Hidden Victims: The Effects of the Death Penalty on Families of the Accused

by Susan F. Sharp

Overview

Sharp (sociology, U. of Oklahoma) challenges the accepted perspective of murderers as heinous and sub-human, by identifying them as brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, daughters, sons or friends. Through a series of interviews with families of the accused, she illustrates the complicated and isolated grieving process they experience when a family member is sentenced to death. Sharp argues from a sociological approach that highlights parallel experiences and coping mechanisms. Annotation ©2005 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780813537870
Publisher:	Rutgers University Press
Publication date:	06/16/2005
Series:	Critical Issues in Crime and Society
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	248
File size:	711 KB

About the Author

SUSAN F. SHARP is David Ross Boyd Professor of Sociology and is affiliate faculty in Women’s and Gender Studies. She is also a faculty fellow with the College of Liberal Studies, the Department of Human Relations, and the Organizational Leadership Program. She received her Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Texas-Austin in 1996. Her research focuses on female crime and deviance, the incarceration of women, and the impact of corrections policies on families of offenders. Her recent research has focused on theoretical explanations of female criminal behaviors from a life course perspective, exploring how multiple marginalities may steer women into criminal and/or deviant behaviors. She has served on the executive board of the American Society of Criminology and was the founding editor of Feminist Criminology, the official journal of the Division on Women and Crime of the American Society of Criminology.

 Dr. Sharp’s current research focuses on jail diversionary programs for female offenders.

Table of Contents

Foreword by Michael L. Radelet
Preface
Acknowledgments

1. Introduction: The Death Penalty, Victims' Families, and Families of Prisoners
2. Dealing with the Horror: "We're Sentenced, Too": Families of Individuals Facing a Death Sentence
3. Trying to Cope: Withdrawal, Anger, and Joining
4. The Grief Process: Denial and Horror, the BADD Cycle (Bargaining, Activity, Disillusionment, and Desperation}
5. Facing the End: Families and Execution
6. Aftermath: Picking Up the Pieces
7. "But He's Innocent"
8. Double Losers: Being Both a Victim's Family Member and an Offender's Family Member
9. Family after the Fact: Fictive Kin and Death Row Marriages
10. The Death Penalty and Families, Revisited
11. Conclusion

Appendix A. Death Row Visitation Policies (Social/Family Visits)
Appendix B. Interview Schedule for Initial Interviews
Appendix C. Demographics of Interview Subjects
Notes
Bibliography
Index