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

Abstract

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/.