Abstract

Despite the well-established link between homelessness and incarceration, very little qualitative research has focused on the social processes that underlie this nexus. In this article, I draw on 19 in-depth interviews with incarcerated men who reported pre-prison housing instability, supplemented with 5 interviews with formerly-incarcerated men experiencing homelessness, to explore the gendered nature of the homelessness-incarceration nexus. I propose the concept of “liberative instability”—defined as an unfettered lifestyle characterized by double-edged freedom and independence—to explore the changing meaning of homelessness in men’s narratives of their life course. Additionally, I explore how themes of masculinity and liberative instability are embedded in men’s narratives of freedom and confinement as they reflect on their experiences with homelessness and incarceration. These findings animate existing quantitative research by highlighting that the homelessness-incarceration nexus cannot be understood fully or disrupted without considering the significance of age-graded cultural scripts regarding masculinity.

摘要

尽管无家可归和监禁之间已经建立了良好的联系，但很少有定性研究关注构成这种联系的社会过程。在本文中，我对 19 名报告监狱前住房不稳定的被监禁男子进行了深入采访，并补充了对经历无家可归的前被监禁男子的 5 次采访，以探讨无家可归者与监禁之间关系的性别性质。我提出“自由不稳定性”的概念——定义为一种以双刃自由和独立为特征的无拘无束的生活方式——来探索无家可归在男性生命历程叙述中不断变化的意义。此外，我探讨了男子气概和自由不稳定的主题是如何嵌入男性对自由和禁闭的叙述中的，因为他们反思了他们无家可归和被监禁的经历。这些发现通过强调，如果不考虑年龄分级的文化脚本对男性气质的重要性，就无法完全理解或破坏无家可归者与监禁之间的关系，从而为现有的定量研究提供了动力。