A gender-comparative exploration of women’s and men’s pathways to prison in Thailand

Abstract

In feminist criminology, there is a growing body of research exploring gendered pathways into prison. However, this research has focussed predominantly on women. There are few gender comparative studies. Further, most feminist pathways research is western centric having, for the most part, been undertaken in the United States. Utilising categorical principal components analysis alongside descriptive statistics and illustrative case study examples, this paper adds to the feminist pathways research by describing and comparing women’s and men’s pathways to prison in Thailand. Three common pathways to prison emerged for both women and men: (1) peer group association/deviant lifestyle, (2) harmed and harming, (3) economically motivated. However, gendered variance was found within these common pathways. Further, two pathways emerged exclusively for women: (1) adulthood victimisation and dysfunctional intimate relationships, (2) naivety and deception. These results substantiate the notion that trajectories into prison are gendered, add empirical support to the feminist pathways perspective beyond the west, contribute to knowledge on how both women and men come to be in prison in Thailand, and in doing so, have utility for the development of gender-informed prison policies, and practices as per the United Nations Rules for the Treatment of Women Prisoners and Non-Custodial Measures for Women Offenders (the Bangkok Rules).

Mapping Women’s and Men’s Pathways into Thailand’s Prisons for Homicide and Sex Offences: Utilising a Feminist Pathways Approach

“…Daly's (1994) framework has been reassessed and further developed by several western feminist researchers, utilising both quantitative and qualitative methodologies to map women's imprisonment trajectories (e.g., DeHart 2008; Simpson et al 2008), but gender comparative work is limited (see Daggett 2014;Jones et al 2014). Together, this work supports core facets of Daly's (1994) research, as do findings from research conducted beyond the Anglosphere, with areas of place-specific variance (e.g., for non-western studies that have considered interpersonal violence, see Artz et al 2012;Cherukuri et al 2009;Jeffries et al 2019;Russell et al 2020;Veloso 2016Veloso , 2022 Additionally, limited access to justice, and an inability to negotiate corrupted criminal legal systems, have been identified as contributing to women's criminalisation in Southeast and East Asia (e.g., Cherukuri et al 2009;Jeffries and Chuenurah 2018;Veloso 2016Veloso , 2022. Finally, and of more specific background relevance here, there are three previous studies conducted in Southeast Asia that have either included Smart 1977).…”

“…Gendered abuse, trauma, and adversity, compounded by other problems in intimate relationships, resulted in violence being used as a protective strategy against abusive men, or a loss of control/anger being directed outwards at harming others. In addition to emulating Daly's (1994) work, this route is reflected in previous Southeast Asian research (Russell et al 2020;Jeffries and Chuenurah 2018;Veloso 2022), and aligns with what is known more generally about women's perpetration of homicide (Belknap et al 2012;Caman et al 2016;Desta and Venema 2021;Flynn et al 2013;Friedman and Resnick 2007;Hesselink and Dastile 2015;Kachaeva et al 2010;Kirkwood 2003, p. 153;Morrissey 2003;Oberman 2003Oberman , 2008Rougé-Maillart et al 2005;Silverman and Kennedy 1988;Vatnar et al 2018;Weizmann-Henelius et al 2012).…”

“…women and men criminalised for violence and sex offending (Russell et al 2020;Veloso 2016Veloso , 2022, or specifically considered women's trajectories into prison for homicide (Jeffries and Chuenurah 2018).…”

Criminal lifestyle, psychopathy, and prison adjustment among female inmates

“…Although most of these studies were conducted among male samples, research also revealed that female inmates are a heterogeneous group regarding the commission of disciplinary infractions, with a subgroup maintaining a limited pattern of serious rule infractions and other groups showing different patterns of misconduct. The groups who showed the higher levels of infractions are those who had higher percentages of violent offenders, higher rates of prior arrests, violent arrests, mental health problems, and violent risk scores (e.g., Cochran & Mears, 2017;Russel et al, 2020).…”

Prison and Community Penalties

“…Women in prison report experience of high levels of victimisation through gender-based violence, and disproportionately experience mental health and addiction-related problems. They have often lived lives of extreme economic precariousness (Frois, 2017;Russell et al, 2020). The trauma that imprisoned women have experienced in their lives is compounded by incarceration (Carlton & Segrave, 2011).…”