Testoni Ines, Branciforti Giulia, Zamperini Adriano, Zuliani Livia, Nava Felice Alfonso
Dipartimento di Filosofia, Sociologia, Pedagogia e Psicologia Applicata (FISPPA), Università degli Studi di Padova Scuola di Psicologia , Padova, Italy.
Penitentiary Medicine and Drug Abuse Unit Public Health Service of Padova, Padua, Italy.
Int J Prison Health. 2019 Dec 5;15(4):332-348. doi: 10.1108/IJPH-09-2018-0046. Epub 2019 Aug 16.
Gender inequality and sexism are often at the root of domestic violence against women and children, with both serving to justify male domination. This runs in parallel with mother-blaming bias, which constitutes a pervasive common sense and scientific error derived from the myth of the good and the bad mother, characterising a large part of studies on deviance. The purpose of this paper is to consider the possible role of sexism in prisoners' deviant biographies; for this, the authors considered the role of the mother in the biographies of prisoners, and the results lend support to the idea that mother-blaming is a serious fallacy. Starting from a critical psychology point of view and following the retrospective methodology, the authors interviewed 22 drug-addicted prisoners through Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) regarding their biographies and their relationships with parents and partners.
DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH: In the survey, the authors followed the same intention, and the results lend support to the idea that mother-blaming is a serious fallacy. The authors interviewed 22 drug-addicted prisoners through IPA concerning their biographies and their relationships with parents and partners.
The main result of this qualitative study was the recognition of a fundamental sexism assumed by participants, characterised by a paradox between the representation of the mother and the representation of the ideal woman. Despite the mother being their positive affective referent, and battered by her husband/partner, the same participants had been witnesses of domestic violence, and sometimes victims, they interiorised from their father an ambivalent sexism: benevolent sexism with regard to their mother and exhibited hostile sexism with their partner. On the one hand, it emerged that female empowerment was desirable with respect to the mothers. On the other hand, the ideal woman was exactly as their mother was, that is, being absolutely subordinated to men (a patient, caring, submissive housewife, totally dedicated to her children and her husband).
RESEARCH LIMITATIONS/IMPLICATIONS: From a mainstream psychological perspective, the limits of the research are linked to the utilisation of the narrative method. Also, this methodology does not verify any hypotheses, so quotations from the participants are used to illustrate themes, and thus, it is difficult to report the informational complexities arising from the dialogues. However, the literature has emphasised that these limitations do not invalidate qualitative research findings, despite the difficulties in generalising the results of the qualitative studies. Thereafter, the critical analysis moved within the intersection of experience-centred approaches and the culturally oriented treatment of narratives, so that the focus on the stories of the prisoners makes meaning because it applies structure to experience, albeit, with the form and content of the texts. This research did not permit us to measure and evaluate any post-traumatic hypotheses, which, in turn, would give room for further research. Another limitation of the research was that the relationship between culture of origin and gender biases, especially with participants from non-European countries, was not analysed. This topic would require an important in-depth study, which encompasses how women are treated in different countries and its effects on social maladjustment for immigrants in Italy.
The outcome of this study suggests that within similar structures in the Institute of Mitigated Custody, the theme of sexism should be considered in more depth. Since sexism justifies violence against women, and is therefore a factor that can cause recidivism in the antisocial behaviour of prisoners once they have served their sentences. It is important to allow them to analyse the relationship between their sexist attitudes, witnessing violence in childhood and the possibility of changing moral values of reference in favour of equality. This type of psychological intervention must necessarily be based not only on the elaboration of traumas suffered during childhood with an abusive father, but also on issues related to gender equality and the theme of social inclusion.
The study suggests the idea that male sexism can be a factor responsible for suffering and maladjustment for men and that therefore an education that promotes equality of gender differences can also help prevent the social distress associated with drug addiction and deviance.
ORIGINALITY/VALUE: The paper considers some cogent issues inherent to ambivalent sexism that pervades prisoners' aspirations for their future.
性别不平等和性别歧视往往是针对妇女和儿童的家庭暴力的根源，二者都为男性统治提供了正当理由。这与归咎于母亲的偏见并行不悖，这种偏见构成了一种普遍的常识和科学错误，源于好母亲与坏母亲的神话，在很大一部分关于越轨行为的研究中都有体现。本文的目的是探讨性别歧视在囚犯越轨经历中可能扮演的角色；为此，作者研究了母亲在囚犯经历中的作用，结果支持了归咎于母亲是一个严重谬误的观点。作者从批判心理学的角度出发，采用回顾性方法，通过解释现象学分析（IPA），就22名吸毒囚犯的经历以及他们与父母和伴侣的关系进行了访谈。
设计/方法/途径：在调查中，作者秉持相同的意图，结果支持了归咎于母亲是一个严重谬误的观点。作者通过IPA就22名吸毒囚犯的经历以及他们与父母和伴侣的关系进行了访谈。
这项定性研究的主要结果是认识到参与者所具有的一种基本性别歧视，其特点是母亲形象与理想女性形象之间存在矛盾。尽管母亲是他们积极的情感参照对象，且遭受丈夫/伴侣的殴打，但这些参与者同样目睹了家庭暴力，有时甚至成为受害者，他们从父亲那里内化了一种矛盾的性别歧视：对母亲表现出仁慈的性别歧视，对伴侣则表现出敌对的性别歧视。一方面，结果表明母亲需要获得女性赋权；另一方面，理想女性恰恰就是他们母亲那样，即完全服从男性（一个耐心、体贴、顺从的家庭主妇，完全奉献给孩子和丈夫）。
研究局限/启示：从主流心理学的角度来看，该研究的局限性在于采用了叙事方法。此外，这种方法并未验证任何假设，因此使用参与者的引述来说明主题，这样一来，就难以呈现对话中产生的信息复杂性。然而，文献强调，尽管定性研究结果难以进行概括，但这些局限性并不会使定性研究结果无效。此后，批判性分析在以经验为中心的方法与以文化为导向的叙事处理的交叉点展开，因此关注囚犯的故事是有意义的，因为它将结构应用于经验，尽管文本的形式和内容有所不同。这项研究无法让我们测量和评估任何创伤后假设，这反过来又为进一步研究留出了空间。该研究的另一个局限性在于，未分析原籍文化与性别偏见之间的关系，特别是对于来自非欧洲国家的参与者。这个主题需要进行重要的深入研究，包括不同国家如何对待女性以及这对意大利移民的社会适应产生的影响。
这项研究的结果表明，在类似的缓刑机构结构中，应更深入地考虑性别歧视这一主题。由于性别歧视使针对女性的暴力合理化，因此它是一个可能导致囚犯刑满释放后反社会行为再次发生的因素。重要的是要让他们分析自己的性别歧视态度、童年目睹的暴力以及改变道德参照价值观以支持平等的可能性之间的关系。这种心理干预不仅必须基于对童年遭受虐待父亲的创伤进行梳理，还必须基于与性别平等和社会包容主题相关的问题。
该研究表明，男性性别歧视可能是导致男性痛苦和适应不良的一个因素，因此促进性别差异平等的教育也有助于预防与吸毒和越轨行为相关的社会困境。
原创性/价值：本文探讨了弥漫在囚犯对未来期望中的矛盾性别歧视所固有的一些紧迫问题。
