When the shoe doesn’t fit: A reflection on ‘lived experience’

• In Event: DCS Handbook on Lived Experience: Exploring the Possibilities of Lived Experience

Abstract

This paper reflects on the term ‘lived experience’, incorporating author B.’s personal standpoint as a Black woman with insider experience. When corrections and sentencing scholarship uses this phrase, the authors are often signaling their intention to engage with, center, and amplify the voices of those with criminal legal system involvement. However, the past tense nature of the phrase can inadvertently suggest a static, unchanging quality, which limits its application and excludes individuals who have been impacted by the system but have not experienced formal sentencing or contact. Particularly concerning is how this conceptualization may overlook the experiences of individuals, especially Black women, whose interactions with the criminal legal system may not fit conventional narratives. This paper will interrogate the limits and possibilities of the phrase ‘lived experience’ to illuminate what it captures, how it shapes our understanding of whose voices are valued in the corrections literature, and ultimately, how important Black women’s inclusion is to reform and transformative efforts within the criminal legal system. The use of ‘lived experience’ in corrections scholarship requires a reimagining to recenter those most harmed by the United States’ criminal legal system as well as a recommitment to the liberatory goals of Black feminism.

Authors

• B. Williams, University of Delaware

• Mackenzie Niness, University of Delaware