- Gender, Men and Masculinities, Sociology and Anthropology, Criminology, Autoethnography, Narrative Inquiry, Gender And Violence, and 11 moreHistory Of Madness And Psychiatry, Qualitative methodology, Medical Sociology, Sociology of Health, Sociology of Mental Health & Illness, Reflexivity, Michel Foucault, Sociology, Social Control, Penology, and Mental Health(History Of Madness And Psychiatry, Qualitative methodology, Medical Sociology, Sociology of Health, Sociology of Mental Health & Illness, Reflexivity, Michel Foucault, Sociology, Social Control, Penology, and Mental Health)edit
- I hold a Ph.D. in Sociology and I am a postdoctoral fellow at Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada. I study th... moreI hold a Ph.D. in Sociology and I am a postdoctoral fellow at Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada. I study the sociology of mental health and criminology through a realist and compassionate lens. I have published a number of journal articles on the topics of gender, security, and mental health, most notably in Qualitative Research, Disability & Society, Men and Masculinities, Crime Media Culture, Gender, Work & Organization, Social Movement Studies, Canadian Review of Sociology, and Punishment & Society.(I hold a Ph.D. in Sociology and I am a postdoctoral fellow at Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada. I study the sociology of mental health and criminology through a realist and compassionate lens. I have published a number of journal articles on the topics of gender, security, and mental health, most notably in Qualitative Research, Disability & Society, Men and Masculinities, Crime Media Culture, Gender, Work & Organization, Social Movement Studies, Canadian Review of Sociology, and Punishment & Society.)edit
Correctional workers (CWs) report high levels of work stressors, frequent exposures to potentially psychologically traumatic events (PPTEs), and substantial mental health challenges. There is evidence of associations between sleep... more
Correctional workers (CWs) report high levels of work stressors, frequent exposures to potentially psychologically traumatic events (PPTEs), and substantial mental health challenges. There is evidence of associations between sleep disturbances and diverse mental health challenges, including preliminary evidence from public safety personnel; however, replications and extensions would better inform interventions to support mental health. The current study was designed to examine associations between quality of sleep, work stress, and mental health disorders in a sample of diverse CWs employed in a provincial correctional service in Ontario, Canada. Data were analyzed from 943 CWs who participated in the cross-sectional, web-based Ontario Provincial Correctional Worker Mental Health and Well-Being Study conducted from December 2017 to June 2018. Sleep quality indicators included symptoms of insomnia, total hours of sleep per night on work nights and off-shift nights, number of days feeling rested per week, and overall sleep quality. Descriptive statistics, analyses of variance, correlational analyses, and logistic regression were used to examine relationships among sleep quality, stress of shift work, and mental health disorder symptoms. CWs slept an average of 6.0 h per night when working and 7.2 h during off-shift nights. CWs reported waking up feeling rested an average of 2.6 days per week and rated their overall quality of sleep in the fair to poor range. Many CWs (64.9%) screened positive for clinically significant symptoms of insomnia. There were also differences across occupational groups such that CWs working as correctional officers reported the most sleep problems. There were statistically significant relationships between insomnia and mental health disorder symptoms. Higher levels of stress from shift work were associated with worse sleep quality. CWs, especially those working as correctional officers in a provincial prison, reported many indicators consistent with poorer quality of sleep. Poor quality of sleep was also associated with work stress and mental health disorders.
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Recent longitudinal evidence reveals how sustaining a traumatic brain injury (TBI) increases risk for criminal justice involvement, including incarceration for serious or chronic offending (i.e., violent crime). In 2016, researchers from... more
Recent longitudinal evidence reveals how sustaining a traumatic brain injury (TBI) increases risk for criminal justice involvement, including incarceration for serious or chronic offending (i.e., violent crime). In 2016, researchers from Correctional Service Canada (CSC) found between 01 July 1997 and 31 March 2011, the incidence of incarceration was higher among federally sentenced incarcerated people with prior TBI; in their sample, both men and women with TBI were approximately 2.5 times more likely to be incarcerated than men and women without TBI. More research is needed to understand how TBI may be related to neurodiversity and shape pathways to criminal justice system involvement, particularly among men who do not identify as White; for example, in 2020/2021, Indigenous men made up 32% of male admissions to federal custody in Canada. Engaging 11 reports produced by CSC which examine rates of TBI and other related factors among incarcerated people, as well as select international literature on TBI and the criminal justice system, our rapid report seeks to explicate the potential relationship between TBI, neurodiversity, and men as evidenced among federally incarcerated men in Canada. Policy, training, education, future areas of inquiry and practical implications for correctional services are discussed.
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Recognizing and supporting the mental health needs of correctional workers is a public health priority. Correctional workers experience high levels of potentially psychologically traumatic event exposures, occupational stress, and mental... more
Recognizing and supporting the mental health needs of correctional workers is a public health priority. Correctional workers experience high levels of potentially psychologically traumatic event exposures, occupational stress, and mental health difficulties; outcomes associated with cannabis use in broader extant health research. However, researchers to date have not adequately examined cannabis use among correctional workers. In the present study, data stem from the Ontario Provincial Correctional Worker Mental Health and Well-being Study, which is a cross-sectional survey distributed to correctional workers in Ontario, Canada (n = 928). Descriptive statistics and logistic regressions were used to examine associations between sociodemographic characteristics, mental health comorbidities, and risk and protective factors related to cannabis use. Many correctional workers in the sample reported using cannabis in the past 6 months (19.1%), of whom 29.1% reported using cannabis four or more times a week. Mental health disorders, childhood adversity histories, occupational stressors, and stigmatizing attitudes towards mental health disclosure and help-seeking were associated with increased odds of past 6-month cannabis use (p < .05). Higher levels of social support and resiliency were associated with decreased odds of past 6-month cannabis use (p < .05). The association of cannabis use with comorbid mental health conditions, adverse childhood experiences, and occupational stress suggests correctional workers who use cannabis might represent a population at higher risk for mental health and substance use concerns that may warrant additional mental health and addictions services, education, and supports.
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Organizational stress (i.e., structural aspects of the organization such as excessive workload, shiftwork, gossip) has long been found by public safety personnel to be more impactful on their health and wellness than operational stress... more
Organizational stress (i.e., structural aspects of the organization such as excessive workload, shiftwork, gossip) has long been found by public safety personnel to be more impactful on their health and wellness than operational stress (i.e., inherent stresses of the job such as altercations, intervention in suicide behaviors). In the current study, which engages semi-structured interviews conducted with 28 correctional officers employed at one provincial prison in Atlantic Canada, we unpack through a lens of moral distress four prevalent sources of organizational stress among correctional officers that emerged in the data without categories precogitated, with a focus on participant experiences and expressed similarities across accounts: (1) management, (2) staff retention, (3) training needs, (4) lack of mental health support. Findings indicate organizational stress has a significant impact on correctional officers and these sources of organizational stress are exacerbated by officers' moral and ethical vulnerabilities emergent from their conditions of employment. We recommend several practical changes to ease the strains and moral harms felt by correctional officers and better support their mental health and well-being, such as increasing staffing levels, providing more education and training opportunities for frontline officers and senior leaders, and providing more adequate mental health support for correctional officers.
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In the current study, we explored the prison design and infrastructural changes that Canadian correctional officers consider to be essential in the construction of a new provincial correctional institution intended to replace Her... more
In the current study, we explored the prison design and infrastructural changes that Canadian correctional officers consider to be essential in the construction of a new provincial correctional institution intended to replace Her Majesty's Penitentiary (HMP) in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. Analyzing 28 semi-structured interviews conducted with correctional officers employed at HMP, we found the poor working conditions within HMP are, at least in part, related to the physical design of the prison, including inadequate lighting, poor air quality and temperature, high sound levels, and other spatial limitations. Building on the prison design literature, findings suggest that while prison design requires attention to physical security at the forefront, there are ways to improve the space, recognizing how an uncomfortable workplace and living conditions also pose a potential threat to the well-being and safety of correctional officers and people who are incarcerated.
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COVID-19 and the subsequent public health responses disrupted the routines and lives of people globally. The impact was felt by correctional workers who navigated rapidly changing public health policies and many disruptions to operations... more
COVID-19 and the subsequent public health responses disrupted the routines and lives of people globally. The impact was felt by correctional workers who navigated rapidly changing public health policies and many disruptions to operations within both institutional and community correctional services. In the current study, we unpack qualitative findings emerging from an online mental health and well-being survey, during COVID-19, of 571 correctional workers employed in the Canadian province of Alberta. Results emphasize how correctional work was strained by the on-set of the COVID-19 pandemic, creating other risks and vulnerabilities for both staff and incarcerated people. Respondents highlighted impacts to their workload, routine, personal and institutional security, relationships with colleagues and incarcerated people, and their competing perspectives on the enforcement and ethics of ensuing public health measures intended to contain the spread of the virus. We discuss the empirical implications of these findings and areas for future research post pandemic.
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Prisoner incompatibility is a challenge for correctional officers (COs), as incompatible people in prison are more likely to engage in negative interactions, participate in altercations, cause harm to each other and create tension on a... more
Prisoner incompatibility is a challenge for correctional officers (COs), as incompatible people in prison are more likely to engage in negative interactions, participate in altercations, cause harm to each other and create tension on a unit. Through in-depth semi-structured interviews with 28 COs employed in Atlantic Canada, we explore how incompatibility among incarcerated people shapes how incarcerated people are managed and perceived by COs. Engaging the prison design literature, we further examine the kinds of spatial designs and protocols that contribute to, or mitigate, incompatibility. We find that COs describe a complex prison hierarchy that, while being laced with challenges beyond the control of COs, could nevertheless be effectively mitigated through architectural transformation or policy reforms. We highlight the need to consider how prison culture informs and is interpolated through spatial configurations of correctional institutions and how these social and spatial dynamics shape interactions between prisoners.
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Purpose: Canadian correctional workers (CWs) experience substantial challenges with mental health, but prevalence estimates have been limited across provincial and territorial services. Methods: Participating CWs from all 13 provincial... more
Purpose: Canadian correctional workers (CWs) experience substantial challenges with mental health, but prevalence estimates have been limited across provincial and territorial services. Methods: Participating CWs from all 13 provincial and territorial services (n = 3740) self-selected to complete an online mental health and well-being survey assessing sociodemographic characteristics and symptoms of several mental disorders. Participants worked as correctional officers, community operations (e.g., probation officers), institutional operations (e.g., program officers), community administrators (e.g., managers), institutional or regional headquarters administrators, or institutional management (e.g., superintendents). Results: Across Canada, participants screened positive for one or more mental disorders (57.9%), with several regional differences (ps < 0.05). Correctional officers reported more positive screens than other CWs (ps < 0.05). Years of service and being married were inversely related with mental health (ps < 0.05). Conclusions: The current results suggest provincial and territorial CWs report mental health challenges much more frequently than the diagnostic prevalence for the general public (10.1%) and need additional supports. Unexpectedly, there were absent elevations associated with data collected after the onset of COVID-19.
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Although incarcerated people best understand their needs and rehabilitative processes, the current study explores how correctional officers (COs) understand the needs of people in their custody and care to support their reentry and... more
Although incarcerated people best understand their needs and rehabilitative processes, the current study explores how correctional officers (COs) understand the needs of people in their custody and care to support their reentry and incarceration experience. Given COs are the lifeline of incarcerated people, penal scholarship should value their input as an essential resource for recognizing what incarcerated people need to desist and prepare for reintegration when imprisoned. Drawing on qualitative interviews with 28 COs employed in Atlantic Canada, we contextualize and report on what COs believe are the (often unmet) needs of incarcerated people. More specifically, intending to learn what COs desired in the design of a new replacement prison in a Canadian Atlantic province, we found COs emphasized meeting prison residents’ unmet needs – often over their own – with results centralizing incarcerated people’s physical and mental health needs, availability of meaningful rehabilitative, vocational, and cultural-specific programming, and access to recreation and fresh air. We discuss the actualization of each programmatic construct, recognizing prison society is unique and programming and practices must respond to the positionality of incarcerated people and their lived experiences rather than normative ideals about social living.
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Introduction: The inherent nature of work in correctional services can have negative effects on correctional worker mental health and well-being. Methods: The current study, a replication, analyzes survey data collected from provincial... more
Introduction: The inherent nature of work in correctional services can have negative effects on correctional worker mental health and well-being. Methods: The current study, a replication, analyzes survey data collected from provincial and territorial correctional workers staffed in six regions across Canada (n = 192). Specifically, participants were asked at the end of an extensive mental health and well-being survey an open-ended question requesting any additional feedback or information. Results: Four predominant themes were identified in the data: (1) stigma pertaining to a need to recognize mental health concerns within correctional services; (2) the idea that correctional services wear on the mind and body; (3) a need for better relationships with and support from correctional supervisors, upper management, and ministerial leadership; and (4) suggestions to improve correctional services to help the sector realize its full potential and maximize workplace health. Discussion: We discuss the implications of these findings, with an emphasis on finding ways to promote positive organizational and cultural change in correctional services.
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Purpose: Prisoners are at disproportionate risk of suffering substance-related harms. The administration of naloxone is essential to reversing opioid overdose and minimizing substance-related harms in prison and the community. The purpose... more
Purpose: Prisoners are at disproportionate risk of suffering substance-related harms. The administration of naloxone is essential to reversing opioid overdose and minimizing substance-related harms in prison and the community. The purpose of this study is to examine how naloxone administration is practiced and perceived in prison settings.
Design/methodology/approach: The authors conducted surveys with correctional workers in Manitoba, Canada (n = 257) to examine how they understand and feel about the need for and practice of administering naloxone in their everyday work with criminalized populations.
Findings: Respondents reported feeling a great need to administer naloxone, but most did not feel adequately trained to administer naloxone, creating the perception that criminalized populations remain at enhanced risk.
Originality/value: Findings provide emerging evidence of the need for training and accompanying policies and procedures for correctional workers on how to access and administer naloxone.
Design/methodology/approach: The authors conducted surveys with correctional workers in Manitoba, Canada (n = 257) to examine how they understand and feel about the need for and practice of administering naloxone in their everyday work with criminalized populations.
Findings: Respondents reported feeling a great need to administer naloxone, but most did not feel adequately trained to administer naloxone, creating the perception that criminalized populations remain at enhanced risk.
Originality/value: Findings provide emerging evidence of the need for training and accompanying policies and procedures for correctional workers on how to access and administer naloxone.
Research Interests:
Background: The Prison Needle Exchange Program (PNEP) is a harm reduction initiative which involves providing people who are incarcerated (PWAI) with sterile injection equipment to avoid harms associated with unsterilized needle use, such... more
Background: The Prison Needle Exchange Program (PNEP) is a harm reduction initiative which involves providing people who are incarcerated (PWAI) with sterile injection equipment to avoid harms associated with unsterilized needle use, such as the spread of infectious diseases. While current evidence strongly supports the implementation and monitoring of PNEP, the program's success requires institutional support along with staff and prisoner commitment.
Methods: The current study draws on interview data to examine policies surrounding PNEP and correctional officers' (COs) (n = 134) perceptions and attitudes toward PNEP. Results: The COs in our sample were strongly in opposition to PNEP, with only a handful supporting PNEP. Emergent themes underpinning their opposition related to a sense of injustice and an inherent tension between introducing needles into the prison versus how they understand their occupational role and responsibilities.
Conclusion: We conclude with a discussion of policy recommendations aimed at implementing PNEP collaboratively with staff to ensure the benefits of harm reduction are fostered and realized.
Methods: The current study draws on interview data to examine policies surrounding PNEP and correctional officers' (COs) (n = 134) perceptions and attitudes toward PNEP. Results: The COs in our sample were strongly in opposition to PNEP, with only a handful supporting PNEP. Emergent themes underpinning their opposition related to a sense of injustice and an inherent tension between introducing needles into the prison versus how they understand their occupational role and responsibilities.
Conclusion: We conclude with a discussion of policy recommendations aimed at implementing PNEP collaboratively with staff to ensure the benefits of harm reduction are fostered and realized.
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Alcohol use among correctional workers remains an understudied phenomenon, although recognized in literature as a coping strategy employed by persons in public safety occupations. Moreover, previous literature denotes a prevalence of... more
Alcohol use among correctional workers remains an understudied phenomenon, although recognized in literature as a coping strategy employed by persons in public safety occupations. Moreover, previous literature denotes a prevalence of mental health disorders higher than that of the general population among correctional workers and public safety personnel. In the present study, we examine the prevalence of alcohol use disorders among correctional workers employed in the provincial correctional service in Ontario, Canada (n = 915), to understand the severity of the concern and to explain how alcohol use is associated with diverse mental health concerns. Specifically, we unpack the correlation between problematic alcohol use, mental health disorders, and suicide behaviours among this correctional worker population, finding that the prevalence of mental health disorders and suicide thoughts and behaviours was higher for persons reporting problematic alcohol use. Discussion includes recommendations on research needs tied to unpacking the relationship, including causal relationship between alcohol use and mental health, as a way to combat the devastating realities tied to compromised mental health endured by employees in correctional services.
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Despite growing support for Overdose Prevention Sites (OPS) in global communities, there is less international support for their implementation in prisons. To interpret the contexts shaping positionalities on and challenges associated... more
Despite growing support for Overdose Prevention Sites (OPS) in global communities, there is less international support for their implementation in prisons. To interpret the contexts shaping positionalities on and challenges associated with OPS in prisons, in the current study, we analyze interpretations of federal correctional officers (COs) in Canada (n = 134) on OPS in prison and associated harm reduction measures. Data were collected through a longitudinal, semi-structured interview research design. Results indicate how many participants support OPS, especially when caveated as a preference over the Prison Needle Exchange Program (PNEP). Still, participants described challenges and complications with OPS policy, implementation, and safety concerns; namely, that OPS hinder correctional rehabilitation, recovery from substance misuse, and effective reintegration post release. While some COs express understanding and support for harm reduction initiatives such as OPS, they called for clear directives and policies, which will support hesitant staff in facilitating this public health measure in prison settings. We untangle policy requirements and raise a number of key questions to support the successful implementation of prison OPS from the perspective of officers, specifically around issues related to needle possession, liability of officers, substance confiscation and the prison economy, and the health and rehabilitation of incarcerated people.
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Correctional Service Canada implemented Prison Needle Exchange Programs (PNEPs) into federal penitentiaries in 2018 as a harm reduction measure to prevent needle sharing, drug overdose, and limit the spread of infectious disease. However,... more
Correctional Service Canada implemented Prison Needle Exchange Programs (PNEPs) into federal penitentiaries in 2018 as a harm reduction measure to prevent needle sharing, drug overdose, and limit the spread of infectious disease. However, studies demonstrate how staff resistance hinders the growth of these programs within Canadian prisons. Drawing on interview data produced by 134 federally employed and relatively new correctional officers in Canada, the current study analyzes officers’ levels of support and (more often) opposition to PNEP. Results indicate that, predominantly, staff opposition to PNEP is rooted in safety concerns, a perceived lack of evidence of PNEP’s benefits, and fears the program is not promoting recovery and rehabilitation. By increasing the prevalence of needles in cells, officers report concern of overdose or potential weaponization of needles. Our study informs policy discussions around harm reduction measures in prisons to better promote institutional safety, public health, and nonstigmatized approaches to substance use.
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Mounting evidence highlights the high prevalence of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among correctional workers. The current analysis draws on survey response data to present a social profile of correctional workers in the province of... more
Mounting evidence highlights the high prevalence of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among correctional workers. The current analysis draws on survey response data to present a social profile of correctional workers in the province of Manitoba (n = 580), Canada, who screened positive for PTSD (n = 196). We examined demographic information, professional history information, and adverse work exposure experiences, as well as treatment and support patterns. The analysis was not intended to identify correlates of PTSD development among correctional workers, but did identify the characteristics, professional and personal situations, and treatment experiences of correctional workers who screened positive for PTSD. The results highlight the multidimensional nature of work stressors, the pronounced problem of work–life conflict, and variations in seeking supports and treatments. Generally, participants screening positive for PTSD reported higher exposure to potentially psychologically traumatic events, higher environmental or occupational stressors at work, and many had prior work experience as public safety personnel. Correctional workers who screened positive for PTSD appeared more likely to access mental health supports. Promoting proactive support seeking for mental health treatment may help to mitigate the severity, frequency, stigma, and length of mental health challenges among correctional workers.
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Drawing on 5090 English reviews of 486 psychiatrists working in Canada posted on ratemds.com, this study explores how mental health service users refuse to become subjectivized by psychiatric discourse and power. We interrogate how... more
Drawing on 5090 English reviews of 486 psychiatrists working in Canada posted on ratemds.com, this study explores how mental health service users refuse to become subjectivized by psychiatric discourse and power. We interrogate how digital mediums provide mental health service users with a community of critique to regain control over settings where there are many power imbalances. We argue that websites like ratemds.com act as a digital agora in which people are afforded the ability to make the personal political. Through critiquing their own doctors, mental health service users invert the question of what is "wrong" with them to what is "wrong" with agents of the psychiatric apparatus. By regaining a say over their treatment/conditions and insisting doctors are asking the wrong questions to better control their identities, service users refuse to accept the diagnoses, pathologies, and practices imposed on them. We discuss how their transgression in this forum provides new insights into psychiatric resistance that is of special interest to scholars and service users positioned in the Mad Studies movement.
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Prisons are rarely conceptualized as promoting “positivity” in the lives of people who are incarcerated (PWAI) or correctional workers (CWs). Analyzing data from 908 open-ended survey responses of Canadian provincial and territorial... more
Prisons are rarely conceptualized as promoting “positivity” in the lives of people who are incarcerated (PWAI) or correctional workers (CWs). Analyzing data from 908 open-ended survey responses of Canadian provincial and territorial correctional employees, we present nuances to the more negative constructions of carceral environments; namely, that many CWs work to better the lives of marginalized and vulnerable criminalized people. CWs are able to reflect on how their occupation facilitates personal growth and the pursuit of social and transformative justice. We discuss how their internal commitments toward rehabilitating and making a difference must be reinforced through institutional and organizational changes.
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In response to adverse impacts of correctional work on staff, a growing number of workplace initiatives have been implemented to support the health, well-being, resilience, and perseverance of correctional staff internationally, including... more
In response to adverse impacts of correctional work on staff, a growing number of workplace initiatives have been implemented to support the health, well-being, resilience, and perseverance of correctional staff internationally, including Employment Assistant Programmes (EAPs). Such programmes, while varying in form, typically include services for employees and their families to assist in areas of personal concern that may also be affecting their job performance. While research outside of correctional services documents positive outcomes associated with EAPs such as increased presenteeism, there remain minimal empirical insights regarding the perceived utility and efficacy of EAPs among correctional staff, especially in the provinces and territories of Canada. Drawing on qualitative, open-ended survey response data from provincial correctional workers in Saskatchewan, Canada (n=55), we explore staff perspectives of the Employee and Family Assistance Program (EFAP) available to provincial correctional employees.
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Background: Mental health frameworks, best practices, and the well-being of public safety personnel in Canada are topics of increasing interest to both researchers and organizations. To protect and improve worker mental health, different... more
Background: Mental health frameworks, best practices, and the well-being of public safety personnel in Canada are topics of increasing interest to both researchers and organizations. To protect and improve worker mental health, different training programs have been implemented to serve this population. The Road to Mental Readiness (R2MR) training regimen is one such program specialized to build cultural awareness of mental health, reduce stigma, and mitigate the cumulative impacts of exposures to potentially psychologically traumatic events among public safety personnel. However, limited research has been conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of R2MR, especially among correctional workers.
Methods: The current study analyzed 307 open-ended survey responses to four (4) questions about R2MR garnered from 124 Canadian provincial and territorial correctional workers between 2018-2020 to reveal their understandings and perceptions of R2MR training, and to identify what learned skills they found challenging or easy to implement.
Results: The results suggest that R2MR training plays a significant role in decreasing stigma and increasing mental health awareness. Across jurisdictions, R2MR creates a supportive space for open dialogue around mental health meant to shift cultural and individual barriers that often hinder treatment-seeking. Some respondents also indicated that R2MR was a starting point for intervention.
Conclusions: Further research is necessary to understand how R2MR and other programs could support the mental health and well-being of correctional workers.
Methods: The current study analyzed 307 open-ended survey responses to four (4) questions about R2MR garnered from 124 Canadian provincial and territorial correctional workers between 2018-2020 to reveal their understandings and perceptions of R2MR training, and to identify what learned skills they found challenging or easy to implement.
Results: The results suggest that R2MR training plays a significant role in decreasing stigma and increasing mental health awareness. Across jurisdictions, R2MR creates a supportive space for open dialogue around mental health meant to shift cultural and individual barriers that often hinder treatment-seeking. Some respondents also indicated that R2MR was a starting point for intervention.
Conclusions: Further research is necessary to understand how R2MR and other programs could support the mental health and well-being of correctional workers.
Research Interests:
Public safety personnel are at an elevated risk for suicidal thoughts and behaviors relative to the general public. Correctional workers in particular report some of the highest prevalence of suicidal thoughts and behaviors. To better... more
Public safety personnel are at an elevated risk for suicidal thoughts and behaviors relative to the general public. Correctional workers in particular report some of the highest prevalence of suicidal thoughts and behaviors. To better understand this phenomenon, the current study draws on qualitative, open-ended survey response data (n = 94) that explores three distinct themes (occupational environment, lack of support, social silence) and how entrenched notions of mental health stigma and occupational culture inform how Canadian correctional workers understand their experiences with suicidal thoughts and behaviors. We conclude with a brief discussion of the research and policy implications, with an emphasis on mobilizing efforts to normalize mental health discussion in correctional workplaces, bolstering peer support resources, and collaboration, and assessing the limited organizational supports available to struggling staff.
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Empirical research on Canadian correctional workers' successes, challenges, and attitudes towards accommodating gender diversity remains limited. Drawing on data garnered from two open-ended survey questions (n = 70) asking correctional... more
Empirical research on Canadian correctional workers' successes, challenges, and attitudes towards accommodating gender diversity remains limited. Drawing on data garnered from two open-ended survey questions (n = 70) asking correctional workers in the community or institutions about their perspectives on working with trans populations, we explore how correctional workers in Nova Scotia, Canada accommodate or struggle to accommodate gender diversity in carceral settings. We found that respondents are generally mindful of issues pertaining to the safety and security of trans prisoners, usually espouse open-mindedness, and are generally able to work within correctional parameters to accommodate those with a diverse gender identity. Yet some respondents raised concerns and suspicion towards prisoners who present a safety risk to other prisoners and, in their view, may be manipulating human rights policies to cause harm to others. We take up these tensions critically and discuss the scholarly and practical implications of our findings, as well as possible avenues for future research.
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Research indicates that, relative to the general public and most other types of public safety personnel, correctional workers are more likely to engage in suicide ideation, planning, and attempts. Yet, less is known about lived... more
Research indicates that, relative to the general public and most other types of public safety personnel, correctional workers are more likely to engage in suicide ideation, planning, and attempts. Yet, less is known about lived experiences towards, of, and beyond suicidality among correctional staff. To contribute to this gap in knowledge, the current study draws on qualitative, open-ended survey response data (n = 94) to explore how Canadian provincial correctional workers navigate experiences of suicide, with a focus on the individual, personal, and social factors tied to experiences towards and of suicide thoughts and behaviours. By engaging the seminal works of Foucault, Žižek, and Deleuze and Guattari, we explore respondents’ distinct forms of agency when grappling with, challenging, and transcending thoughts around suicide. We then discuss the research implications, with an emphasis on providing correctional workers with confidential, non-stigmatised well-being and treatment-seeking resources and processes, and more health care funding to fully cover timely and sufficient mental health treatment, prevention, and intervention.
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Much correctional work is generally misunderstood by the mainstream media and many public circles as solely punitive and authoritative, which has fueled many politicized outcomes for correctional policy, practice and intervention.... more
Much correctional work is generally misunderstood by the mainstream media and many public circles as solely punitive and authoritative, which has fueled many politicized outcomes for correctional policy, practice and intervention. Reasonably, critical criminological discourse is steered primarily by the perspectives and voices of prisoners and victims. Yet this privileging leaves many questions remaining about how correctional workers in the contemporary era negotiate their complex duties of both prisoner care and accountability. Drawing on data garnered from open-ended survey responses of provincial and territorial correctional employees (n = 876) in Canada, we explore how Canadian correctional workers balance their emotional and occupational framework and perspectives with integrity. Informed through a lens of emotional labour, we find that many Canadian correctional workers recognize the need for, and gap in, prisoner care, mental health and rehabilitation, while also problematizing the shift and decline in prisoner accountability, which they believe jeopardizes both correctional worker and prisoner safety. We discuss the implications our findings present in relation to questions of power and control in prison spaces.
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Researchers illuminate the mental health plight of correctional workers by demonstrating a high prevalence of mental health disorders among the group. Yet, structural barriers persist in preventing correctional staff from accessing... more
Researchers illuminate the mental health plight of correctional workers by demonstrating a high prevalence of mental health disorders among the group. Yet, structural barriers persist in preventing correctional staff from accessing treatment and support - barriers that may result in more prolonged and pronounced symptoms. We consider correctional staff perspectives on how mental health policies at the organizational level can foster better well-being outcomes for employees. Data are drawn from open-ended survey responses from provincial and territorial correctional employees (N = 870) in Canada. Responses collectively highlight the need for a correctional staff mental health paradigm that reflects the sources of stress among correctional workers, including access to specialized mental health services that are easily accessible, immediately available, and comprehensive in nature. Additional aspects of the work environment were identified as venues for important change, including improvements in work and schedule structures, improved manager-staff relations, and changes to the physical environment.
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Aims: We explore social and relational dynamics tied to an unexplored potentially psycho- logically traumatic event (PPTE) that can impact nurses’ well-being and sense of their occupational responsibilities: namely, the moral, ethical, or... more
Aims: We explore social and relational dynamics tied to an unexplored potentially psycho- logically traumatic event (PPTE) that can impact nurses’ well-being and sense of their occupational responsibilities: namely, the moral, ethical, or professional dilemmas encountered in their occupational work. Design: We used a semi-constructed grounded theory approach to reveal prevalent emergent themes from the qualitative, open-ended component of our survey response data as part of a larger mixed-methods study. Methods: We administered a national Canadian survey on nurses’ experiences of occupational stressors and their health and well-being between May and September 2019. In the current study, we analyzed data from four open text fields in the PPTE section of the survey. Results: In total, at least 109 participants noted that their most impactful PPTE exposure was a moral, professional, and/or ethical dilemma. These participants volunteered the theme as a sponta- neous addition to the list of possible PPTE exposures. Conclusions: Emergent theme analytic results suggest that physicians, other nurses, staff, and/or the decision-making power of patients’ families can reduce or eliminate a nurse’s perception of their agency, which directly and negatively impacts their well-being and may cause them to experience moral injury. Nurses also report struggling when left to operationalize patient care instructions with which they disagree. Impact: Nurses are exposed to PPTEs at work, but little is known about factors that can aggravate PPTE exposure in the field, impact the mental wellness of nurses, and even shape patient care. We discuss the implications of PPTE involving moral, professional, and ethical dilemmas (i.e., potentially morally injurious events), and provide recommendations for nursing policy and practice.
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In the course of their duties, correctional employees face exposure to a variety of potentially psychologically traumatic events (PPTEs). Recent research points to an array of consequences of work experiences on the psychological... more
In the course of their duties, correctional employees face exposure to a variety of potentially psychologically traumatic events (PPTEs). Recent research points to an array of consequences of work experiences on the psychological well-being of correctional staff, including the development of mental health disorders such as posttraumatic stress disorder, general anxiety disorder, and major depressive disorder. Drawing on an open-ended survey response among provincial and territorial correctional employees (n = 269) in Canada, we consider the experiences of correctional employees who self-report an anxiety, mood, or other mental health disorder, with a particular focus on how such experiences are tied to work conditions and occupational environments. Findings demonstrate that, for many, mental health struggles are intimately tied to both operational and organizational factors – the former referring to job duties and the latter referring to social relations of work. How mental health status is navigated is intimately shaped by occupational norms and meanings tied to mental health, namely stigma. Despite the perceived link between work and mental health outcomes, mental health suffering is understood and responded to as a private problem – with fallout on the personal lives and welfare of staff. We discuss the implications of training paradigms and general understandings of mental health responsibility.
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When a youth sexually offends, most of the reactions and repercussions that follow are understandably negative. However, there is limited research about mixed reactions involving remorse and responsibility on the part of the adolescent... more
When a youth sexually offends, most of the reactions and repercussions that follow are understandably negative. However, there is limited research about mixed reactions involving remorse and responsibility on the part of the adolescent who offended and their relatives. Based on qualitative interviews with 16 caregivers among 10 families in Canada, this article presents the parents’ perspectives on the various processes, benefits, challenges, and outcomes related to expressions of remorse and experiences of responsibility among youth who sexually offended, their victims, and their parents. This study sheds particular light on how adolescent perpetrators of sexual harm and especially their caregivers do feel deeply remorseful and responsible for the impacts of sexual offending behavior, which is contrary to public scrutiny that negatively projects responsibility onto youth offenders and their parents. Thus, our findings emphasize the constructive and considerate ways in which remorse is felt and responsibility is assumed; and by extension, they point to the importance of restorative practices in efforts toward reconciliation and accountability.
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Research on youth sexual offending has focused primarily on its prevalence, risk factors, treatment interventions, and recidivism rates. Thus, there is a need to develop better understandings of the processes towards reconciliation (or... more
Research on youth sexual offending has focused primarily on its prevalence, risk factors, treatment interventions, and recidivism rates. Thus, there is a need to develop better understandings of the processes towards reconciliation (or the lack thereof) that occur in the context of the collateral consequences of such harm-generating behavior. This qualitative study presents parents’ perspectives on the benefits and challenges associated with the implications and outcomes of reconciliation, and of its deprivation among sexually offending youth, victims and their relatives. We analysed in-depth, semi-structured interview data among 16 parents from 10 families in Canada using thematic coding procedures. The findings reveal that in the absence of reconciliation, both relationship repair and rehabilitation are hindered by miscommunication, bitterness, and confusion. By contrast, when meaningful reconciliation occurs, offending youth are better able to take responsibility for their actions, which in many cases led to victim validation and relationship restoration among all affected parties, including immediate and extended relatives. Our research points to the importance of restorative practices in both formal and informal attempts towards accountability, reconciliation, rehabilitation, victim redress, as well as family and community reintegration.
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This article traces my struggles with psychosis, arrest, psychiatric institutionalization, and recovery. Mobilizing a cathartic approach to autoethnography, I reveal my resistances, resiliencies, oppressions, nightmares, and recovery... more
This article traces my struggles with psychosis, arrest, psychiatric institutionalization, and recovery. Mobilizing a cathartic approach to autoethnography, I reveal my resistances, resiliencies, oppressions, nightmares, and recovery processes in the mental health system as I became entangled in another, darker reality and tried desperately to escape it. This work is a contribution to the emerging field of Mad Studies that seeks to privilege lived experiences with madness and the mental health system as a way of knowing. I found that doing an autoethnography of the mind helps recover the pieces of a fragmented identity and heals some of the visceral horrors that haunts us through and beyond experiences with mental illness.
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While social media platforms like Twitter can be divisive, this research explores how they contribute to progressive reforms in cases dealing with sexual assault. We found that the Twitter content following the not-guilty Jian... more
While social media platforms like Twitter can be divisive, this research explores how they contribute to progressive reforms in cases dealing with sexual assault. We found that the Twitter content following the not-guilty Jian Ghomeshi verdict fell into two porous camps — verdict protesters versus verdict supporters — and mapped out the emotional and affective epistemologies embedded in the two sides. On the one side, verdict supporters supported the problematic dichotomies of guilty/innocent, victim/perpetrator, and credible/unreliable testimonies. On the other side, verdict protestors were generally critical of the inherently masculine notions of due process, judicial truth, and victim blaming. We argue that criminologists should take seriously how emotions both structure and merge from legal practices and outcomes, and in doing so, can promote a more conciliatory and effective criminal justice system. These implications suggest that the Canadian criminal justice system needs to integrate an intersectional consideration of emotions if it will be successful in promoting healing rather than punitive forms of punishment that offer little to the survivors of sexual violence.
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The Radical Animal Liberation Movement (RALM) in North America, including the notorious Animal Liberation Front (ALF) of Canada and the United States and the Frente de Liberación Animal (FLA) in Mexico, is a direct action-focused movement... more
The Radical Animal Liberation Movement (RALM) in North America, including the notorious Animal Liberation Front (ALF) of Canada and the United States and the Frente de Liberación Animal (FLA) in Mexico, is a direct action-focused movement which has been condemned and heavily repressed by media, legislators, and animal industry lobbyists. The question of whether the criminalization of RALM activists is justified or not has been the source of lively activist and academic debate. Yet what is less often examined is how RALM activists perceive justice. Drawing on Pelton's conception of frames of justice and Foucault's understandings of intersubjective and diffuse power, this qualitative content analysis of 268 online documents from RALM activists explores how notions of just deserts and life affirmation justice are reflected through activists' perspectives on innocence and criminality, solidarity, and critiques of the formal criminal justice system.
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This autoethnographic piece traces how two researchers continually negotiate their privileges, successes, insecurities, challenges, and (non)disabled identities in the neoliberal academy. We interrogate the co-constitution of identity of... more
This autoethnographic piece traces how two researchers continually negotiate their privileges, successes, insecurities, challenges, and (non)disabled identities in the neoliberal academy. We interrogate the co-constitution of identity of (1) a mentally disabled researcher and graduate student who researches madness in the midst of dealing with his own struggles maintaining a professional identity and repairing a fractured self; (2) a non-disabled doctoral student who has found academic success, but has had his life stalled multiple times by significant mental health challenges. We propose the concept of the privileged (non)disabled self to capture how researchers become entangled in permanent or temporal disabilities while simultaneously negotiating their accomplishments. We encourage researchers not to sideline their reflections on privilege and disability as irrelevant, but continually examine their identities in order to reveal potential avenues for emancipation.
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In this paper we devote ourselves to the task of reconceptualizing agency in the public criminology movement. We develop an imaginative political framework to circumvent the relational tensions currently ensnaring public criminology... more
In this paper we devote ourselves to the task of reconceptualizing agency in the public criminology movement. We develop an imaginative political framework to circumvent the relational tensions currently ensnaring public criminology discourse. Employing the psychoanalytic theory of Slavoj Žižek, we engage the public criminology literature and its agential-activist notion of political engagement to reveal three primary directives dismissive of alternative praxes of resistance: faith in the State and public, hypocrisy eschewal, and legitimacy. By invoking the distinction between these modes of political engagement through the 'fictional social realities' depicted in Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, we provide insights into how public criminologists can overcome concerns occluding other modes of 'going public'. With such a move, we believe public criminology's capacity to 'translate crime scholarship out of the academy' will evolve and become open to the possibility that 'doing nothing' is more effective than may first appear.
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This article outlines a workshop orienting sociology graduate students to overcoming challenges in publishing. Although graduate students are increasingly told to publish, little guidance exists on how to best prepare them for this... more
This article outlines a workshop orienting sociology graduate students to overcoming challenges in publishing. Although graduate students are increasingly told to publish, little guidance exists on how to best prepare them for this venture; scholarship typically assumes the professor-student relationship is the best or most appropriate site of knowledge transmission about publishing. Our workshop is a collective learning experience that can be led either by experienced graduate students or faculty, aimed at developing craft knowledge (techne) about the publishing process. Participants in our workshops reported (1) that they were a site of affect normalization, helping them to understand they were not alone in fearing anonymous peer review and receiving harsh critiques of their work from peer reviews; and (2) appreciated concrete case studies of navigating the peer review process. We encourage other departments to use or modify this workshop to normalize the publishing process for graduate students.
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Drawing on 5090 English reviews of 486 psychiatrists working in Canada posted on ratemds.com, this study empirically analyzes how Canadian mental health service users critique or appraise their doctors. I explore how the online realm... more
Drawing on 5090 English reviews of 486 psychiatrists working in Canada posted on ratemds.com, this study empirically analyzes how Canadian mental health service users critique or appraise their doctors. I explore how the online realm serves as a conduit for resistance and discourses about mental health that otherwise become suppressed by psychiatric power in clinical settings. I found that when doctors did not listen to their patients, make careful attempts to learn about their lives and problems beyond their clinical symptoms, and give them a sense of autonomy, service users felt like an inconvenience. Psychiatrists, on the other hand, who were constructed as kind, compassionate, non-judgmental listeners tended to receive praise from service users. Service users who had this kind of positive experience were more likely to align themselves with the forces of psychiatric power, meaning they believed in their doctor's power to make decisions about their health.
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Insider-outsider relations in qualitative research have been heavily studied. Yet there is a dearth in the literature exploring how people who have experienced madness produce knowledge and overcome trying circumstances when they do... more
Insider-outsider relations in qualitative research have been heavily studied. Yet there is a dearth in the literature exploring how people who have experienced madness produce knowledge and overcome trying circumstances when they do qualitative mental health research with other survivors. This article fills this gap through a critical reflection on my experiences with psychosis and involuntary hospitalization and how they shaped dialogue with my participants. Situated within a narrative framework of inquiry, I reveal how self-disclosure and critical forms of relationality during interviews with 10 psychiatric survivors produced a survivor-centered knowledge that nuances biomedical understandings of mental illness and the mental health system. Practices of self-disclosure revealed how survivors and I had to navigate familial expectations as we recovered and tried to regain a sense of identity. Doing insider research also helped me overcome the periods of embarrassment and stigma in my psychosis, as I learned through critical dialogue how traumatic events can provide unique avenues for intense self-reflection and the development of greater empathy for mental health survivors. I also discuss some of the ethical concerns and limitations of having an insider status in qualitative mental health research, and how self-disclosure may present certain epistemological challenges in the research process.
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This qualitative content analysis of 503 anonymous online reviews of 52 Canadian call centres posted on RateMyEmployer.ca explores how forms of resistance, alienation, and emotional labour are expressed outside of the workplace. Our study... more
This qualitative content analysis of 503 anonymous online reviews of 52 Canadian call centres posted on RateMyEmployer.ca explores how forms of resistance, alienation, and emotional labour are expressed outside of the workplace. Our study finds that digital publics are producing emotive insurgencies and networks of support within marginalized communities that undermine employers' attempts at creating a docile and maleable workforce. The reviews exemplify worker awareness of exploitation as some connect these issues to broader socioeconomic factors that are beyond their control. While many offer tactics to challenge and destabilize their working conditions and culture as well as heartfelt and sarcastic warnings of what one might expect if they pursue call centre employment, others use the online space as a means of venting frustrations, eliciting empathies, and expressing sentiments of hope(lessness).
Research Interests:
This qualitative content analysis of 723 anonymous reviews of 60 Canadian food service employers, posted on RateMyEmployer.ca, explores how digital spaces publically circulate precarious workers’ resistances and management of occupational... more
This qualitative content analysis of 723 anonymous reviews of 60 Canadian food service employers, posted on RateMyEmployer.ca, explores how digital spaces publically circulate precarious workers’ resistances and management of occupational stigma. We introduce to literature on “dirty work” the concept of socioeconomic hygiene, which identifies a particular kind of social and moral order within which the positions of the subordinated are naturalized between the socially and morally “clean” and “unclean.”
Cette analyse de contenu qualitative de 723 entrevues anonymes realisees chez 60 employeurs de centres alimentaires canadiens, affiches sur RateMyEmployer.ca, explore comment les espaces digitaux rendent publiques les resistances de travailleurs precaires et la gestion des stigmas occupationnels. Nous introduisons le concept d‘hygiene socio-economique dans la litterature sur le ‘travail sale’, qui permet d’identifier un type particulier d’ordre social et moral dans lequel les positions du subordonne sont naturalis´ees entre le socialement et le moralement ‘propre’ et ‘sale.’
Cette analyse de contenu qualitative de 723 entrevues anonymes realisees chez 60 employeurs de centres alimentaires canadiens, affiches sur RateMyEmployer.ca, explore comment les espaces digitaux rendent publiques les resistances de travailleurs precaires et la gestion des stigmas occupationnels. Nous introduisons le concept d‘hygiene socio-economique dans la litterature sur le ‘travail sale’, qui permet d’identifier un type particulier d’ordre social et moral dans lequel les positions du subordonne sont naturalis´ees entre le socialement et le moralement ‘propre’ et ‘sale.’
Research Interests:
In response to the disappointments of the anarcho/critical/antipsychiatry movements, we propose the development of a new understanding of political engagement in the context of psychiatric power, governance, resistance, and abolition.... more
In response to the disappointments of the anarcho/critical/antipsychiatry movements, we propose the development of a new understanding of political engagement in the context of psychiatric power, governance, resistance, and abolition. Psychiatric post-anarchism, we argue, is a praxical approach meant to shift the focus for social change in mental health from macro projects concerning institutions, stakeholders, and governing agents to the micro-political realms. Following Saul Newman (2011, 2016), we imagine the ways in which a focus on praxis and the ‘here and now’ shapes our conceptions of radical politics and emancipatory endeavours. Rather than succumb to what we see as failures in classical anarchist thought and some critical/anti-psychiatry movements that position people as sovereign actors against the state, we argue that contemporary Mad Movements must be willing to constantly challenge their own ontological presuppositions when critiquing the social forces that render some forms of understanding as mad. Our ambition is that this praxis will help Mad Movement activists and scholars see the potential in destabilizing the everyday power relations between psychiatric agents and survivors, without institutional destruction as the necessary and impending goal.
Research Interests:
Drawing on the first author’s (Matthew) research with male psychiatric ward security guards whom he worked with for 16 months, we discuss in this case study how bringing masculine status into semi-structured interviews produces gender... more
Drawing on the first author’s (Matthew) research with male psychiatric ward security guards whom he worked with for 16 months, we discuss in this case study how bringing masculine status into semi-structured interviews produces gender relations and knowledges about men that would largely be inaccessible to researchers who are gendered outsiders. Matthew’s insider status provided participants with an extra layer of comfort to speak freely about their patriarchal beliefs, which involved positioning women and queer people in security work as risky and less worthy subjects, as well as favoring violence as a means to resolve issues with captive mental health patients. We reflect on the implications of questions changing during the research process, especially when the researcher has powerful feelings and positions on their research question as a result of their immersion. The ways in which Matthew performed gender had changed considerably from the time he was doing security work to when he conducted his interviews. We expose his interview dialogue and questions that led to the production of a visceral knowledge and analysis of the contentious perspectives on gendered violence that were shared. We conclude by emphasizing the role reflexivity and forgiveness play in helping the researcher develop a sense of closure and ability to view participants as allies, not enemies. This case study provides readers with techniques and points of reflection on how to mobilize their emotions and political subjectivities in interview settings to draw out the important tensions and divergences participants may share.
Research Interests:
Drawing on an affective framework, this qualitative content analysis of the immediate public responses on Twitter in the hours following Jian Ghomeshi’s not guilty verdict (n = 3943 tweets) reveals two key discourses of public opinion.... more
Drawing on an affective framework, this qualitative content analysis of the immediate public responses on Twitter in the hours following Jian Ghomeshi’s not guilty verdict (n = 3943 tweets) reveals two key discourses of public opinion. Twitter users depicted the criminal justice system (CJS) as having worked and/or failed, and these intensifying divisions were highly gendered. Members of the public pitted notions of the “rational male” against the “emotional female”, and these debates heavily supported or opposed a patriarchal legal rationality. This study sheds light on the ways in which adversarial justice systems reproduce adversarial discourses on crime, and overlook the problems entangled in misleading applications of rationality to sexual consent. The wide circulation of blame to all parties involved in this case leads us to the conclusion that the CJS, in its current punitive form, does not instil a sense of confidence in the public. With a shifted focus on the healing and dignity of everyone involved in sexual assault cases, we recommend Restorative and Transformative approaches to justice as alternative measures to respond to sexual assault.
Research Interests: Sociology, Gender Studies, Courts, Sexual Violence, Gender, and 14 moreGender and the Law, Critical Criminology, Social Media, Restorative Justice, Feminism, Qualitative Research, Masculinities, Twitter, Sexual Assault, Gender And Violence, Feminist criminology, Online Research Methods, Qualitative Content Analysis, and Crime and the Media
This qualitative content analysis of online documents compiled from the North American Animal Liberation Front (ALF), Earth Liberation Kollective (ELK) and Grassroots Ontario Animal Liberation (GOAL) network websites and Facebook pages... more
This qualitative content analysis of online documents compiled from the North American Animal Liberation Front (ALF), Earth Liberation Kollective (ELK) and Grassroots Ontario Animal Liberation (GOAL) network websites and Facebook pages explores how activism within the Radical Animal Liberation Movement (RALM) intersects with other social movements. While most literature to date traces the RALM’s (dis)junctures with other forms of social justice activism through analyses of their broad ideological assumptions, or the views of renowned RALM scholars, this research provides authentic insights into the voices of Canadian, American and Mexican activists as they are represented in documents they author themselves. Like activists in anarchistic, anti-capitalist, immigrant rights, Indigenous, prison abolition, prisoner support and radical feminist movements, those in the RALM critique capitalism, colonialism, hierarchy, racism, sexism, state power and the prison industrial complex. Our research calls into question the existing narratives that depict the RALM as an extremist, single-issue movement oblivious to all other forms of social inequality, injustice, marginalization and oppression. Rather, RALM activists are building alliances with other radical social movements to achieve the common goal of ending both human and animal suffering and exploitation.
Research Interests: Sociology, Social Movements, Qualitative methodology, Animal Studies, Social Movement, and 17 moreAnarchism, Content Analysis, Critical Criminology, Anarchist Studies, Feminism, Qualitative Research, Animal Rights/Liberation, Social movements and revolution, Online social networks, Intersectionality and Social Inequality, Intersectionality, Radical Social Movements, Solidarity, Online Research Methods, Qualitative Content Analysis, Critical Sociology, and Solidarity movements(Anarchism, Content Analysis, Critical Criminology, Anarchist Studies, Feminism, Qualitative Research, Animal Rights/Liberation, Social movements and revolution, Online social networks, Intersectionality and Social Inequality, Intersectionality, Radical Social Movements, Solidarity, Online Research Methods, Qualitative Content Analysis, Critical Sociology, and Solidarity movements)
(Anarchism, Content Analysis, Critical Criminology, Anarchist Studies, Feminism, Qualitative Research, Animal Rights/Liberation, Social movements and revolution, Online social networks, Intersectionality and Social Inequality, Intersectionality, Radical Social Movements, Solidarity, Online Research Methods, Qualitative Content Analysis, Critical Sociology, and Solidarity movements)
Based on eight in-depth interviews conducted with security guards who work in the psychiatric units of two hospitals located in Ottawa, Canada, this research found that private security agents unknowingly draw on Sykes and Matza’s five... more
Based on eight in-depth interviews conducted with security guards who work in the psychiatric units of two hospitals located in Ottawa, Canada, this research found that private security agents unknowingly draw on Sykes and Matza’s five techniques of neutralization to justify their use of violence and coercive force against patients and to overcome their feelings of guilt for participating in the administration of brutal intervention practices, including physical and chemical restraints. Guards claimed that these practices benefit the patients more than it hurts them and in cases where they believed the interventions to be unwarranted, guards either accepted the medical staff’s judgment to make decisions about when coercive force should be used or condemned the authority the nursing staff has in determining how to manage patients. They also drew on militant codes of security conduct to justify their tough demeanours and resilient attitudes towards medicalized violence. Implications for forensic practice include considerations of the effects of the (gendered) power relations that structure closed institutional settings and can harm already vulnerable patients, as well as the negative consequences of using security to enforce arbitrary institutional rules.
Research Interests:
Based on interview data garnered from two transgender university students (transman and transwoman) and a reflexive narrative analysis, this research found that some transgender students experience overt forms of gender discrimination,... more
Based on interview data garnered from two transgender university students (transman and transwoman) and a reflexive narrative analysis, this research found that some transgender students experience overt forms of gender discrimination, violence, and stigma on campus spaces. Particularly troubling are the inadequate athletic facilities, social organizations, and counselling resources available to trans students. There is a need to have more readily available staff members educated on trans needs and human rights. That said, some narratives emphasize the activist and resilient roles some trans students undertake to make campuses a safer and more gender-inclusive space for trans and cisgender communities. Given the small sample size, the goal of this paper is to raise larger awareness toward the social issues present amongst transgender students, and emphasize the need for further research on gender diversity, marginalization, stigma, and best practices within campus spaces.
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Some male interviewees encounter difficulties when they try to express their emotions and overcome anti-feminist positions that transform the research setting into places where hyper-masculinities are reproduced. This research finds that... more
Some male interviewees encounter difficulties when they try to express their emotions and overcome anti-feminist positions that transform the research setting into places where hyper-masculinities are reproduced. This research finds that critical dialogue is a persuasive tool interviewers can employ to challenge their participants to empathize with perspectives that contest and confront gendered violence, institutional coercion, and misogyny. Drawing on eight interviews I conducted with male security officers (all former colleagues of the author) who engaged in healthcare violence against male and female psychiatric patients at two hospitals in Ottawa, Canada, I discovered that dissent and the testament of past sufferings inspires people to reconsider their marginalizing standpoints, and helps participants and researchers who have experienced trauma before and during the research process to cope with their emotional suffering and find closure. This approach may encounter ethical problems such as researcher/participant re-victimization and distress, which may be resolved through debriefing exercises, and displays of empathy, compassion, non-judgement, and friendship.
Research Interests: Masculinity Studies, Qualitative methodology, Critical Psychology, Reflexivity, Autoethnography, and 30 moreSocial Justice, Forensic psychiatry, Critical Criminology, Masculinity, Sociology of Health, Policing Studies, Qualitative Research, History Of Madness And Psychiatry, Masculinities, Reflexivity (Sociology), Institutional Ethnography (Research Methodology), Feminist criminology, Narrative Inquiry, Experimental Methods, Feminism and Social Justice, Gender Discrimination, Gender, Men and Masculinities, Sociology of Health and Illness, Interviews, Police and Policing, Hegemonic Masculinity, Sociology and Anthropology, Police studies, Restraints in Psychiatry, Misogyny, Critical Psychiatry, Private Security, Interventionist Methodology, Critical Dialogue, and Trauma Research Methodology(Social Justice, Forensic psychiatry, Critical Criminology, Masculinity, Sociology of Health, Policing Studies, Qualitative Research, History Of Madness And Psychiatry, Masculinities, Reflexivity (Sociology), Institutional Ethnography (Research Methodology), Feminist criminology, Narrative Inquiry, Experimental Methods, Feminism and Social Justice, Gender Discrimination, Gender, Men and Masculinities, Sociology of Health and Illness, Interviews, Police and Policing, Hegemonic Masculinity, Sociology and Anthropology, Police studies, Restraints in Psychiatry, Misogyny, Critical Psychiatry, Private Security, Interventionist Methodology, Critical Dialogue, and Trauma Research Methodology)
(Social Justice, Forensic psychiatry, Critical Criminology, Masculinity, Sociology of Health, Policing Studies, Qualitative Research, History Of Madness And Psychiatry, Masculinities, Reflexivity (Sociology), Institutional Ethnography (Research Methodology), Feminist criminology, Narrative Inquiry, Experimental Methods, Feminism and Social Justice, Gender Discrimination, Gender, Men and Masculinities, Sociology of Health and Illness, Interviews, Police and Policing, Hegemonic Masculinity, Sociology and Anthropology, Police studies, Restraints in Psychiatry, Misogyny, Critical Psychiatry, Private Security, Interventionist Methodology, Critical Dialogue, and Trauma Research Methodology)
This qualitative research explores the complex and dynamic ways in which eight hospital security men engage in hegemonic masculine practices that subordinate the gender identities of security women and marginalized men. These intensive,... more
This qualitative research explores the complex and dynamic ways in which eight hospital security men engage in hegemonic masculine practices that subordinate the gender identities of security women and marginalized men. These intensive, in-depth interviews reveal that alpha male status is accomplished through routine demonstrations of physicality and dominance over mental health patients and subordinated guards who present a feminine or queer gender identity. Security officers who resist the established codes of masculine conduct are excluded from social circles, and culturally devalued by their hypermasculine peers and superiors. Overall, this research calls for the revision of hospital security recruitment and training initiatives that privilege military background and skills, and invites scholars to give voice to the gendered voices of security women, gay men, and nursing staff.
Research Interests: Masculinity Studies, Critical Psychology, Reflexivity, Autoethnography, Social Justice, and 24 moreForensic psychiatry, Critical Criminology, Masculinity, Sociology of Health, Policing Studies, Michel Foucault, History Of Madness And Psychiatry, Masculinities, Gender And Violence, Feminist criminology, Feminism and Social Justice, Gender Discrimination, Gender, Men and Masculinities, Sociology of Health and Illness, Police and Policing, Hegemonic Masculinity, Sociology and Anthropology, Police studies, Restraints in Psychiatry, Critical Psychiatry, Gender Discrimination at Workplace, Critical psychiatry/psychology, Private Security and Policing, and Public Policy(Forensic psychiatry, Critical Criminology, Masculinity, Sociology of Health, Policing Studies, Michel Foucault, History Of Madness And Psychiatry, Masculinities, Gender And Violence, Feminist criminology, Feminism and Social Justice, Gender Discrimination, Gender, Men and Masculinities, Sociology of Health and Illness, Police and Policing, Hegemonic Masculinity, Sociology and Anthropology, Police studies, Restraints in Psychiatry, Critical Psychiatry, Gender Discrimination at Workplace, Critical psychiatry/psychology, Private Security and Policing, and Public Policy)
(Forensic psychiatry, Critical Criminology, Masculinity, Sociology of Health, Policing Studies, Michel Foucault, History Of Madness And Psychiatry, Masculinities, Gender And Violence, Feminist criminology, Feminism and Social Justice, Gender Discrimination, Gender, Men and Masculinities, Sociology of Health and Illness, Police and Policing, Hegemonic Masculinity, Sociology and Anthropology, Police studies, Restraints in Psychiatry, Critical Psychiatry, Gender Discrimination at Workplace, Critical psychiatry/psychology, Private Security and Policing, and Public Policy)
Drawing on an ethnographic narrative written by one of the authors following his resignation from a hospital private security team in Ottawa, Canada and interview data gleaned from eight security men (all former colleagues), this article... more
Drawing on an ethnographic narrative written by one of the authors following his resignation from a hospital private security team in Ottawa, Canada and interview data gleaned from eight security men (all former colleagues), this article explores how hospital private security officers draw on discourses of masculinity to navigate the ‘dirty’ boundaries of their work, and to preserve their alpha-guard statuses as controlled, autonomous and authoritative subjects. We found that hospital guards manage and deflect taint status by emphasizing their resiliency, emotional detachment and enthusiasm towards morbid, disturbing and dangerous tasks. Guards who seek to challenge these components of the job may be subject to gender harassment and reprisal from other guards, senior security officials and nursing staff. Overall, these narratives call attention to the necessity of hospital training programmes, de-briefing exercises and best-communication practices that promote the physical and emotional well-being of persons who engage in intensive forms of dirty work.
Research Interests: Critical Psychology, Reflexivity, Autoethnography, Social Justice, Trauma Studies, and 21 moreForensic psychiatry, Critical Criminology, Police, Masculinity, Sociology of Health, Policing Studies, Michel Foucault, History Of Madness And Psychiatry, Masculinities, Feminism and Social Justice, Gender, Men and Masculinities, Sociology of Health and Illness, Gender and mental health, Hegemonic Masculinity, Sociology and Anthropology, Critical Psychiatry, Private Security, Dirty Work, Morbidity, Physical Restraint, and Hospital Security(Forensic psychiatry, Critical Criminology, Police, Masculinity, Sociology of Health, Policing Studies, Michel Foucault, History Of Madness And Psychiatry, Masculinities, Feminism and Social Justice, Gender, Men and Masculinities, Sociology of Health and Illness, Gender and mental health, Hegemonic Masculinity, Sociology and Anthropology, Critical Psychiatry, Private Security, Dirty Work, Morbidity, Physical Restraint, and Hospital Security)
(Forensic psychiatry, Critical Criminology, Police, Masculinity, Sociology of Health, Policing Studies, Michel Foucault, History Of Madness And Psychiatry, Masculinities, Feminism and Social Justice, Gender, Men and Masculinities, Sociology of Health and Illness, Gender and mental health, Hegemonic Masculinity, Sociology and Anthropology, Critical Psychiatry, Private Security, Dirty Work, Morbidity, Physical Restraint, and Hospital Security)
This article unfolds the culture of hyper-masculinity I witnessed and ultimately rejected during my sixteen-month career working as a private security officer in an Ottawa hospital. I draw on two ethnographic narratives to “distribute”,... more
This article unfolds the culture of hyper-masculinity I witnessed and ultimately rejected during my sixteen-month career working as a private security officer in an Ottawa hospital. I draw on two ethnographic narratives to “distribute”, in Rancièrian terms, the embodied and emotional experiences that accompanied my struggles to achieve hegemonic masculine status, and resist military-like hierarchies inside an institutional setting. Such a creative methodological exercise allows researchers to freely explore their delicate, complex and messy feelings that may otherwise be ethically suppressed or co-opted through less corporeal representations of academic writing. Moreover, by revealing the sensitive and coercive interactions that steered my gendered relationships with psychiatric patients, ward nurses and other security agents, I demonstrate how embodied research can transform our uncritical heteronormative positions on masculinity and violence, as well as contest the unequal, gendered and medicalized judgments that are imposed on incarcerated mental health patients.
Research Interests: Mental Health, Masculinity Studies, Gender and Sexuality, Critical Psychology, Reflexivity, and 30 moreAutoethnography, Social Justice, Forensic psychiatry, Critical Criminology, Sociology of Health, Policing Studies, Michel Foucault, Qualitative Research, History Of Madness And Psychiatry, Masculinities, Gender And Violence, Institutional Ethnography (Research Methodology), Feminist criminology, Narrative Inquiry, Feminism and Social Justice, Gender, Men and Masculinities, Sociology of Health and Illness, Police and Policing, Hegemonic Masculinity, Sociology and Anthropology, Police studies, Restraints in Psychiatry, Policing and Police Studies, Critical Psychiatry, Sedatives, Physical Restraint, Chemical Restraints, Private Security and Policing, Chemical Restraint, and Hospital Security(Autoethnography, Social Justice, Forensic psychiatry, Critical Criminology, Sociology of Health, Policing Studies, Michel Foucault, Qualitative Research, History Of Madness And Psychiatry, Masculinities, Gender And Violence, Institutional Ethnography (Research Methodology), Feminist criminology, Narrative Inquiry, Feminism and Social Justice, Gender, Men and Masculinities, Sociology of Health and Illness, Police and Policing, Hegemonic Masculinity, Sociology and Anthropology, Police studies, Restraints in Psychiatry, Policing and Police Studies, Critical Psychiatry, Sedatives, Physical Restraint, Chemical Restraints, Private Security and Policing, Chemical Restraint, and Hospital Security)
(Autoethnography, Social Justice, Forensic psychiatry, Critical Criminology, Sociology of Health, Policing Studies, Michel Foucault, Qualitative Research, History Of Madness And Psychiatry, Masculinities, Gender And Violence, Institutional Ethnography (Research Methodology), Feminist criminology, Narrative Inquiry, Feminism and Social Justice, Gender, Men and Masculinities, Sociology of Health and Illness, Police and Policing, Hegemonic Masculinity, Sociology and Anthropology, Police studies, Restraints in Psychiatry, Policing and Police Studies, Critical Psychiatry, Sedatives, Physical Restraint, Chemical Restraints, Private Security and Policing, Chemical Restraint, and Hospital Security)
When compared to the general population, police officers are at a substantially increased risk for operational stress injuries due to their inherent exposure in the line of duty to a number of potentially psychologically traumatic events.... more
When compared to the general population, police officers are at a substantially increased risk for operational stress injuries due to their inherent exposure in the line of duty to a number of potentially psychologically traumatic events. Well-established in the police literature remains that these experiences of intense stress and the accompanying psychological strain may lead to a variety of mental health challenges for police, including symptoms of compromised mental health (i.e., burnout, low resilient coping) and mental health disorders such as posttraumatic stress disorder, major depressive disorder, or general anxiety disorder. Though progress has been made in several jurisdictions around the world to improve the availability of mental health resources, treatment options, and other support for police, challenges and organizational barriers (i.e., staff shortages, workload issues, work–life balance, poor perceptions of leadership, stigma, constant changes in legislation) persist in some services across regions, which have been found to decrease enthusiasm toward treatment-seeking, and in turn, amplify challenges tied to police officers’ mental health and well-being. When services are present, police can experience barriers to service utilization, such as concerns regarding confidentiality, stigma, departmental distrust, or negative perceptions of treatment (i.e., they will be viewed by colleagues as weak, no longer fit for the job, or taking advantage of the system). For police to disclose their mental health status and needs, they must be first comfortable doing so in a supportive, professionalized, and de-stigmatized workplace where there is increasing police awareness of and education about mental health, as well as preventative resources that promote wellness, healthy lifestyle choices, and coping skills. Additional research is needed that examines the changing and current mental health of police officers as well as the context and content informing the high prevalence of mental health disorders.
Research Interests:
The resilient and complex ways in which parents navigate the criminal justice system (CJS) after their children have sexually offended are largely undocumented in critical criminological literature. With relatively few notable exceptions... more
The resilient and complex ways in which parents navigate the criminal justice system (CJS) after their children have sexually offended are largely undocumented in critical criminological literature. With relatively few notable exceptions across academic disciplines (Baker et al. 2003; Gervais and Romano 2018; Hackett et al. 2014; Levenson and Tewksbury 2009; Pollack 2017, Romano and Gervais 2018; Tewksbury and Levenson 2009; Thornton et al. 2008; Worley, Church, and Clemmons 2011), research is limited with regard to understanding parents’ involvement in their child’s rehabilitation, their deep concerns for the victims’ rights and recovery, and their various ways of coping with stigma, isolation, and challenging emotions in the aftermath of their child’s sexual offending behaviour (Gervais and Romano 2018; Romano and Gervais 2018).
Based on an interdisciplinary study involving criminological and psychological analyses of children’s rights, this chapter offers a counterpoint to some of these limitations. We demonstrate how ten families of youth who sexually offended negotiated various obstacles as they sought to prioritize inclusion and security throughout the accountability processes following their child’s sexual offending. In line with critical criminological literature that recognizes how people who sexually offend and their families are often excluded from society and the rehabilitation process (Petrunik and Deutschmann 2008; Viki et al. 2012), we further explore how the parents in our study were met with overwhelming institutional exclusionary practices despite some individual CJS workers’ attempts to be more considerate of their children’s rehabilitation and reintegration needs and rights. To do so, we review the historical and recent scholarship on adult and youth sexual offending that steers many institutional responses to sexual violence. We then reveal two overarching themes that emerged from the family narratives: CJS-based exclusion , and police and parental advocacy. Finally, we conclude this chapter by offering policy recommendations that advance knowledge about parents’ successes and struggles in mitigating the detrimental effects of exclusion and insecurity in the context of youth sexual offending.
Based on an interdisciplinary study involving criminological and psychological analyses of children’s rights, this chapter offers a counterpoint to some of these limitations. We demonstrate how ten families of youth who sexually offended negotiated various obstacles as they sought to prioritize inclusion and security throughout the accountability processes following their child’s sexual offending. In line with critical criminological literature that recognizes how people who sexually offend and their families are often excluded from society and the rehabilitation process (Petrunik and Deutschmann 2008; Viki et al. 2012), we further explore how the parents in our study were met with overwhelming institutional exclusionary practices despite some individual CJS workers’ attempts to be more considerate of their children’s rehabilitation and reintegration needs and rights. To do so, we review the historical and recent scholarship on adult and youth sexual offending that steers many institutional responses to sexual violence. We then reveal two overarching themes that emerged from the family narratives: CJS-based exclusion , and police and parental advocacy. Finally, we conclude this chapter by offering policy recommendations that advance knowledge about parents’ successes and struggles in mitigating the detrimental effects of exclusion and insecurity in the context of youth sexual offending.
Research Interests:
Navigating the contentious “outsider status” in qualitative research can be quite cumbersome and emotionally draining (Bucerius 2013), as seen in cases where researchers learned about Indigenous peoples, immigration reform, ethnic and... more
Navigating the contentious “outsider status” in qualitative research can be quite cumbersome and emotionally draining (Bucerius 2013), as seen in cases where researchers learned about Indigenous peoples, immigration reform, ethnic and migrant populations, and women (Armitage 2008; Blix 2015; Watts 2006; Wray and Bartholomew 2010). The literature on outsiders has yet to fully explore the experiences of allies doing research on LGBTTQIA+ communities, let alone answer the question: what obstacles and successes would a straight-white-cisgender man, whose gender and sexuality have remained relatively stable throughout his life, encounter when he undertakes research on transgender people? In attempting to respond to this question, I describe my experiences doing doctoral research on transgender prisoners and students, and negotiating the role of being a gendered outsider in a community where trust is—for good and strong reasons—very delicate and difficult to earn when you are privileged and share very little in terms of your gender identity. My goal is not to provide readers with a strategic manual on how to do research on trans people if you are not trans, but rather to offer some points of reflection to consider throughout any research process when we are engaging with people whose marginalization and modes of resistance and empowerment may be adversely affected by how we disseminate our findings.
Research Interests:
Departing from the first author’s lived experiences as a private security guard at an Ottawa psychiatric facility, this qualitative research examines how the performance of masculinity shapes and contributes to the coercive ways in which... more
Departing from the first author’s lived experiences as a private security guard at an Ottawa psychiatric facility, this qualitative research examines how the performance of masculinity shapes and contributes to the coercive ways in which eight hospital guards (all former colleagues) manage, control and interact with involuntary mental health patients. These eight semi-structured interviews are framed by Raewyn Connell’s theoretical concept of hegemonic masculinity, as well as the available literature on gender and masculinity within security, prison, police and military institutions. We find that the struggle for power is gendered and alpha masculine status entangles the relations, discourses and associated practices of psychiatric ward nurses, patients, and guards – the outcome of which is ward reliance on punitive mechanisms of control. More specifically, this institutional setting fosters the reproduction of masculinity either through physical/chemical force, punishment, intimidation, or repeated expressions of ambivalence towards feminized displays of compassion, sympathy, and concern for the care of patients. Our findings call for the revision of hospital management strategies that privilege staff safety and ward control at the cost of the bodily, legal and human rights of patients, and steer future research to consider the voices and lived experiences of female security agents and senior hospital management staffs.
Research Interests: Masculinity Studies, Critical Psychology, Reflexivity, Autoethnography, Social Justice, and 24 moreForensic psychiatry, Critical Criminology, Sociology of Health, Policing Studies, Michel Foucault, History Of Madness And Psychiatry, Masculinities, Criminology (Social Sciences), Gender And Violence, Institutional Ethnography (Research Methodology), Feminist criminology, Feminism and Social Justice, Gender, Men and Masculinities, Sociology of Health and Illness, Police and Policing, Hegemonic Masculinity, Sociology and Anthropology, Restraints in Psychiatry, Policing and Police Studies, Critical Psychiatry, Physical Restraint, Chemical Restraints, Private Security and Policing, and Hospital Security(Forensic psychiatry, Critical Criminology, Sociology of Health, Policing Studies, Michel Foucault, History Of Madness And Psychiatry, Masculinities, Criminology (Social Sciences), Gender And Violence, Institutional Ethnography (Research Methodology), Feminist criminology, Feminism and Social Justice, Gender, Men and Masculinities, Sociology of Health and Illness, Police and Policing, Hegemonic Masculinity, Sociology and Anthropology, Restraints in Psychiatry, Policing and Police Studies, Critical Psychiatry, Physical Restraint, Chemical Restraints, Private Security and Policing, and Hospital Security)
(Forensic psychiatry, Critical Criminology, Sociology of Health, Policing Studies, Michel Foucault, History Of Madness And Psychiatry, Masculinities, Criminology (Social Sciences), Gender And Violence, Institutional Ethnography (Research Methodology), Feminist criminology, Feminism and Social Justice, Gender, Men and Masculinities, Sociology of Health and Illness, Police and Policing, Hegemonic Masculinity, Sociology and Anthropology, Restraints in Psychiatry, Policing and Police Studies, Critical Psychiatry, Physical Restraint, Chemical Restraints, Private Security and Policing, and Hospital Security)
Research Interests: Criminology, Social Theory, Criminal Law, Criminal Justice, Film Studies, and 39 moreFilm Theory, Access to Justice, Human Rights Law, Sociology of Crime and Deviance, Qualitative methodology, Film Analysis, Social Representations, International Criminal Law, Mental Representation, Philosophy of Film, Social Justice, Critical Criminology, Social representations (Psychology), Transitional Justice, Restorative Justice, Justice, Qualitative Research, Film History, Environmental Justice, Criminology (Social Sciences), Representation of Others, Knowledge Representation, Film Aesthetics, Representation Theory, Political Representation, White Collar Crime, Feminism and Social Justice, Film and Media Studies, Representation, Criminologia, Crime, Metodología y Teoría de la Investigación Social, Representaciones Sociales, Criminología, Repression, Criminología Crítica, Cultural and Spatial Representations of the Urban Poor, Criminologia Crítica, and Criminalistica De Campo(Film Theory, Access to Justice, Human Rights Law, Sociology of Crime and Deviance, Qualitative methodology, Film Analysis, Social Representations, International Criminal Law, Mental Representation, Philosophy of Film, Social Justice, Critical Criminology, Social representations (Psychology), Transitional Justice, Restorative Justice, Justice, Qualitative Research, Film History, Environmental Justice, Criminology (Social Sciences), Representation of Others, Knowledge Representation, Film Aesthetics, Representation Theory, Political Representation, White Collar Crime, Feminism and Social Justice, Film and Media Studies, Representation, Criminologia, Crime, Metodología y Teoría de la Investigación Social, Representaciones Sociales, Criminología, Repression, Criminología Crítica, Cultural and Spatial Representations of the Urban Poor, Criminologia Crítica, and Criminalistica De Campo)
(Film Theory, Access to Justice, Human Rights Law, Sociology of Crime and Deviance, Qualitative methodology, Film Analysis, Social Representations, International Criminal Law, Mental Representation, Philosophy of Film, Social Justice, Critical Criminology, Social representations (Psychology), Transitional Justice, Restorative Justice, Justice, Qualitative Research, Film History, Environmental Justice, Criminology (Social Sciences), Representation of Others, Knowledge Representation, Film Aesthetics, Representation Theory, Political Representation, White Collar Crime, Feminism and Social Justice, Film and Media Studies, Representation, Criminologia, Crime, Metodología y Teoría de la Investigación Social, Representaciones Sociales, Criminología, Repression, Criminología Crítica, Cultural and Spatial Representations of the Urban Poor, Criminologia Crítica, and Criminalistica De Campo)
This volume interrogates the psychiatric apparatus with an evidentiary scorn and authority that demands accountability and an apologetic response. This scathing indictment of psy-professionals who mobilized psychiatric knowledge and... more
This volume interrogates the psychiatric apparatus with an evidentiary scorn and authority that demands accountability and an apologetic response. This scathing indictment of psy-professionals who mobilized psychiatric knowledge and practices to degrade, torture, and gravely harm others will serve to (1) educate skeptics; (2) bolster activism and solidarity in the Mad Movement; (3) vindicate survivors of psychiatric violence and coercion who often experience their suffering and struggle in a void of isolation; (4) provide hope to the many disgruntled professionals working in the mental health field who question their assumed role in helping people; and (5) draw ferocious critique from countless agents who wholeheartedly defend the idea that psychiatry can/will/does help/treat/cure sickly people, whether with complete, partial, or entirely without our consent.
Research Interests:
After sixteen intensive months, I quit my employed position as a security guard at a local hospital. By drawing on my autoethnographic experiences in the form of “ethnographic fiction writing”, as well as eight interviews with my former... more
After sixteen intensive months, I quit my employed position as a security guard at a local hospital. By drawing on my autoethnographic experiences in the form of “ethnographic fiction writing”, as well as eight interviews with my former male colleagues, I explore how the guards’ constructions of masculinity intersect with their security assessment and subsequent application of force, chemical incarceration, and other coercive security tactics on involuntarily-committed mental health patients. The narratives are framed by the available literature on gender and masculinity within the security, police, prison and military institutions, as well as the theoretical notions of gendered institutions (Acker), hegemonic masculinity (Connell & Messerschmidt), doing gender (West & Zimmerman), and Dave Holmes’s application of Foucauldian biopolitical power to forensic healthcare settings. These concepts are used in tandem with a creative methodological tool to reveal the “messy”, “bloody” and “gendered” ways in which hospital life unfolds between the guard, the nurse, and the patient prisoner. By escaping more traditional forms of academic writing, I am able to weave raw, sensitive and reflexive thoughts and emotions into the research design and analysis. The analysis is divided into two narratives: “Us” and “Them”. “Us” emphasizes the gendered ways in which the hospital guard learns, reproduces, resists, lives up, or fails to live up to the masculine codes of the profession. Here, the guard must confront cultural demands to demonstrate physical prowess, authority and heroism during a patient battle. “Them” explores how hegemonic masculinity shapes the hierarchical and coercive relations between the guard, the nurse, and the patient, and reinforces psychiatrized discourses that promote punishment, pain, bureaucracy and control. Overall, these findings call for the abolition of physical restraint, chemical incarceration and other coercive security measures within our healthcare institutions, and encourage future research to give voice to the lived experiences of women guards and security management teams.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Old and present mental health systems tend to emphasize mental health service users as passive recipients of psychiatric care, which suppresses the idea that people who experience serious mental illness are able to comprehend their own... more
Old and present mental health systems tend to emphasize mental health service users as passive recipients of psychiatric care, which suppresses the idea that people who experience serious mental illness are able to comprehend their own sickness and recovery and therefore engage psychiatric experts about their care. This dissertation seriously interrogates the ways in which those who experience serious mental illness become agential, resist some of the control mechanisms, relationships of power, and infantilizing rituals found within the Canadian mental health system, and survive abject circumstances. Drawing on my own autoethnographic experiences with psychosis and psychiatric hospitalization, as well as 10 interviews with mental health service users, I argue that narrative approaches to inquiry and a post-anarchist praxis can reveal and liberate our agential capacities to recover and live through madness that otherwise become less known through biomedical approaches to mental health research. I identify some of the porous boundaries between the livable and unlivable forms of madness, and explore the complex relationships between service users and their caregivers whose penultimate goal is to help us live a manageable life. I conclude by discussing the contributions of this dissertation and reflect on some of the practical needs of the current mental health system.