Women in trouble : connecting women's law violations to their histories of abuse

Abstract

In Women in Trouble, Elizabeth Comack explores how abuse could be an important context for understanding the lives of women in prison. After finding that 78 percent of the 727 women admitted to a provincial jail in British Columbia between 1988 and 1993 reported that they had been abused sexually or physically, Comack interviewed 24 women over 10 days who were willing to speak of their experiences of abuse, law violations, and prison. Nineteen of the women were native, two of colour and one self-disclosed lesbian. In the thoughtful appendix on feminist methods -- an excellent reading for undergraduate classes on research methods -- Comack writes that this book is a culmination of the most significant and "difficult work she has even done save childbearing" (p. 163).Like other recent research on women in trouble,(f.1) this slim book brings us deep into the "life under the ground" (p. 116). But Comack goes beyond the horrors of stunning neglect and continuous abuse to probe some of the daily, difficult choices that the women use to get up in the morning and to make sense of their lives. Although often courageous and inventive, the women's choices are not glorified; Comack argues the choices are powerfully constrained by class, culture, gender, and the long-term effects of violence.Most compelling is Comack's elaboration of Liz Kelly's concepts of coping, resisting, and surviving as ways to understand the constricted choices that mostly poor women of colour with limited education who are abused can make. In coping, women take action "to avoid or control distress" (p. 41) by putting themselves somewhere else; withdrawing into their heads; getting money for the sex rather than having it taken by force; enduring the assaults to protect a sibling; or escaping into drugs. Occasionally the coping choices run afoul of the law. Sometimes resisting choices are also illegal, as women actively refuse to submit but fight back physically or symbolically, limiting the power of abusers over their lives (p. 42). Surviving is both a choice and an outcome, as women find ways to live and reconstruct their lives so the abuse doesn't take over. The 24 women interviewed have survived so far physically. But emotionally the decisions needed to survive are much more difficult and the process takes much longer. "For Brenda, turning things around means having to leave behind everyone she knows. For Jessica, it means trying to find a way to reclaim her soul" (p. 118).Comack uses standpoint analysis to take the reader very close to real, complex women. Presenting long sections of transcripts bring alive the vivid stories, words, silences and emotions of both the women and the author. For corrections readers, the morality of a standpoint analysis is most striking in the last chapter on prison experiences. Comack argues that neither rehabilitation or deterrence should be the benchmark for evaluating prisoning. Rather, does prisoning meet the needs identified by those imprisoned? The answer is not yes, but neither is it no. Ironically, in spite of the pervasive distrust, loneliness and surveillance of the prisoning experience, some of the 24 women have used the prison as a temporary safe place and engaged in prison programs to earn money, to deal with the abuse, and to learn skills. But, as one woman concluded, "I shouldn't have to come to jail to get it" (p. …