Men dominate crime, criminal justice, and imprisonment. More men commit crime, and more men work in the criminal justice system, than women. Whichever side of the law men find themselves upon, they can be sure to accrue some masculine credentials by virtue of being part of a system that is suffused with institutional masculinity (see Ellis et al. 2013). Yet, the very nature of being a man and the masculine identities of prisoners are often taken for granted in analyses of prison and imprisonment, rather than being key variables in the experience (Wykes and Welsh 2009).
This book directly engages with this knowledge gap, addressing a number of issues regarding the adult male prison experience in terms of how the process of imprisonment shapes the individualâs masculine identity, and vice versa. It gives particular consideration to the masculinities of male prisoners, both as individuals, and as situated within a prisoner collective. In this book, the main interest is with the general and everyday experiences of male inmates and the relationships they have with themselves and others in terms of their masculine subjective identities. It is about the ways in which men can be and act as men in an environment devoid of many of the accoutrements of masculine living, which in many ways acts to shift men from the dominant gendered position of âmanâ to the dominated, submissive, and controlled feminine. It is curious that male prisons appear to be such hypermasculine spaces, when in reality they often impose highly feminising processes and positions upon the men inside. This goes some way to explaining why men in prison often undertake such highly masculinised behavioursâas Ricciardelli et al. note with regard to the Canadian prison context, âprisoners try to respond to uncertainty and perceived risk in ways that present their masculinity as empowered rather than submissiveâ (2015: 492).
Genderâmasculinity in particularâis the central notion of this book. As such, whereas much research on male prisoners focuses upon identity roles and relationships other than gender, this work is original in that it is simply about men and how they adapt to prison, and how prison impacts upon them as men, both negatively and, a notion that is rarely engaged with, positively. It is about how they, as men, see themselves and othersâso about relationships and collectivitiesâbut also about what they value and what they find painfulâso also about their individual selves. It is about how men constitute and perform their masculine identities when isolated from many of the usual mechanisms and props that, so often in criminological research, divert attention away from the men at the centre of offending and imprisonment. It highlights the importance of control, performance, and visibility, and brings to the fore the role of the audience in menâs decisions as to how to be men. In addition, another often hidden element within the criminological research processâthe researcherâis brought back into the picture through the use of researcher gender as an extra dimension through which to examine participantsâ identities and responses to others and their situations.
The Research
The research investigates the male prison experience, and the issues of masculinity that are raised through incarceration, addressing the concern that, if crime is a potential resource for âdoing genderâ (Messerschmidt 1993: 84), especially when other legitimate resources are unavailable, then how do men accomplish their masculinities? In particular, how do men achieve masculinities in an environment such as the prison, where they are deprived from more legitimate gender resources (Sykes 1958), particularly in light of the additional pressures put upon men in terms of their expected masculine performances (West and Zimmerman 1987; Butler 1990) in the eyes of other men (Kimmel 1994)? Consideration is given to how men in prison are made to perform their masculine identities in ways that are very different to how they would be expected to behave outside, mainly due to the fact that such resources for establishing masculine self (family, work, heterosexual relations, etc.) are unavailable or restricted within the prison setting, and the key audience(s) for masculine performance are highly masculine gazers. Thought is also given to how prison places men in the feminine position in so many unseen waysâunexpected in such a hypermasculine environment.
This research directly investigates the effects of the prison as an institution upon adult men, looking at their masculine identities, interactions, and experiences. This was achieved by undertaking 31 semi-structured interviews with incarcerated men, and through observations and reflections (in the form of research diaries) of the prison setting, which occurred during the four-month fieldwork period in an adult male category C training prison. The resultant qualitative data was analysed using theories of masculinities as an explanatory framework to explore the under-researched concept that criminality is dominated by men, and therefore most prisoners are men, yet little is asked or understood about the men who commit crimes and end up incarcerated, or the masculinities they hold. The project is distinctive on a number of levels, but primarily because the majority of studies of the prison fail to address the masculinities that lie at the heart of the institution, looking at other variables such as class, race, age, and so on, instead of the key distinctive featureâthe dominance of men (who make up 95 % of prisoners in England and Wales). The book aims to satisfy the need for greater attention to the gendered dimensions of the penal system and ordinary menâs experiences of it (rather than simply focusing upon extreme examples that sensationalise crime and criminology), in addition to addressing the need for wider attention to be given to the prison experience as a whole, rather than merely focusing upon the negative aspects. In addition, the research draws upon reflexive processes by including the researcherâs perspectives on the gendered prison experience in order to add to the understanding of the gendered nature of the prison. The research diaries kept allowed an extra dimension of gender to be gleanedânot least because the young female researcherâs gender was often used as a juxtaposing force for prisoners to âbounceâ their masculinities offâin addition to placing the researcher firmly within the subjective research context.
Moreover, the informing interest here is the mature (but not aged) masculinity so poorly understood within crime, criminality, and beyond. Such are the differences between male and female offenders that menâs position within the prison system is seen as ânormalâ and in keeping with masculine traits of aggression, dominance, and deviance. Men are viewed in this way to such an extent that their gender becomes invisibleâthe term prisoner becomes assumed to mean male prisoner (Wykes and Welsh 2009: 57); thus, analysing adult menâs experiences of incarceration explicitly as male/masculine (as opposed to detailed and distinguished features of male offending such as youth, drugs, violence, ethnicity and race, etc.) addresses the annihilation and undermining of gender in much work and debate surrounding menâs prisons and criminality. The men in the prison, albeit diverse in terms of background, ethnicity, race, age, and so on, had one overarching commonality. They were, first and foremost, men.
Masculinities
There are many different approaches to the study of masculinity/masculinities, which can be hugely problematic when actually trying to reach a common understanding of theoretical approach. This book comes from the following theoretical standpoint:
1.Following Connellâs work (2005), this book conforms to the idea of hegemonic masculinitiesâthat being the idea that masculinity fluctuates in different times and spaces, yet there is always a hegemonic position to which other men aspire. Men compete against each other for masculine achievement.
2.At the same time, it is recognised that there is not one single masculinityâinstead we follow Connell again to think in terms of pluralities of masculinities.
3.These masculinities are embodied and performed: gender is seen as a social construction, which is created in relation to the genders of others (Connell 2005); masculinity is a process which is âdoneâ (West and Zimmerman 1987; Butler 1990).
4.Such performances and embodiments are achieved through the resources available to that individual against which to relate his masculine self. Such resources include personal corporeality, other people and their genders and bodies, consumable goods, money, positions of power, and so on.
5. Crime is a resource through which to perform masculinity, generally when other, more socially legitimate and approved resources are unavailable to that individual (Messerschmidt 1993: 84).
6.These performances are directed towards an audience. Kimmel (1994) suggests that masculine identity is enacted for the benefit of other men and in order to receive some form of approval from the male collective. This definition is of particular value when considering the prison environment, where men are situated close to other men (both prisoners and staff) and alter their behaviours for the benefit of what others can see, and who those others are. In this book, I argue that there are others that the individual sees to be important as audiences in the masculine performance, not just other men.
7.The audience that matters to an individual at a particular point in their life is subject to change; as such, the performances of masculinity may also change in response to the different people who matter that are watching him.
8.Such performances are subject to particular challenges in the prison through a lack of performative resources available to the men, along with the feminising processes that the prison imposes.
In addition, the multitude of different definitions of masculinity can often result in some confusion about what we actually mean by the term itself. With that in mind, I thought it wise to define exactly what is meant in this book when referring to notions of masculinity. Within this text, masculinity is posited in line with Connellâs (2005) notion: that is, a social construct. The term refers to those aspects of menâs lives that they take on to demonstrate their own maleness to others and to themselvesâand it chang...
