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Editorial Reviews
From Booklist
Humphries effectively argues that the "rise and fall" of reports on crack mothers "illustrates the politics of moral panics and drug scares." The instant addiction of crack cocaine and its threat to the health of women and infants were exaggerated by the media and used to justify harsher social agendas regarding women and minorities. Humphries examines several well-publicized prosecutions of crack mothers that sanctioned legal intrusion on women's rights and had the opposite of their intended effects, discouraging drug-addicted women from seeking prenatal care. The work also includes an analysis of the severe media treatment of low-income minority women versus the more understanding treatment of middle-class white women who were also addicts. Notwithstanding the real damage suffered by infants born of crack mothers, Humphries notes that oversimplified coverage diverts attention from the underlying social problems--poverty and inadequate social services. This is a well-researched examination of a social issue that has not gone away, though it is no longer front-page news. Vanessa Bush
Card catalog description
In Crack Mothers, Drew Humphries asserts that medicine and criminal justice have always been at odds on the subject of drug use. One treats drug users as patients, the other as criminals. However, beginning in the late 1980s, the "crack mother" scare led to an unprecedented alliance between doctors and prosecutors in same states, where doctors turned addicted pregnant women over to the police for arrest, trial, and incarceration. Humphries analyzes the public reaction to crack cocaine and the policies instituted to combat it. She shows us that more often than not, policies were generated by the fears that crack mothers were harbingers of even more serious social problems. The media's construction of the crack mother as a model of depravity is, she argues, a reflection of mainstream desires and fears, not a reflection of the truth. Humphries offers a more balanced view of the women who use crack and the policies that have been adopted to stop them.
Humphries effectively argues that the "rise and fall" of reports on crack mothers "illustrates the politics of moral panics and drug scares." The instant addiction of crack cocaine and its threat to the health of women and infants were exaggerated by the media and used to justify harsher social agendas regarding women and minorities. Humphries examines several well-publicized prosecutions of crack mothers that sanctioned legal intrusion on women's rights and had the opposite of their intended effects, discouraging drug-addicted women from seeking prenatal care. The work also includes an analysis of the severe media treatment of low-income minority women versus the more understanding treatment of middle-class white women who were also addicts. Notwithstanding the real damage suffered by infants born of crack mothers, Humphries notes that oversimplified coverage diverts attention from the underlying social problems--poverty and inadequate social services. This is a well-researched examination of a social issue that has not gone away, though it is no longer front-page news. Vanessa Bush
Card catalog description
In Crack Mothers, Drew Humphries asserts that medicine and criminal justice have always been at odds on the subject of drug use. One treats drug users as patients, the other as criminals. However, beginning in the late 1980s, the "crack mother" scare led to an unprecedented alliance between doctors and prosecutors in same states, where doctors turned addicted pregnant women over to the police for arrest, trial, and incarceration. Humphries analyzes the public reaction to crack cocaine and the policies instituted to combat it. She shows us that more often than not, policies were generated by the fears that crack mothers were harbingers of even more serious social problems. The media's construction of the crack mother as a model of depravity is, she argues, a reflection of mainstream desires and fears, not a reflection of the truth. Humphries offers a more balanced view of the women who use crack and the policies that have been adopted to stop them.
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Citations
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2
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- Mothers and Children: Feminist Analyses and Personal Narratives by Susan E. Chase in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- Medicalized Motherhood: Perspectives from the Lives of African-American and Jewish Women by Jacquelyn S. Litt in Back Matter
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