ONE:
Black women are marginalized by systemic oppression in the United States across multiple social institutions. Historically, Black mothers have been viewed as unfit based on various negative stereotypes that have shaped their interactions with systems in the US. The “welfare mother/welfare queen,” “jezebel,” “matriarch,” and “crack mother” are examples of derogatory images of Black women prevalent throughout US popular culture. Such images have worked to objectify and dehumanize Black women, blame them for particular social problems facing their communities, and work against viewing them as victims or deserving of empathy and compassion. Black women are more likely than White women to experience intimate partner violence (IPV), and ironically, legislation initially and ostensibly intended to protect victims of violence has come to be used against them. Black mothers who are victims of IPV are particularly harmed by the criminalization of IPV and fetal endangerment. Mandatory arrest and failure to protect laws are disproportionately used to arrest Black women who are victims of IPV and engage in self-defense. Feticide and fetal personhood laws, originally enacted to protect pregnant women from partner abuse, have been used to justify drug testing vulnerable and marginalized pregnant women and charging them with fetal homicide after miscarriage. These laws rely on and reinforce negative stereotypes and controlling images to arrest, convict, and incarcerate increasing numbers of Black mothers who are marginalized, victimized, and oppressed by social systems. In this chapter, I provide evidence of the overcriminalization of Black mothers who experience IPV by identifying specific social conditions and laws that contribute to this problem.
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Center for Court Innovation (2019) A National Portrait of Restorative Approaches to Intimate Partner Violence: Pathways to Safety, Accountability, Healing, and Well-Being. Available from: https://www.innovatingjustice.org/sites/default/files/media/document/2019/Report_IPV_12032019.pdf
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Dirks, S. (2022) Criminalization of pregnancy has already been happening to the poor and women of color. NPR. Available from: https://www.npr.org/2022/08/03/1114181472/criminalization-of-pregnancy-has-already-been-happening-to-the-poor-and-women-of
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Finoh, M. and Sankofa, J. (2019) The legal system has failed black girls, women, and non-binary survivors of violence: Black women, girls, and non-binary people are seldom seen as victims. ACLU. Available from: https://www.aclu.org/news/racial-justice/legal-system-has-failed-black-girls-women-and-non
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Maye, E. (2021) Black women bear the brunt of criminalized pregnancy and motherhood: here’s why we can’t afford to ignore it. The Root. Available from: https://colorofchange.org/press_release/the-root-op-ed-black-women-bear-the-brunt-of-criminalized-pregnancy-and-motherhood-heres-why-we-cant-afford-to-ignore-it/
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Meyerson, C. (2018) For women of color the child welfare system functions like the criminal justice system. The Nation. Available from: https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/for-women-of-color-the-child-welfare-system-functions-like-the-criminal-justice-system/
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Rabin, R. C. (2023) Black pregnant women are tested more frequently for drug use, study suggests. New York Times, [online] April 14. Available from: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/14/health/black-mothers-pregnancy-drug-testing.html
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