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Angela Hattery

Professor of Women & Gender Studies and Co-Director of the Center for the Study & Prevention of Gender-Based Violence, University of Delaware

About Angela

Hattery's research focuses in two areas that are of interest to public engagement and policy makers: violence prevention and mass incarceration. Hattery's research examines the structural causes of gender-based violence (sexual and intimate partner violence) with attention to race and class differences. Hattery's research on mass incarceration, wrongful convictions, and solitary confinement reveals the racialized impact of these systems on Black communities. Hattery consults regularly with violence prevention and intervention organizations and the court to reduce violence through non-incarceration approaches.

In the News

"Ineffective Policies for Gender-Based Violence in Sports Result in a Lack of Accountability," Angela Hattery (with Earl Smith, Katelyn Foltz, and Marissa Kiss), How We Rise, Brookings, April 4, 2023.

Publications

"Victimizing the Innocent: Racism, Wrongful Convictions, and Exonerations of Black Men in the Criminal Legal System" (with Earl Smith), in The Victimology of a Wrongful Conviction: Innocent Inmates and Indirect Victims (Routledge, 2022).

Exposes the myriad of victims of wrongful conviction by going beyond the innocent person who has been wrongfully incarcerated to include the numerous indirect victims who suffer collaterally. Widens the net to also examine consequences for family, friends, co-workers, witnesses, the initial victims of the crime, and society in general—all indirect victims who are often forgotten in treatments of wrongful conviction. 

"Way Down in the Hole: Race, Intimacy and the Reproduction of Racial Ideologies in Solitary Confinement" (with Earl Smith) (Rutgers University Press, 2022).

Discusses based on hundreds of hours of observation in solitary confinement units and interviews with both those who are incarcerated and those who work in solitary confinement, the research uncovered the harm and trauma that solitary confinement has on both the prisoner and those who work there.

"Mapping Coercive Violence" (with Allison E. Monterrosa). Gender Society (2022).

Explores a new type of intimate partner violence that exposes victims to the violence of institutions and the state, including the prison system and the child welfare system in ways that harm not only victims but their children.

"How Black Lives Are Surveilled and How to Work for Change" (with Earl Smith) (Rowman & Littlefield, 2021).

Makes a compelling case that the policing of Black bodies goes far beyond these individual stories of brutality. Connects the regulation of African American people in many settings, including the public education system and the criminal justice system, into a powerful narrative about the myriad ways Black bodies are policed. Calls attention to the ways class, race, and gender contribute to injustice, as well as the perils of colorblind racism—that by pretending not to see race we actually strengthen, rather than dismantle, racist social structures. 

"Policing Black Bodies: How Black Lives are Surveilled and How to Work for Change. " (Rowman & Littlefield, 2020).

Shows how Black Lives are Surveilled and How to Work for Change. Discovers the myriad ways in which Black lives are over-policed, from mass incarceration to shackling during labor and delivery to wrongful conviction and the negative impacts this has on society and Black communities in particular.

" Gender, Power and Violence: Responding to Sexual and Intimate Partner Violence in Society Today." (with Earl Smith) (Rowman and Littlefield, 2019).

Examines gender-based violence in institutions, including on college campuses, in the military, in prison, in the Catholic Church, in politics and Hollywood and the ways in which these institutions protect abusers and fail to hold them accountable, thus allowing for the perpetuation of the violence.

"The Social Dynamics of Family Violence" (with Earl Smith) (Routledge, 2019).

Explores family violence throughout the life course, from child abuse and neglect to intimate partner violence and elder abuse. Pays special attention to the social character and institutional causes of family violence, asks students to consider how social inequality, especially gender inequality, contributes to tensions and explosive tendencies in family settings. Learns about individual preventative measures and are also invited to question the justice of our current social structure, with implications for social policy and reorganization.

"African American Families Today: Myths and Realities" (with Earl Smith) (Rowman & Littlefield, 2014).

Debunks many common myths about black families in America, sharing stories and drawing on the latest research to show the realities.

"Race, Wrongful Conviction & Exoneration" (with Earl Smith), in Journal of African American Studies (Springer, 2011), 74–94.

Examines the risk that race produces for wrongful conviction and ultimately for exoneration.  Additionally, we note the importance of the racial composition of the crime - African American men accused of raping White women - on wrongful convictions and exonerations.

"Prisoner Reentry and Social Capital: The Long Road to Reintegration" (with Earl Smith) (Rowman & Littlefield, 2010).

Provides a deeper and more precise understanding of the biases faced by re-entry felons in the labor market and work to address the key barriers to re-entry in hopes to aid in their elimination. 

"African American Men and the Prison Industrial Complex" (with Earl Smith), in Western Journal of Black Studies (Pullman, 2010), 387-398.

Fills an important gap by examining the linkages between the mass incarceration of African American men by the Prison Industrial Complex (PIC) and the consequent bleeding of capital-specifically financial, human, social and political-from the men themselves, their families, and the African American community at large.