is an expectation that women will be nurturers and carers. Women who have been judged violent, destructive and criminal and who are detained in the criminal justice system can find themselves perceived through a distorted lens as unwomanly. This book explains how they become hypervisible in their difference, while the histories of trauma and suffering that are communicated through their offending and other risk behaviour remain hidden, and so are unseen.
Bringing together authors uniquely placed as experts in their fields, Invisible Trauma argues that it is essential to trace the traumatic roots of women's violence and criminality. Powerful intergenerational factors perpetuate the cycles of offending and trauma re-enactment that current sentencing practice overlooks. The authors present a psychoanalytically informed account of the development of violence and other offending, identifying pathways for change to address trauma within the lives of these women and t
Trade Review
"With the intellectual depth of an academic periodical and the narrative potency of investigative journalism, this project is a paragon of accessible, nuanced and potent writing. This radiates particularly from the authors’ inquest into the treatment of Black, Asian and Ethnic Minority (BAME) women in prison. As somebody who has conducted their own review into the punitive treatment of BAME individuals, I am in awe of their courage in uncovering how some women are forced to repeat the same brutalising exchanges with authority that defined the colonial era. Stunningly broad yet rigorously focused, these authors ruthlessly expose the harm of a criminal justice system that responds to complex histories of trauma with retribution rather than understanding. Expertly examining the intersection of violence, marginalisation and racial disproportionality, this book is not just hugely enlightening. Rather, is essential, particularly for those who legislate on how women are treated by a penal system that is in desperate need of reform."
- David Lammy, MP
Table of Contents1. Introduction
The Authors
2. Maternal Violence: Ordinary and Extraordinary
Anna Motz
3. The Criminalisation of Blackness
Maxine Dennis
4. Caught in the Racist Gaze?:
The vulnerability of black women to forensic mental health and criminal justice settings
Anne Aiyegbusi
5. Prostitution: Visible Bodies, Hidden Lives
Anna Motz
6. Self-Harm: Inscriptions and Survival
Anna Motz
7. Taboo: Female Psychopathy and Sex Offending against children
Anna Motz
8. Extreme violence and female terrorism: restricted status and indeterminate sentences for public protection
Anna Motz
9. Intoxicating States of Mind: Violence and its impact
Anna Motz
10. 'What Happened?' An attachment based understanding of detained women with offending histories and diagnoses of personality disorder
Anne Aiyegbusi
11. Imprisoned and in prison: Organised defences working against black women and girls
Maxine Dennis
12. Conclusion: Why the Caged Bird Sings
The Authors
