Gender, Punishment and the Maternal Subject of Law: The Matrix of Vulnerabilities (Gender in Law, Culture, and Society)

This book analyses the experiences of mothers in the criminal justice system, arguing that a legal system oriented around the idea of isolating and punishing individuals - without considering the relational dynamics in which they are embedded - produces disproportionate punishment for mothers. Drawing on original qualitative research, the book considers the relevance of mothering to women’s pathways to prison, introducing readers to the ‘matrix of vulnerabilities’ - a complex interplay of trauma, poverty and coercive relationships.This matrix, the book argues, is a central dynamic in women’s criminalisation, and one that should be considered in questions of culpability.Grounded in a study of the operation of sentencing law in NSW, Australia, it demonstrates how, in a jurisdiction where sentencing is focused on individualised justice, the imperative to isolate and punish individuals cannot adequately recognise relational dynamics like mothering, resulting in unfair and inconsistent trea