Female pathways to crime and prison: Challenging the (US) gendered pathways perspective

Nuytiens, An; Christiaens, Jenneke

doi:10.1177/1477370815608879

Cited by 27 publications

(34 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…However, most of this research has been conducted in anglophone countries (for one exception, see Nuytiens and Christiaens 2016). Feminist criminology in Latin America has mainly explored the prison experiences of incarcerated women (see Azaola 2013;Lemgruber 1999;Salazar and Cabral 2012), and less attention has been paid to their criminal trajectories and to the heterogeneity that might exist between different groups of women.…”

Section: Women's Criminal Trajectoriesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Who is Transitioning out of Prison? Characterising Female Offenders and Their Needs in Chile

Larroulet¹,

Droppelmann²,

Villar³

et al. 2020

Int J for Crime, Justice & Social Democracy

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The last decades’ increase in female incarceration has translated into an increasing number of women being released from prison. Understanding their characteristics and criminal trajectories can enlighten us regarding the different needs of women upon re-entering society after incarceration. Drawing on data from the Reinserción, Desistimiento y Reincidencia en Mujeres Privadas de Libertad en Chile study, this article identifies different profiles among a cohort of 225 women who were released from prison in Santiago, Chile, and demonstrates that significant heterogeneity exists among them in terms of their criminal trajectories and the intervention needs to support their transition out of prison.

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Section: Women's Criminal Trajectoriesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Who is Transitioning out of Prison? Characterising Female Offenders and Their Needs in Chile

Larroulet¹,

Droppelmann²,

Villar³

et al. 2020

Int J for Crime, Justice & Social Democracy

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“…When reflecting on the narratives that the women communicated during their interviews, careful consideration was given to those discourses which indicated agency and autonomy within pathways taken. Yet, it also can be seen from these discourses that the boundaries between what constitutes a “victim” and an “offender” are often co-mingled and imprecise, which further complicates the important question of agency (Nuytiens & Christiaens, 2015). The women are not without agency and merely passive victims of their life circumstances who are “forced” or “compelled” into crime (Richie, 1996).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This approach was unique in that it challenged the idea that criminological theories were gender neutral (Wattanaporn & Holtfreter, 2014). Although her pathways framework was a fundamental step towards recognising that unique, gendered, life circumstances lead women to commit offences and paved the way for theoretical development and methodological advancements in feminist criminology, it was limited in that it was developed and tested primarily in the United States, leaving its applicability within the context of other cultures, societies and countries questionable (Nuytiens & Christiaens, 2015). This issue has been addressed to some extent in the decades following Daly's published results, through the many pathways research studies conducted in countries ranging from Portugal (Matos, 2008) and Peru (Boutron & Constant, 2013), to Sierra Leone (Mahtani, 2013), Israel (Erez & Berko, 2010) and Kenya (Yenjela, 2015).…”

Section: The Pathways Perspectivementioning

confidence: 99%

Pathways and penalties: Exploring experiences of agency among incarcerated women in South Africa

Parry

2020

Feminism & Psychology

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Despite the documented rise in the population of incarcerated women over recent decades, female offenders only represent about 5% of the total global incarcerated population. South Africa is no different – female offenders total less than 3% of the country’s incarcerated population, a populace that was previously counted as one of the ten largest correctional systems in the world. This small representation of women in the correctional system leads to interpretations of their pathways to offending and experiences of incarceration to be the same as those of male offenders, delegitimising any role that gender may play in offending behaviour. By utilising a feminist pathways research approach, the narratives of 17 women incarcerated in the Johannesburg Female Correctional Centre are contextualised in this study, to reveal conduits to women’s incarceration that primarily involve victimisation and socially constructed gendered vulnerabilities that are interconnected with poverty and oppression. As seen through excerpts of their life history interviews, this confluence of factors, coupled with pathways of narrowing options, contribute to female offending. Ultimately the research allows for a holistic understanding of the unique choices and challenges incarcerated women in South Africa face, and the role agency and patriarchy has played in the pathways taken.

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“…Although the negative effects of incarceration on employment have been widely documented, the employment conditions of incarcerated women and the related health effects have been understudied (Cobbina, 2009;Cox, 2012;Nuytiens & Christiaens, 2016). Women with a history of incarceration struggle to find jobs that provide a living wage (Bergseth, Richardson Jens, Bergerson-Vigesaa, & McDonal, 2011;Decker, Spohn, Ortiz, & Hedberg, 2014;Wright, Van Voorhis, Salisbury, & Bauman, 2012), and many of these women resort to exchanging sex for money (McClanahan, McGlelland, Abram, & Teplin, 1999;Riley, Gandhi, Hare, Cohen, & Hwang, 2007).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The health effects of gendered and devalued work: health outcomes of incarcerated women engaging in sex work and care/service work

Kim

Peterson

2020

Health Justice

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Background Women with a history of incarceration are often engaged in highly gendered work, either sex work or low-wage care/service work jobs. While employment is an important element of reentry plans, low-wage jobs may not necessarily help women leave illicit activities, including commercial sex work. Incarcerated women often move between care/service work and sex work to supplement income, putting them at greater risk for negative health outcomes. Results Using survey data from 400 women detained in a large urban jail, we examined how incarcerated women’s experience with sex work and low-wage care/service work affects four health-related outcomes: overall health concerns, clinical depression, regular drug use, and self-esteem. Of the survey participants, 24% engaged exclusively in sex work and 34% in care/service work. However, 41% of women held both sex work and care/service work jobs, prior to incarceration. Compared to women engaged in care/service work, a greater proportion of women engaged in sex work reported overall health concerns, clinical depression, and regular drug use. On the other hand, women in care/service work jobs exclusively reported lower levels of self-esteem than women engaging in sex work. Conclusions Many reentry programs emphasize the importance of employment for former inmates, and yet, job options for women detained in jail are often limited to low-wage care/service jobs, which do not necessarily provide adequate security to lift women’s economic burdens. Consequently, many women with a history of incarceration may supplement their income with sex work to meet their basic economic needs. However, both of these highly gendered and devalued jobs may negatively affect health and wellbeing of women.

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Female pathways to crime and prison: Challenging the (US) gendered pathways perspective

Cited by 27 publications

References 29 publications

Who is Transitioning out of Prison? Characterising Female Offenders and Their Needs in Chile

Who is Transitioning out of Prison? Characterising Female Offenders and Their Needs in Chile

Pathways and penalties: Exploring experiences of agency among incarcerated women in South Africa

The health effects of gendered and devalued work: health outcomes of incarcerated women engaging in sex work and care/service work

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