Overview

The profile of prisoners across many Western countries is strikingly similar – 95% male, predominantly undereducated and underemployed, from the most deprived neighbourhoods. This book reflects on how similarly positioned men configure masculinities against global economic shifts that have seen the decimation of traditional, manual-heavy industry and with it the disruption of long-established relations of labour. Drawing on life history interviews and classical ethnography, the book charts a group of men’s experiences pre, during and post prison. Tracking the development of masculinities from childhood to adulthood, across impoverished streets, ‘failing’ schools and inadequate state ‘care’, the book questions whether this proved better preparation for serving prison time than working in their local, service-dominated, labour markets. It integrates theories of crime, geography, economics and masculinity to take into account structural and global economic shifts as well as individual long-term perspectives in order to provide a broad examination on pathways to prison and post prison.

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9783030610616

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Reviews

Maguire's development of the concept of prison masculinities is highly valuable ... . This important study has shone a light on the experiences of an extremely marginalized group of men in a hidden social context, who have shared highly personal and honest observations on their lives. Maguire has achieved this in a sensitive and reflexive way, openly weighing his own positionality as the researcher throughout, influenced by feminist-inspired critical masculinities approaches. (Stephen R. Burrell, Men and Masculinities, August 26, 2021) Maguire contributes to our knowledge of how masculinities, informed by class and protest masculinities, affect criminal involvement. ... Maguire's Male, Failed and Jailed makes an important contribution to our understanding of the connection between environment, performance masculinities, and identity for men. (L George Sheppard and Rosemary Ricciardelli, Punishment & Society, July 26, 2021) Maguire focuses on the role masculinity plays in the lives of 30 men he interviewed in prison in Hull. ... Charting these men's journeys, Maguire skilfully weaves together the empirical data with his analysis and the literature to show the way masculinities are formed and entrenched, ... culminating for some in the prison's Vulnerable Prisoner Unit (VPU). ... Maguire's appeal for greater attention to masculinity and how it affects all those in prison and beyond is insightful. (Marguerite Schinkel, The British Journal of Criminology, July 1, 2021)

Author Information

David Maguire is Director for the Prison Reform Trust’s Building Futures Programme, a five-year programme for those that have served 10 or more years in prison. As a researcher at Oxford University and University College London, UK, he has extensive experience leading on prison-based projects, collecting data on the vulnerabilities facing those in prison and widely disseminating these findings to impact change.

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