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Social Sciences
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Between Criminalization and Care: Reimagining Social Work's Role in the...
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Between Criminalization and Care: Reimagining Social Work's Role in the Carceral State

A special issue of Social Sciences (ISSN 2076-0760). This special issue belongs to the section "Crime and Justice".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 December 2024 | Viewed by 2718

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Sandra Leotti

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Division of Social Work, College of Health Sciences, University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY 82071, USA
Interests: feminist theories; criminalization and gender; disability; carceral state; social justice; critical pedagogy; abolition; anti-carceral social work

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The unique experiences of criminalized women at the intersection of the criminal legal system and social services must be focused on. While the carceral state impacts marginalized communities broadly, it has distinct and often intensified effects on women. These range from gender-specific forms of violence and abuse to the unique responsibilities and challenges of motherhood under state supervision. These obstacles are further amplified by systemic factors such as racism and are often exacerbated by social service systems, intensifying their marginalization and vulnerability.

Despite social work’s commitment to social justice, the discipline faces the critical task of scrutinizing the potential harm and unintended outcomes resulting from current interventions. This invites us to engage in reflective critique, aiming to align our methodologies and pedagogies more closely with the lived experiences of criminalized women.

This Special Issue calls for bold contributions that dissect the complex relationship between criminalization and care. We welcome empirical research, critical theoretical examinations, and reflective practice narratives that can deepen our understanding of this pivotal issue. We are particularly interested in submissions that critically evaluate systemic structures affecting criminalized women and illuminate the far-reaching impacts of the carceral state on women’s lives.

Dr. Sandra Leotti
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Social Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • social work
  • social services
  • criminalized women
  • carceral state
  • social justice
  • transformative practice
  • intersectionality
  • systemic barriers
  • feminist criminology
  • anti-carceral social work

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

18 pages, 333 KiB  
Article
‘Compassionate’ Control: Social Work and the Rise of Carceral Feminism in Progressive Era Police Reform
by Bethany Jo Murray, Jennifer Erwin, Sandra Leotti, Elizabeth Allen, Matthew Bakko, Leah A. Jacobs, C. Riley Hostetter, Stephen Monroe Tomczak and Alexandra Fixler
Soc. Sci. 2024, 13(9), 454; https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci13090454 - 28 Aug 2024
Viewed by 485
Abstract
The contemporary Defund the Police movement has renewed interest in social work’s role in public safety, leading some to call for increased police–social work collaborations. However, claims regarding the potential virtues and pitfalls of social work–police collaborations are largely ahistorical. To contextualize current [...] Read more.
The contemporary Defund the Police movement has renewed interest in social work’s role in public safety, leading some to call for increased police–social work collaborations. However, claims regarding the potential virtues and pitfalls of social work–police collaborations are largely ahistorical. To contextualize current debates, a systematic investigation into the evolution of social work and its relationship with law enforcement is necessary, particularly the impact that gender norms have had on this relationship. Drawing from the National Conference on Charities and Corrections proceedings, we examined how gendered underpinnings have shaped social work’s relationship to law enforcement and the understanding of social work’s role in public safety. During the Progressive Era, social workers acted as an intervention to reform police by infusing ‘rehabilitative’, ‘protective’, ‘preventative’, and ‘quarantining’ approaches in law enforcement. What emerges from the archives is a chronicle detailing how using social work as a gendered intervention for police reform during the Progressive Era fell short of addressing the root causes of carceral issues, drawing parallels between the Progressive Era reforms and today’s contemporary reforms. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Between Criminalization and Care: Reimagining Social Work's Role in the Carceral State)
44 pages, 4103 KiB  
Article
“When Is a School Not a School?” Dr. Carrie Weaver Smith, Child Prisons, and the Limits of Reform in Progressive Era Texas
by Sam Harrell
Soc. Sci. 2024, 13(7), 380; https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci13070380 - 22 Jul 2024
Viewed by 822
Abstract
This archival study explores the life and work of Dr. Carrie Weaver Smith (1885–1942), a Progressive Era social worker and prison warden. Specifically, I explore the first phase of her career as a House Physician at the Virginia K. Johnson Home in Dallas, [...] Read more.
This archival study explores the life and work of Dr. Carrie Weaver Smith (1885–1942), a Progressive Era social worker and prison warden. Specifically, I explore the first phase of her career as a House Physician at the Virginia K. Johnson Home in Dallas, Texas (1911–1915) and as the first Superintendent of the Texas State Training School for Girls in Gainesville, Texas (1916–1925). Using archival research, I detail three conflicts that defined Dr. Smith’s superintendency: her fight to reclassify a youth prison as a school, her challenges to a Ku Klux Klan-dominated legislature, and her refusal to cede authority to a State Board of Control. Together, these conflicts led the Board to terminate Dr. Smith’s position, an outcome that would replay twice more before she retired from prisonwork. I argue that when most reformers made significant concessions, compromising their visions to maintain state funding and political allyship, Dr. Smith stood out for her record of refusal. And yet, like other reformers, she left Texas with the capacity to imprison more women and girls than ever before. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Between Criminalization and Care: Reimagining Social Work's Role in the Carceral State)
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