Coming Out of the Shadows: Rethinking Gender, Deviance, and Feminist Critical Policy Studies

From Witches to Crack Moms: Women, Drug Law, and Policy by Susan Boyd. Durham: Carolina Academic Press, 2003, 392 pp., $37.00 paper.

Using Women: Gender, Drug Policy, and Social Justice by Nancy Campbell. New York: Routledge, 2000, 256 pp., $24.95 paper.

Drug Misuse and Motherhood edited by Hillary Klee, Marcia Jackson, and Suzan Lewis. London: Routledge, 2001, 328 pp., $33.95 paper.

Killing the Black Body: Race, Reproduction, and the Meaning of Liberty by Dorothy Roberts. New York: Pantheon Books, 1997, 384 pp., $35.95 hardcover, $14.00 paper.

Policing the National Body: Race, Gender and Criminalization edited by Jael Silliman and Anannya Bhattacherajee. Boston: South End Press, 2002, 352 pp., $18.95 paper.

Dehumanizing Discourse, Anti-Drug Law, and Policy in America: A "Crack Mother's" Nightmare by Assata Zerai and Rae Banks. Burlington, VT: Ashgate Publishing Company, 2002, 185 pp., $69.95 hardcover.

June Jordan remarks in A Place of Rage, a documentary film by Pratibha Parmar on the role of women of color in civil rights and social movements, that much of her work was dedicated to making imperative connections. At first glance the topics that span the set of books under review may seem unrelated: descriptions of female offenders who are coerced to use a long-term contraceptive regime or face imprisonment, the increased surveillance of communities of color after 9/11, the depictions of women as "gin girls" of the 1950s and "crack moms" in the 1990s, Colombian women's organized protests against current U.S. drug policies, the failure of mainstream reproductive rights organizations to conceptualize realities for women of color because of the singular framing of the rhetoric of "choice." Another thread of topics includes the role of race and new reproductive technologies, women's roles as prisoners and inmates in the expanding prison industrial system, the gendered effects of recent draconian immigration and population policies, and finally, the increased globalization of these trends.

The great reward in reading the books discussed in this review is that taken together the authors' theoretical connections are both salient and imperative for feminists to make in the new millennium regarding contemporary social justice issues. Scholars new to these issues will be enthused at how the authors bring fresh and diverse insights to cherished feminist subjects (e.g., domestic violence, reproductive rights, women's autonomy). Those who have been working in the areas of gender and criminal justice, health, and policy will appreciate how the books deepen, challenge, and extend the territory of scholarship.

There has been a noticeable division of labor in both the production of scholarship and political organizing around issues of gender and criminalization, surveillance, and drug use. These issues have most often resided within the domain inhabited by intrepid feminist criminologists, sociologists, and public health scholars (see Chavkin 1998; Gomez 1997; Maher 1997; Murphy and Rosenbaum 1999; Paltrow 2001; Richie 1996); unfortunately, these concerns have generally not captured the wider attention of the field of Women's Studies and have occupied a shadow status. I use the metaphor of the shadow quite literally to indicate the lack of visibility and attention given to these issues in mainstream feminist theorizing and various women's studies conferences.

During the late 1980s and early 1990s, feminist lawyers and activists, however, were at the forefront of responding to increasing threats to female substance users' reproductive rights, the status of incarcerated women, the growing tension between population control approaches, and the environmental movement. They have not been afraid to occupy a shadow status while advocating for these issues and have made numerous strides in both the courtroom and through political organizing. For example, recent conferences like the Color of Violence sponsored by INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence, a national activist organization of "radical feminists of color," have played a critical role in reviving political commitment and interest about ending violence toward women of color.

Now...