Mothers who fight back: IPV and caregiving in families affected by parental incarceration

Research on prisoners’ families has documented the burdens placed on non-incarcerated caregivers, yet intimate partner violence (IPV) within these families remains underexplored. This paper examines how mothers in prisoners’ families negotiate caregiving responsibilities following IPV, and how these practices are shaped by structural inequalities and meaning-making. The findings show that IPV is not peripheral to caregiving, but a central organising force shaping fear, economic strain, maternal decision-making, and children’s relationships with imprisoned fathers. Mothers are engaged in intensive emotional, relational, and economic labour, including preserving paternal identities, managing disclosure, and navigating institutional constraints, often under conditions of violence and material hardship. Integrating perspectives on feminisation of poverty, gendered caregiving, mothering, and meaning-making, the paper highlights the gendered redistribution of punishment beyond the prison and argues for foregrounding IPV within criminological research on prisoners’ families.