“Every time I tell my story I learn something new”: Voice and inclusion in research with Black women with histories of substance use and incarceration
| Author | Alana J. Gunn,Melissa Hardesty,Nicole Overstreet,Scyatta Wallace |
| Published date | 01 September 2022 |
| Date | 01 September 2022 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/17488958211005820 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
https://doi.org/10.1177/17488958211005820
Criminology & Criminal Justice
2022, Vol. 22(4) 505 –524
© The Author(s) 2021
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DOI: 10.1177/17488958211005820
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“Every time I tell my story
I learn something new”:
Voice and inclusion in
research with Black women
with histories of substance
use and incarceration
Alana J. Gunn
University of Illinois at Chicago, USA
Melissa Hardesty
Binghamton University, USA
Nicole Overstreet
Clark University, USA
Scyatta Wallace
St John’s University, USA
Abstract
While current ethical procedures aim to minimize risks to imprisoned individuals, there is
heightened awareness of the need to protect those who participate in research post-incarceration
while under community-based supervision. Formerly incarcerated women, in particular, face
myriad challenges to community reintegration which also make them vulnerable participants in
research. As such, this study explores how 28 formerly incarcerated Black women experience
the qualitative research process. Findings revealed that women engaged in research because
these contexts were viewed as therapeutic spaces for raising awareness that can help others.
Moreover, the interview process allowed women to share their pasts in ways that promote their
Corresponding author:
Alana J. Gunn, Department of Criminology, Law and Justice, University of Illinois at Chicago, Behavioral
Sciences Building, 10007 West Harrison Avenue, Room 4014B, Chicago, IL 60607, USA.
Email: agunn2@uic.edu
1005820CRJ0010.1177/17488958211005820Criminology & Criminal JusticeGunn et al.
research-article2021
Article
506 Criminology & Criminal Justice 22(4)
recovery from addiction. Participants also reported risks of emotional distress and fears regarding
researcher stigma. The implications for trauma-informed interviewing practices underscore the
need for greater considerations of the role of the researcher, research environment, and how
they contribute to one’s personal recovery.
Keywords
Anti-oppressive research, drug use, ethics, research methods, storytelling, trauma
Introduction
The United States medical research has an unfortunately long history of abuse often
involving minorities and/or women already facing various forms of societal oppressions.
These include medical atrocities like the Tuskegee Syphilis Study (1932–1972;
Wasserman et al., 2007), unethical trials performed on Black enslaved women (Savitt,
1982) as well as sterilization procedures conducted without explicit consent on: Native
American women (Hodge, 2012), women of Puerto Rican decent (Warren et al., 1986),
and women in prison (Roth and Ainsworth, 2015). In response to these egregious mis-
steps, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) established institutional review boards
(IRBs) to ensure that (1) research respondents are aware of the risks and benefits of
participation, allowing them to make an informed decision; (2) the benefits of participa-
tion outweigh the risks; and that (3) research with vulnerable populations, such as preg-
nant women, children, those with mental disabilities, and incarcerated individuals are
subject to more stringent screening criteria (Tufford et al., 2012).
While the ordinary ethical responsibilities of IRBs are important, institutionalized
procedures guiding their operations are structured to address scientific experiments
conducted in traditional academic and medical institutions. As such, these procedures
may not be responsive to the ethical questions that shape inquiry for anti-oppressive and
feminist scholars, such as the role of the researcher in shaping one’s participation in
community-based inquiry (Iphofen and Tolich, 2018). The current study seeks to
explore critical questions related to how marginalized groups, such as women with
substance use histories who are under correctional supervision post-incarceration, expe-
rience the research process. Moreover, this study examines the ways in which the
research context can be constructed as a space for marginalized populations to narrate
their own stories in ways that may contrast with other less agentic, service-providing
contexts that the formerly incarcerated must often navigate.
Institutional review and challenges to anti-oppressive research inquiry
Amid the attention toward safeguarding the rights of vulnerable populations, counter
concerns have emerged questioning whether gatekeeping procedures enacted in the
name of human subject protection may actually potentiate harm through epistemic
exclusion. That is, if we exclude participants from research on the grounds that they are
too vulnerable to consent or are more likely to suffer harm, our cache of knowledge
about marginalized groups may be lacking or systematically biased (Hardesty and
Gunn, 2019; Iphofen and Tolich, 2018). With an eye to the interpenetration of power
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