“That’s not me anymore”: Resistance strategies for managing intersectional stigmas for women with substance use and incarceration histories

Abstract

Significant previous research has focused on how individuals experience stigma when interacting with the public sphere and service agencies; the purpose of this grounded theory study is to explore how formerly incarcerated mothers with histories of substance use experience stigmas from their intimate relationships with family and romantic partners. Using an intersectionality lens, this study reveals that the women perceived multiple stigmas due to their previous substance use, incarceration, and other addiction-related behaviors that challenged their roles as mothers and romantic partners. Compounding the behavioral-related stigmas were race and class-based stereotypes of black criminality that also challenged women’s ability to embody key motherhood and womanhood roles. As a result, the women employed resistance strategies to safeguard against stigma and preserve their recovery. The implications for practice underscore the significance of addressing personal experiences of stigma, complex relational dynamics, and understanding the needs of support systems that are also shaped by the women’s cycles of incarceration and illness.

Survival sex and trafficked women: The politics of re-presenting and speaking about others in anti-oppressive qualitative research

“…Jamila's ex-husband continues to brand her a ''hooker,'' even though she no longer engages in prostitution. In fact, all of the women in this study understood a prior history of prostitution as an enduring social mark-worse than drug addiction and other criminalized behaviors-that negated their access to hegemonic feminine roles like wife and (good) mother (Gunn et al, 2016). Raven R. Bowen's (2015) study of women transitioning from off-street sex work to ''square'' jobs in Canada confirms this perception.…”

Perceived Substance Use Norms Among Jailed Women with Alcohol Use Disorders

“…Future studies of jailed women may also consider the closely related concept of social identity. In studies of formerly incarcerated mothers with a substance use history, a main factor shaping recovery was creating a “replacement” social identity postincarceration in which women disconnected from their substance‐using identity (Gunn et al, 2018; Gunn and Samuels, 2020).…”

An historical review of racial bias in prison-based substance abuse treatment design

“…For example, qualitative research findings illustrate that for some contemporary samples of drug-involved incarcerated women, navigating the role and corresponding responsibilities of parenthood can communicate stigma and exacerbate the recovery journey (Gunn, Sacks, & Jemal, 2016;Leverentz, 2011). For multimarginalized individuals living in concentrated disadvantage, beyond the proximity of prosocial network members and/or inadequately empowered to fully participate in a prosocial network, lasting recovery is less likely to begin with positive influences and lessons gleaned from their most proximate network members.…”