Dangerous masculinity : fatherhood, race, and security inside America's prisons /

Scholars studying the impact of mass incarceration on parenting have tended to focus on imprisoned mothers, since women tend to be the primary caretakers of children, as in Sandra Enos's Mothering from the Inside (CH, Apr'01, 38-4739). In Dangerous Masculinity, however, Curtis (SUNY, Cortland), a sociologist, explores the conflicting identities of prisoner and father for incarcerated men. Contending that the caring and nurturing demands of fatherhood sit in contradistinction to the tough and violent demands of prison life, she provides extensive qualitative data from both an adult and juvenile facility to explore how young and older men navigate these identities. To Curtis, "dangerous masculinity" refers to assumptions about the masculinity of incarcerated men and combines notions of hegemonic masculinity and hypermasculinity. She focuses on the fathering programs offered in both facilities, which tend to emphasize the neoliberal agenda of individual responsibility over the structural constraints preventing these men from being "good fathers." The negative impact of parental incarceration on children is well known, but this work highlights the toll imprisonment is having on fathers as well. Overall, this text draws on and adds to the sociology of gender and criminology. Summing Up: Recommended. All readership levels. --Julie Anne Beicken, Rocky Mountain College