Of Things Said and Unsaid: Silence, Disclosure and Gendered Processes of Meaning-Making in the Aftermath of Atrocity

This paper discusses the usefulness of indepth life history interviews in illustrating the role of social structure and human agency in youth transitions. Drawing on sociological theory and youth transition research, the paper highlights how the role of structure and agency has been perceived by youth researchers. Whilst this literature acknowledges the interplay between structure and agency in transitional processes, the appropriateness of particular research methods for explicating structure and agency needs to be further elucidated. Using data from a study of youth transitions in rural areas of Scotland, a range of transitional experiences from two indepth life history interviews is presented here. This exploratory exercise suggests that life history interviews enable researchers to explore how far social structures provide opportunities and constraints for human agents at the same time as showing how individuals, with their own beliefs and desires, take actions despite the social structures that underlie the immediacy of their experiences.

ObjectiveParents, schools and the broader community influence children's socialisation to alcohol. In Australia, the UK and the USA, there have been media reports of adults consuming alcohol at family-focused school...

This study examines how and why people join, participate in, and leave White supremacist terrorist (WST) groups. In-depth life history interviews and biographic timelines of former White supremacists in the United States and Canada were collected. Findings indicate that former members' decisions to engage and desist from WST groups are greatly influenced by their experiences of emotional support—or lack thereof. Participants lacked emotional support prior to joining WST and the emotional support they received from group membership was toxic. Participants exited WST because they experienced hate exhaustion and were willing to sacrifice all or most of their emotional support to alleviate it. This research contributes to the theoretical understandings of emotional support's influence in engagement and disengagement from WST by speaking to Snow and Machalek's (1983) characteristics of converts, the Identity Theory of Desistance (Paternoster and Bushway 2009), and Latif et al.'s (2018) WST emotional dynamics models. Moreover, this study asks if desistance is similar to burnout and if radicalization is similar to conversion. This work has practical implications regarding the prevention of initial involvement, the development of interventions to disrupt these activities, and the facilitation of disengagement from WST groups.

This hermeneutic‐phenomenological study of individuals enrolled in a hospital weight management clinic is an account and analysis of the experiences of being overweight, dieting and weight cycling through in‐depth life history interviews. Participants explored their earliest recollections involving family attitudes towards food, multiple experiences with dieting and weight cycling and how they explained their weight problems to themselves. Analysis revealed that mealtimes became the arena within which control battles were waged between parent and child; food became associated with control and eating subsequently became a way to gain control over other aspects of life. Eating also became a way to numb the pain associated with child abuse, to substitute for human needs for relationship and belonging and emotional cycles of eating were identified. Insights emergeing from the interview process suggest the value of considering a psychodynamic approach to understanding emotional eating.

Although transgender immigrants are a highly vulnerable and growing population, little sociological or criminological work has examined their experiences. This paper begins to fill that gap through in-depth life history interviews with thirteen transgender women migrants in detention and a survey of fifty-five transgender women migrants who experienced detention. Though the detention system allows trans migrants to be classified as such for housing and immigration relief (e.g., asylum), we show that the classification processes that trans women encounter continue to marginalize them and expose them to particularly gendered forms of punishment. We thus argue that adding new categories does little to ameliorate gendered inequalities without a concomitant commitment to shifting organizational cultures of classification. To support these claims, we show that being classified as transgender can serve as a punishment itself, and secondly, that such classification still exposes transgender women to unique forms of gendered violence while in detention. We conclude with implications for the gendered nature of punishment and organizations, suggesting that carceral settings are not only gendered but cisgendered, favoring cis experiences and bodies in ways that disadvantage and punish trans people.

The recent interest in recovery from mental health problems has not meaningfully addressed the perspectives of ethnic minorities. To contribute to the discussion of recovery-oriented service with a study on the experience of Chinese people using UK mental health services. In-depth life history interviews were carried out with the users. The qualitative data were analysed using thematic analysis. Four themes emerged as hindrances to personal recovery: (1) language difficulty creates hurdles, (2) diagnostic label is experienced as a double-edged sword, (3) treatment-related stigma and (dis)empowerment are identified, and (4) grievances are found in hospitalisation. Having mental illness and being an ethnic minority in the UK experienced double hazard in their recovery journey. While the deprivation of agency and the stigma process in the health care system hinders their recovery, they are further disadvantaged by their ethnic minority status. Four pointers for service improvement, that apply to Chinese users in the United Kingdom and have general implications for users beyond this group, are proposed.

BackgroundSubstance use during pregnancy and motherhood is both a public health and criminal justice concern. Negative health consequences associated with substance use impact both the mother and the developing fetus, and there are ongoing attempts to criminalize substance use during pregnancy that put pregnant substance-using women at risk of detection, arrest, and punishment. This study explored the experiences of substance-using mothers as they navigated health and criminal justice consequences and accessed needed resources in the community.MethodsIn-depth life history interviews were conducted with 30 recently-pregnant women who had used alcohol or other drugs during their pregnancies. The three-part interview schedule included questions about past and current substance use, life history, and experiences with criminal justice authorities, child protective services, and health professionals.ResultsWomen’s stories highlighted their strategies for managing their risk of detection by health or criminal justice authorities, including isolating themselves from others, skipping treatment appointments, or avoiding treatment altogether. Women described multiple barriers to treatment and healthcare, including a lack of suitable treatment options and difficulty finding and enrolling in treatment.ConclusionThe findings suggest that policies that substance-using women find threatening discourage them from seeking comprehensive medical treatment during their pregnancies. The implications of the findings are discussed, particularly the need for further expansion of treatment programs and social services to meet the needs of substance-using women.

Women as mothers and wives in paternally incestuous families: Coping with role conflict

BackgroundGender inequity is manifested in the social and economic burden women carry in relation to men. We investigate women's experiences of gender relations from childhood to adult life and how these may have led to and kept women in sex work.MethodsParticipants were drawn from an ongoing epidemiological cohort study of women working in high HIV/STI risk environments in Kampala. From over 1000 enrolled women, we selected 101 for a qualitative sub-study. This analysis focuses on 58 women who engaged in sex work either as a main job or as a side job. In-depth life history interviews were conducted to capture points of vulnerability that enhance gender inequity throughout their lives.ResultsMost participants were young, single parents, poorly educated, who occupied low skilled and poorly paying jobs. All women knew their HIV status and they disclosed this in the interview; 31 were uninfected while 27 said they were infected. Parental neglect in childhood was reported by many. Participants described experiences of violence while growing up sometimes perpetuated by relatives and teachers. Early unwanted pregnancies were common and for many led to leaving school. Some women stated a preference for multiple and short-term money-driven sexual relationships. Needing to earn money for child care was often the main reason for starting and persisting with sex work. Violence perpetrated by clients and the police was commonly reported. Alcohol and drug use was described as a necessary “evil” for courage and warmth, but sometimes this affected clear decision making. Many felt powerless to bargain for and maintain condom use. Leaving sex work was considered but rarely implemented.ConclusionsInequities in gender and power relations reduce economic and social opportunities for better lives among women and increase risky sexual behaviour. Interventions focused on these inequities that also target men are crucial in improving safer practices and reducing risk.

This study explored effective interviewer strategies and lessons-learned based on collection of narrative data by telephone with a sub-sample of women from a population-based survey, which included sexual minority women. Qualitative follow-up, in-depth life history interviews were conducted over the telephone with 48 women who had participated in the 2009-2010 National Alcohol Survey. Questions explored the lives and experiences of women, including use of alcohol and drugs, social relationships, identity, and past traumatic experiences. Strategies for success in interviews emerged in three overarching areas: 1) cultivating rapport and maintaining connection, 2) demonstrating responsiveness to interviewee content, concerns, and 3) communicating regard for the interviewee and her contribution. Findings underscore both the viability and value of telephone interviews as a method for collecting rich narrative data on sensitive subjects among women, including women who may be marginalized.

This study explores the patterns by which women enter into criminal activities by drawing upon in-depth life history interviews with a sample of 20 incarcerated women. The author constructs a conceptual framework for understanding the progression from victim to survivor to offender in the subjects' life histories. This framework shows that the best available options for escape from physical and sexual violence are often survival strategies which are criminal: i.e., running away from home, use of drugs, and the illegal street work required to survive as a runaway. The women's own narratives are used to illustrate their views of themselves as survivors, not as victims, and their commitments to important relationships in their lives which explain their entry into and commitments to criminal activities. Women's responses to victimization and women's relational identities are seen as factors which both motivate and restrain women's criminal activities. The concept of immersion in street crime is offered as a more accurate term than criminal career in describing women's criminal histories.

The prevailing conception in the literature on women's reactions to paternal incest in their families is consistently negative. Few of these studies, however, even use women as subjects; and fewer still are sensitive to the influence of gender ideology on the interpretation of findings. This study sought to remedy that oversight by analyzing the data gleaned from in-depth life history interviews with 20 women from paternally incestuous families who were just entering treatment. The women's immediate reactions to the paternal incest in their families were analyzed. Less collusion, less disbelief of the incest allegation, more shock and outrage upon its disclosure or discovery, and more protective actions post-incest are found with this sample than are described in most previous studies.

Using a life course framework, we compare and contrast the processes of acculturation for first- and second-generation Korean immigrant fathers in the United States. In-depth life history interviews were conducted with 20 first-generation and 15 second-generation fathers in the Midwest. With a modified grounded theory approach of constant comparison, we first explored how these fathers developed their identities in the midst of cultural and social transitions. These men's identity construction was shaped by socio-economic statuses and accessibility to cultural resources, with a marked shift over time toward integration of Korean and American identities. We then examined how these identities informed the men's socialization of their children, and the children's socialization of their parents.

Globalisation has reconfigured the interplay of social and spatial relations on an unprecedented scale. Resultantly, it has problematised the issues related to citizenship as well. Rightlessness and statelessness have become an inseparable part of such an emerging milieu. It is further complicated as state-mandated markers of belonging, allegiance and place-making is thrust on it to redefine the nation. This chapter highlights such a process of a state-mediated attempt of redefining citizenry and its simultaneous poetic response in Assam by a community that has more than often been vilified and violated in the name of being doubtful citizens. The chapter traces the circumstances under which a slur that has been historically used to identify a community, Miya, was adorned and poetically used to negotiate the threats and onslaught of state-mandated citizenship practices. Through poetics, the community in desperation has been sought to be rechristened by a few poets. Miya poetry therefore became the harbinger of hope for a community that has persistently suffered from citizenship blues. The poetics, the politics and the polemics associated with such a historical process have been analysed here. The chapter deployed an innovative methodological approach by combining retrospective auto-ethnographies of the authors, in-depth life history interviews with six Miya poets and a pool of selected Miya poems.

Male childlessness across the adult life course: A case study addressing a potentially 'vulnerable' population.