Families and the Moral Economy of Incarceration

SUMMARY

The experiences of families of prisoners barely register in contemporary debates over criminal sanctions. But the accounts of families of prisoners demonstrate that mass incarceration does far more than punish and deter. By pitting the moral and economic interests of families against one another, it erodes the fundamental norms of social life itself. As family members are pressed hard to withdraw their care and concern from one another, the effect is more than the impoverishment of individuals: As over-incarceration increases the costs of caring relationships, the loss becomes a moral one and, in time, we impoverish our culture as well.     

新时期青少年道德教育的思考——“市场经济条件下道德教育的困境与突破研讨会”综述

为深入探讨市场经济条件下道德教育的困境及其突破路径等现实理论问题,2010年12月由上海市伦理学会道德教育专业委员会、上海社会科学院青少年研究所《当代青年研究》杂志社和华东师范大学公民发展与现代德育研究中心联合举办的“市场经济条件下道德教育的困境与突破”学术研讨会在上海社会科学院召开。来自上海社会科学院、复旦大学、华东师范大学等高校和科研院所的40位专家学者围绕“市场经济条件下道德教育困境的辨识理路”、“市场经济条件下道德教育困境的内部探究”、“市场经济条件下道德教育困境的外部求解”以及“市场经济条件下道德教育困境的责任担当”等议题．进行了广泛的交流和探讨。     

Working Wives and Mothers

No abstract available for this article.     

Between Mothers and Daughters

No abstract available for this article.     

The Moral Economy of Money between the Gold Standard and the New Deal

In this article, I show that Depression‐era popular opposition to gold standard orthodoxy had an identifiable impact on New Deal policy. Popular pressure was rooted in a political‐economic vision I call the “moral economy of money.” The moral economy of money included a critique of the gold standard and creditor classes and advocated a democratization of control over money and credit to restore social justice. Against many odds, Roosevelt narrowly defeated congressional majorities connected to popular groups bent on mandating Treasury currency issue. At the same time, he pioneered a discourse that became generalized in the following decades and discouraged a reemergence of the moral economy of money.     

Divorced Mothers

Employed divorced mothers (381) were surveyed on sources of support available to them in managing family responsibilities, with emphasis on managing conflicts between employment and child care responsibilities. A particular focus was the noncustodial parent's contribution. Although the divorced mothers perceived they had sources of help available, notably the child's father, friends, and relatives in the community, they did not perceive that these sources offered much help in managing family responsibilities. The mothers tended to manage the employment-child care conflicts themselves. It is not clear if this was the preferred option or if the other sources, due to similar employment commitments, could not provide help.     

Lesbian Mothers

Abstract

Discrimination persists in courts' consideration of lesbian mothers' petitions for custody of their children. Courts often have assumed that lesbian women are emotionally unstable or unable to assume a maternal role. They also often have assumed that their children are likely to be emotionally harmed, subject to molestation, impaired in gender role development, or themselves homosexual. None of these assumptions is supported by extant research and theory.     

Tiger Mothers

NATIVE only to China and Russia's Siberia, the Dongbei (Northeast) Tiger is a magnificent wild animal. Over the last few decades, the sound of its roar has become weaker and weaker. In the 1970s, over 80 wild Dongbei Tigers still roamed the northeast of China. By the 1980s, though, it had become very difficult to track these tigers. To obtain a comprehensive     

Managing Migration,Managing Motherhood: The Moral Economy of Gendered Migration

For the past two decades, women have been migrating from Mexico to the United States on temporary work visas to pick meat from blue crabs in small coastal factories. Within a theoretical framework that argues for the relevance of a moral economic perspective to gendered migration, we examine the how participating in this migration influences migrants' families, including their abilities to produce higher‐quality lives. Specifically, we focus on the various factors that feed into the decision to migrate, the immediate consequences of those decisions for the relations among migrants, children, spouses and other family and community members, and the longer‐term consequences in terms of gender relations, the restructuring of parent–child relationships and the material benefits of work abroad. We find that women negotiate a variety of contradictions and paradoxes to participate in the programme, many of which directly influence their quest to reaffirm their abilities, as mothers, to produce quality human beings. These findings reflect more general global appeals for valuing human life by measures other than those of conventional political economy.     

Single Mothers and Family Values

SUMMARY

In recent years the federal government has made marriage promotion a central part of its welfare reform initiatives. These promotion efforts are based on the assumption that poor women, particularly women of color, have family attitudes that differ from those of other women. This article tests that assumption using the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, a nationally representative sample of births to single mothers in urban areas. Results show significant differences in family attitudes between married and unmarried White women, but few differences for women of color. In fact, unmarried women of color tend to be more traditional than White women. In addition, welfare recipients are similar to non-recipients in gender traditionalism and attitudes towards marriage, and low-income women often express the most support for traditional gender roles. Implications for marriage promotion policies are discussed.     

Rural Lesbian Mothers and Their Families

Abstract

Lesbian mothers face unique challenges to parenting based on their status as lesbians. They face not only the challenges of discrimination based on sexism and homophobia, but the challenges of parenting. This article explores these challenges and offers practice recommendations to be supportive of good parenting and resources for parenting enrichment.

Lesbians who are parenting either alone or as part of a couple face numerous barriers. And women living in rural communities present unique issues to mental health practitioners. Mental health practitioners working with rural lesbian mothers and their families need an awareness of those issues which are unique to this population as well as those issues which are exacerbated by the combination of minority statuses and social and geographic isolation.

Lesbian mothers in any geographic location find themselves belonging to several populations: lesbians, women, and mothers, to name a few (Friedman, 1990). Each of these populations has its accompanying pressures which, when combined, exacerbate some of the sub-group issues. Rural social service practitioners will encounter lesbian mothers and their families. A clear understanding of their issues will enhance the therapeutic process. The issues and themes of each of the sub-groups will be explored and then examined in the context of rural life.     

道德需要与道德行为

当代青年道德需要不足是其影响道德行为发生的根本原因。这种不足导致了青年道德选择的偏差、道德认知与道德行为的分离和道德行为的动摇。激烈且无序的竞争和高诱惑的社会生活环境,道德付出与道德回报的悬殊,道德信仰和道德榜样的匮乏以及当代青年对社会主流道德价值观认同不足等是他们道德需要不足的社会历史背景及主要原因。培育当代青年的道德需要,是改善他们道德行为的关键。而倡导道德信仰、树立道德榜样、改善社会道德环境和坚持社会主流道德价值引导是培育青年道德需要的基本方面。     

Lightning Rods in the Local Moral Economy: Debating Unauthorized Migrants' Deservingness in Israel

Localized debates about who unauthorized migrants are and what they do, or do not, deserve unfold in a culturally specific register that is deeply charged with emotion and moral valuation. Structuring such debates are vernacular discursive frames that emerge from, and reflect, a common “local moral economy.” Taking Israel as case study, this article examines six elements of the country's local moral economy – biopolitical logic, historical memory, political emotion, popularized religion, an ideology of “fruitful multiplication,” and hasbara (“public diplomacy”/propaganda) – and explores their impact on public debates about unauthorized and irregular forms of migration. Here, as elsewhere, conventionalized distinctions that frame much migration scholarship – e.g. “economic” vs. “political” migrants, “migrant workers” vs. “refugees,” even the terms “authorized” and “unauthorized” themselves – bear but limited salience. Migration researchers who hope to influence local policy debates must recognize the weight and influence of local moral economies, and the chasms that divide vernacular from conventionalized frames. Achieving this sort of nuanced understanding is, at root, an ethnographic challenge.     

When Children Have Two Mothers: Relationships With Nonresident Mothers,Stepmothers, and Fathers

Using data on 294 adolescents from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health who live with a biological father and have both a resident stepmother and a nonresident biological mother, this study examines the prevalence, antecedents, and consequences of adolescents’ closeness to each of their parents. Findings demonstrate that adolescents vary in their likelihood of having close relationships to resident fathers, resident stepmothers, and nonresident biological mothers, but when they can do so, they appear to benefit. Close relationships with both resident fathers and nonresident mothers are associated with fewer adolescent internalizing and externalizing problems. Closeness to resident stepmothers, however, is unrelated to these two outcomes. Results suggest that fathers play a particularly important role in these families.     

Who is Mum for the Children?. Custody Disputes between Teenage Mothers and Their Mothers

Defended custodies are usually seen as the hardest type of family dispute for which the conciliation method of dispute resolution is available. Family mediators assess custody disputes of ex-nuptial children among de facto couples, as the least likely to have a successful outcome. Custody disputes about ex-nuptial children between mothers and their mothers constitute a particular subgroup of these and may be viewed as symptomatic of an adolescent/parental dispute rather than an actual custody dispute. This paper describes the psychosocial correlates of teenage mothers and the context in which the pregnancies develop, as well as the demographic and social characteristics of a minority of young mothers who engaged in custody disputes with their own mothers. Stierlin's conceptual framework is presented as a way of considering the dynamics of these families. The writer, based on her experiences with this subgroup of mothers, outlines the point at which conciliation might be appropriately offered, describes the process of mediation and its stages and suggests a suitable format. Necessary guidelines for the conduct of the sessions, techniques for engaging these families, pitfalls and potential problems are highlighted and examples from actual cases given.     

Mothers in the workforce

This evaluation of maternity leave was completed by the Australian Institute of Family Studies. The use of maternity leave was investigated in 3 separate surveys. In 1, all women throughout Australia who had borne a child during 1 week in May 1984 (2000 women) were surveyed 18 months after the birth. The 2nd and 3rd surveys examined the experience of maternity leave in 1252 private sector businesses of varying sizes and a smaller number of public sector organizations. The study found that 46% of women are in the workforce during pregnancy. However, looking only at women in employment before the 1st birth, 3/4 of them are in the workforce. 44% of women took maternity leave, 33% were eligible but did not take leave, and the remaining 24% were ineligible for maternity leave either because they were casual workers or because they had not been in continuous employment with their employer for the required minimum period of 12 months. Of all maternity leave taken, 78% is taken by public sector employees and only 21% by women employed in the private sector. 1/2 of the women eligible for maternity leave in the private sector who did not take up the option had no information about maternity leave provisions. The main determinants of taking maternity leave, apart from having information about it, are working in the public sector, having a strong attachment to the workforce, having values which see work and child rearing as complementary, being a member of a trade union, having a high education and high status occupation, and being employed in a large establishment. Other survey findings follow. 1) 55% of women who were in employment before their 1st child returned to the workforce within 18 months of the birth. 2) 45% of women returned to work used informal child care provided by family or friends (usually unpaid). 32% used formal care only. 23% used a combination of formal and informal child care. 3) Women are spending an average of between 20% and 25% of their income on child care. 4) Financial reasons are the main reasons given by women for their return to the workforce. 5) Cost and availability of child care is an important issue in determining women's workforce participation after the birth of a child. 6) 60% of women do not return to the workforce after childbirth; 90% of these women intend to do so in the future. 7) For the majority of women who give birth, motherhood emerges as their most important role in life. Almost 1/2 the women agree that a woman should give up her job if it inconveniences her husband and children. 8) 2/3 of working women can establish just as warm and secure a relationship as non-working mothers, compared with 4 out of 10 non-working mothers.     

The Power of Mothers

MOTHERS always give so much to their children. Regardless of how rich or poor they may be, or whether they are highly educated or not, all mothers guide their children by their own words and actions. Here, six famous figures share their thoughts on the power of mothers.     

Noncustodial Mothers Following Divorce

Historically women have been responsible for pro- viding the primary care of their children. This notion of responsi- bility for the care and well-being of children is central to the definition of motherhood. When mothers relinquish custody of their children prior to their 18th birthday, they elicit suspicions of deviance and nonnormality. There are an estimated 500,000 to 1,200,000 noncustodial mothers in the United States, with approxi- mately 75% being voluntary relinquishers. This chapter identifies, through a review of the social science literature on maternal noncustody and examination of a specific study, the broad range of reasons for becoming a noncustodial mother, as well as provides a clearer picture of the noncustodial mother-child relationship pursuant to relinquishment. An overall theme from the literature was a general societal disapproval regarding maternal custody relinquishment, which in the study described, negatively affected respondents self- perceptions. This study describes the social situation of women who voluntarily gave up custody of one or more biological children. Retrospective data identifying the factors influencing custody relinquishment and the events leading up to giving up custody are examined. Relationships between noncustodial mothers and their children are ex-plored pursuant to relinquishment, as well as the extent to which mothers regretted giving up their children. A sample of 130 noncustodial mothers responded to a 137-item life history questionnaire and three clinical assessment scales. One- hundred-and-two of the participants engaged in two- to five-hour interviews. Findings revealed that approximately 86% of the respon- dents cited multiple reasons for custody relinquishment. Financial considerations, emotional problems, threats of legal custody fights, and being in a destructive relationship with mate emerged as the most frequently reported reasons for giving up one’s children. The reasons for relinquishment as well as how the decision was handled with children had the greatest impact on the mother-child relation- ship. Almost 97% of the mothers actively maintained relationships with children following relinquishment. Seventy percent of those sampled were satisfied with their decision to relinquish in retrospect. Finally, recommendations for policy and practice were discussed. Agency and legal policies and procedures should reflect a sensitivity to conditions under which most mothers relinquish their minor chil- dren, especially a supportive national family policy. The provision of a child or family allowance, compulsory court-based mediation, and a more uniform state-to-state support enforcement are recom- mended. Practitioners need to employ contextually-specific interac- tions for noncustodial mothers and their families, as high anxiety may characterize the emotions of this variable type of single parent. Professionals interacting with potential noncustodial mothers should provide for them to make a more informed and less pressured deci- sion regarding relinquishment.