Gender, Punishment and the Maternal Subject of Law

This book analyses the experiences of mothers in the criminal justice system, arguing that a legal system oriented around the idea of isolating and punishing individuals – without considering the relational dynamics in which they are embedded – produces disproportionate punishment for mothers. Drawing on original qualitative research, the book considers the relevance of mothering to women’s pathways to prison, introducing readers to the "matrix of vulnerabilities" – a complex interplay of trauma, poverty and coercive relationships. This matrix, the book argues, is a central dynamic in women’s criminalisation, and one that should be considered in questions of culpability. Grounded in a study of the operation of sentencing law in NSW, Australia, it demonstrates how, in a jurisdiction where sentencing is focused on individualised justice, the imperative to isolate and punish individuals cannot adequately recognise relational dynamics like mothering, resulting in unfair and inconsistent treatment in sentencing courts. Challenging legal scholars, policymakers, and practitioners to reconsider how criminal justice systems can better account for the relational realities of mothers’ lives, the book then articulates a more adequate, non-essentialist, but materially-grounded, understanding of mothering in policy and the law. It thereby offers crucial insights for creating more equitable approaches to justice that recognise the complex vulnerabilities shaping women’s experiences with the law. This book will appeal to scholars working in socio-legal studies, feminist or critical criminology, criminal justice, and feminism more generally.