Hello, and welcome to another edition of our Profiles Section!
With February being Black History (and Herstory!) Month, we felt it would be fitting to profile two women who have made significant contributions focusing on African American women and crime/victimization: Carolyn West and Hillary Potter. Carolyn West's lifelong focus on violence in the lives of African American women has resulted in numerous publications and scholarly awards. Hillary Potter's contributions to the field of Black feminist criminology and domestic violence have brought national attention to the important relationships between race, gender, and crime. Please take a moment to get to know these two amazing women.
If you have suggestions for DWC members or significant contributors to the field of women and crime that you would like to see profiled, please contact Venezia Michalsen or Alana Van Gundy-Yoder. We would enjoy hearing from you!
Until next edition,
Alana and Venezia
HILLARY POTTER
How/why did you get into this field, and why do you stay in it? In other words, what drives you?
During my second semester of my junior year at the University of Colorado at Boulder I took a deviance course offered by the sociology department. Soon after, for the fifth and final time, I changed my major to Sociology because of the department's offerings of criminology courses. I was fortunate to be involved in a criminology internship program during the final year of my undergraduate education. Interning in a local halfway house and a secure youth corrections facility provided me with indispensable experiential learning and, more importantly, the opportunity to determine that my recent change in majors was a sound decision. As I fast-tracked to graduation, I knew I had found my niche.
Upon graduating I secured employment in the criminal justice field and soon after made my way to New York City to study for my master's degree at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice. Until I arrived in New York, I had lived only in Denver and Boulder. The boroughs and people of New York City offered me a priceless experience that was further enhanced by the diverse groups of people I encountered on a personal level at a school and job that inundated me with an astute education of the criminal justice system that I had not adequately acquired prior to my arrival to the city.
Ultimately, I spent ten years working in community-based corrections, with such job positions as group home counselor, halfway house case manager and administrator, juvenile diversion counselor, and juvenile probation officer. My final years in the field found me pondering the effectiveness of the U.S. criminal justice systems for youth and adults. During my time in the field I witnessed first-hand the extralegal workings of the system. I observed how the ability to hire private defense attorneys garnered less stigmatized charges (such as removing the term sexual from a misdemeanor assault charge) and lighter sentences. I observed that many of the individuals able to hire such attorneys were White. Even when economic class was not an issue, I often observed how White children were afforded more rehabilitative sentences, while Brown and Black children were ordered to serve more retributive sentences. Consequently, these furtive instances caused me to become increasingly dissuaded from working in a system that purported to be helping all victims and offenders on a justice-is-blind model, but, in effect, were meting out sanctions that kept poor Black and Brown adults and children in a cycle that set them up for failure and only exacerbated their lives.
Toward the end of my tenure of working in the criminal justice field, by which time I had returned to Colorado, I began an adjunct instructor position in a criminal justice and criminology department at a four-year state college in Denver. I maintained my jobs in the criminal justice field and taught college courses on the side, but it was not long before I was offered a full-time visiting assistant professorship at the college, which forced me to make a decision about the next phase in my career. I eventually left the criminal justice field as a practitioner not as a form of abandonment of those who work in the system, but because I realized that my personal strengths were being depleted by working in the system and that I would better serve (and support) the system and its officials by focusing my efforts on research and education. Soon after I began my visiting faculty position, I found my way back to CU-Boulder, working toward a doctorate degree in sociology.
[Excerpted from a forthcoming chapter in Critical Voices in Criminology, Chris Powell, editor, Lexington Books.]
How do you define yourself as a scholar/activist/educator?
It depends on the day and the context. Some days I say I am a criminologist; other days I am a sociologist who studies crime. But no matter the day, I am always a feminist-activist.
What are your current projects or interests?
A year ago I began conducting intensive interviews with women who have been in abusive relationships with partners of a different race/ethnicity. This is a very exploratory study, as our academic discipline knows virtually nothing about the experiences of women who are in abusive and violent interracial relationships. I will continue to be engaged in this project for the next several years because I am very passionate about finding out all we can with regard to violence against women and the racial implications within these types of couplings.
I am also working on broader race/gender/class/crime issues by way of writing a book with my good friend Allison Cotton called Racialized Perceptions of Crime. In addition, I am working on a manuscript called Black Feminist Criminology, for which I will be seeking publishers in the near future.
Do you have any kids, pets and/or significant partner?
Nope, none of the above.
How do you wind down after a stressful day?
I know that none of what I do at the end of a stressful day would be regarded is winding down. As of late I cannot get enough of news reports and programs about the current presidential election coverage. I also enjoy well-written TV crime dramas and crime fiction novels (my favorite crime fiction authors are Patricia Cornwell and Harlan Coben). But as often as possible I do try to take in nonsensical TV programming, such as reality shows, so that I can at least make an attempt to turn off my brain from the serious issues of my work and life. Most of the time, however, I have to hold-off on fully relieving my stress until the weekend (but only weekends that I commit to doing no work) or during breaks in the academic year. This includes going snowboarding with my 12-year-old nephew at least twice a month and taking at least one beach vacation each year.
What is your favorite word? Least favorite word?
It is hard for me to narrow down my choice of favorite word to only one, but one of my least favorite words is "girl" when used to describe women who are adults. It bothers me even more when it is women who use this term in this manner.
What is your most embarrassing moment (if willing to share)?
There are so many I could share, but they're either too unsuitable for this forum or ones that my ego has not yet recovered from!
What is one of your lifelong goals?
To have my research actually affect change in the criminal justice system.
For more information on Hillary Potter, please click here.
To download an article by Hillary Potter, please click here.
CAROLYN WEST
How/why did you get into this field, and why do you stay in it? In other words, what drives you?
It was 1974. I was 13 years old and armed with an adult library card. The first book I checked out was Scream Quietly or the Neighbors Will Hear by Erin Pizzey. It was the beginning of my career as a domestic violence researcher. My dissertation focused on dating violence among low-income African American youth. After completing a predoctoral internship at Notre Dame and a teaching/clinical postdoctoral fellowship at Illinois State University, I spent two years as a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of New Hampshire's Family Research Laboratory. Currently, I hold the Bartley Dobb Professorship for the Study and Prevention of Violence at the University of Washington.
I continue to do this work because everyday women are sexually and physically assaulted by intimate partners. I envision a world that does not tolerate this conduct.
How do you define yourself as a scholar/activist/educator?
I see myself as a Black feminist interdisciplinary scholar that seeks to understand how women's multiple identities (e.g., race, social class, age) shape their experience with intimate partner violence and sexual assault. Although I am a clinical psychologist, I draw on my background in women's studies, ethnic studies, sociology, criminology, and even media studies.
Being an educator is very important to me. I love teaching. Over the years, I have developed several courses on Family Violence.
It's funny, but I don't often see myself as an "activist." I just feel a personal responsibility to do something about injustice. For instance, when I was 25 years old I filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against my university in the early 1990s. Although I reached a settlement with the university, it was probably one of the most difficult times of my life. However, it was gratifying to see how a small group of individuals can change policy.
What are your current projects or interests?
Currently, I am working on a series of self-help books for domestic violence and sexual assault survivors. Several books will be written specifically for African American women. It troubles me that there aren't more books and resources that speak to this particular population. I want to inspire readers to transform themselves into what I like to call "Healing Victors": women who have victimized, but became survivors, who are always working toward healing.
Do you have any kids, pets and/or significant partner?
I am fortunate to have a host of family members and friends.
How do you wind down after a stressful day?
I sit in my hot tub or spend time with friends and family. I make a list of all the things that make my happy.
What is your favorite word? Least favorite word?
My favorite word is "feminist." It gives me an opportunity to talk to students about all the stereotypes that surround this word.
My least favorite word is "battered woman." A woman may be "battered" but this is not her identity.
What is one of your lifelong goals?
Professional goal: I want to conduct workshops and customize high-quality, comprehensive, and culturally sensitive training materials to inform, empower, and support helping professionals who endeavor to provide services to ethnically diverse domestic violence and sexual assault survivors.
Personal goal: Hike the Grand Canyon. I went hiking there in 1989. Next time, I want to hike (or take a mule!) to Phantom Ranch.
For more information on Carolyn West, please visit www.drcarolynwest.com.
To download articles by Carolyn West, click on the following links: article 1 article 2 article 3.