The role of emotions for female co-offenders

Abstract

There is a growing body of literature which highlights that women follow distinct and often gendered pathways into crime. Violence, coercion and love within intimate relationships have been increasingly acknowledged as motivating factors for female offending behaviour. However, there is a lack of understanding of the ways in which emotions, such as love and fear, influence co-offending women's pathways into crime. This chapter will highlight the significance of emotions for female co-offenders, particularly when they are in an intimate, violent, exploitative and/ or controlling relationship with their partner/ co-offender. Female offenders more broadly are typically viewed to be wholly independent, rational agents or as lacking control in relation to their offending behaviour and thus having their agency completely denied. However, this dichotomy is problematic, as it fails to consider how emotional dimensions of co-offending relationships may influence offending behaviour and experiences of agency. The importance of acknowledging such emotions in social context when attempting to understand such women's offending 'choices' will be explored. Collectively, this chapter will highlight that emotions and offending behaviour are inextricably connected for female co-offenders. Such emotions need to be acknowledged and understood alongside structural factors if criminologists are to fully understand such women's motivations for offending.

Defending ‘Co‐offending’ Women: Recognising Domestic Abuse and Coercive Control in ‘Joint Enterprise' Cases Involving Women and their Intimate Partners

“…Similarly, Fiona, who had been at a different address at the time of the homicide she was convicted of explained: However, these women reported that it was being in a relationship with the principal offender that implicated them in the offence, as the police made inferences about what they knew prior to or after the violence took place (see also Clarke and Chadwick 2020). This reflects broader research that shows that women are more likely to be identified as offenders in the criminal justice system than as victims (Barlow 2019).…”

“…For the women who were at the violent incident, the abuse and coercive control perpetrated by their partner ensured that they remained in situations that were (sometimes unexpectedly) violent or (in a small number of cases) that they assisted their partner in the commission of the offence, for example by bringing the victim to the scene. Women's inactivity in the former and activity in the latter was driven by a complicated web of emotions, including love, fear and co-dependence that they felt towards their partner, which were all framed within a 'continuum of coercion' narrative (Barlow 2016, p.69; see also Barlow 2019). Women's engagement in the police investigation was further constrained by the abuse and coercion they suffered, layered on top of a general distrust of the system due to being repeatedly failed by institutions of the State during their short lives.…”

“…There was also a common belief among the women that any calls for help or protection would not be heard by State agencies, based on their previous experiences of the social welfare and criminal justice systems (see Barlow 2019). In such circumstances, women developed coping strategies to deal with the violence that they endured including minimisation (Hunter 2006).…”

“…In her narrative Sara explains that she felt that she had 'no choice', emphasising the contextual limits to her sense of agency. The severity of the abuse Sara suffered also calls into question the relevance of traditionally white, male notions of rationality (Lloyd 1979) and highlights the role of fear in women's experiences of co-offending (see Barlow 2019). It also challenges legal understandings of 'duress' for women who require a defence, in circumstances in which they admit assisting or encouraging their partner, like Sara.…”

“…Poor relationships with the police often corresponded with a fear of 'punitive state responses' (Barlow 2019) and broader attitudes towards the 'system' as illegitimate. Such feelings tended to be the result of social services or the police being unresponsive when women had reported abusive behaviour in the past, or failing to protect and support women when they made attempts to leave their abusive partners (Centre for Women's Justice 2021), all of which discouraged them from doing so again:…”