ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the social and interpersonal influences black girls and women are required to negotiate and how these factors impact on their psychological wellbeing and identity. It aims to outline the generational political and social contexts contributing to their over-representation in mental health and criminal justice settings. The chapter explains ideas about how professionals working throughout the network of forensic systems might employ knowledge and awareness of racist dynamics to avoid perpetuating racist trauma on black women who offend while experiencing psychological distress. In order to illustrate the experiences of black women in the mental health and criminal justice systems, the tragic case of Sarah Reed is considered. Sarah Reed died in prison custody in 2016. In exploring the generational legacy of this impossible position, bell hooks notes that in popular culture black women’s bodies gain attention only when being offered up and sexually deviant; in other words, she says, ‘“hot” and highly sexed’.
