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This chapter provides a comprehensive overview of womens experiences in international criminal justice systems (CJSs), including historical and contemporary policy and practice. It is relevant for those studying and/or working in criminology, sociology, social work, youth justice, and many other disciplines that directly or indirectly discuss and/or work with women in contact with justice systems. Routes into the Criminal Justice System. The chapter examines the many ways in which women enter different CJSs. While not an exhaustive list, some of the recurrent issues identified in the chapter discusses women's victimisation, challenging family circumstances, class-based inequalities, racial discrimination, and marginalisation from policies and practices that offer the potential to safeguard and/or support women. It is through the tireless work of contributors and their peers, positive change is being made, and authors hope that they can continue to build upon good practice and work collaboratively together.

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Between the fourteenth and eighteenth centuries, nearly 50,000 people across Europe were tried and executed for the crime of witchcraft. Though, in theory, anyone could be a witch, in reality 80 percent of the accused were women. For commentators of the time, it was ‘a fact that it were idle to contradict’ that ‘chiefly women are addicted to evil superstitions’ (Kramer, H., Malleus Maleficarum, translated by C. Mackay, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012, p. 160). This chapter considers the role of gendered stereotypes in the persecution and prosecution of early modern women. It examines the beliefs and attitudes of the period and applies to recent scholarship in law and the social sciences, demonstrating that the defendant’s demographics plays a major part in the outcome of trials, and that the decisions of judges and jurors are heavily influenced by stereotypes of both crimes and defendants. By applying this research to the witch trials of early modern Europe, this chapter presents a case study of the pernicious and enduring effects on criminal justice from treating women as ‘the fragile feminine sex’ (Kramer, H., Malleus Maleficarum, translated by C. Mackay, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012, p. 160).

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Throughout the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, a noticeable shift occurred in the attitude towards infanticidal women within the English criminal justice system. Women, who had previously been found ‘guilty’ of murdering their newborn infant, faced the death penalty. However, during this period, an increasing number of women were found ‘not guilty’ of the offence by an increasingly sympathetic jury. Arguably, this transformation occurred as a result of a lack of definitive medical evidence and was shaped by both the uncertainty acknowledged by medical men, and an increase in the jury’s humanitarian sympathies. Through the examination of six infanticide cases held at the Old Bailey and by drawing on the humanitarian approach identified by Mark Jackson and the attention to medical discourse identified by William Hunter, this chapter seeks to examine how the shift in verdict may have occurred as the acknowledgement of the uncertainty of the lung test by medical men preserved a sense of professional authority, and the jury’s humanitarian sensibilities became interconnected during the eighteenth century.

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There is much debate among historians on how the pre-modern English legal system treated women accused of homicide. Some argue that women received leniency due to squeamishness concerning execution and the female body, whereas others suggest a patriarchal structure which sought to disproportionately punish women. This chapter demonstrates that these two radically different conclusions have been reached due to the differing statistical methods employed – whether that involves assessing acquittal rates or examining the outcomes for the defendants who were not acquitted. Thus, the two approaches produce two different stories – one of leniency towards women, or one of harsh punishments for female convicts. While pre-modern men and women were sentenced to execution at similar rates, women were more likely to be found not guilty. Women were either deemed to be wholly culpable or to be wholly innocent. The outcome of a woman’s trial was usually limited to execution or acquittal. Men were more likely to be found guilty but then pardoned and released. The jury seemed willing to hear the mitigating circumstances of male killers, such as self-defence, but these narratives are absent for women).

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The incarceration of women in Aotearoa New Zealand, mirroring a global picture, has seen a large and disproportionate increase compared with increases in men’s prison populations. Although it is widely accepted that prisons and prison experiences are gendered, prison literature has continued to be overly focused on men’s prisons. The first section of this chapter will explore shifting trends and discourses in women’s imprisonment in Aotearoa New Zealand through a summary of the extant historical literature from the early years of colonisation to the post-war era. The second section will trace shifting themes and discourses in selected documents from the 1960s to the 2000s. This chapter will provide an overview of how developments in both policy and in understandings of crime and gender have impacted on women in Aotearoa New Zealand prisons. Moreover, the chapter will elucidate the ways in which women’s prisons in Aotearoa New Zealand are gender-making institutions, disciplining women to produce specific embodied outcomes. The desired outcomes for the women under the control of corrections have evolved in line with shifting institutional discourses and idealised gender norms.

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The ‘Risk Paradigm’ has traditionally struggled to adequately understand and respond to criminalised women, framing them largely as a minority group for whom the Risk-Needs-Responsivity approach can be adapted, or as an extraordinary group who commit harmful offences as the product of trauma, inappropriate relationships with men, or as a result of ‘dominance’ (Kelly, L., and Jackson, S., ‘Managing High-Risk Sex Offenders: Messages for Practice’, Insight 48,2019, https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="https://www.iriss.org.uk/resources/insights/managing-high-risk-sex-offenders-messages-practice">https://www.iriss.org.uk/resources/insights/managing-high-risk-sex-offenders-messages-practice, accessed April 29th, 2021). Viewing criminalised women through the ‘risk lens’ has often characterised women as ‘at risk’, with legitimate needs reframed as offence risks, painting a picture of them as non-agentic victims of circumstance, context, and history. Paradoxically, women who commit harmful offences, especially homicide, are painted as extraordinary, monstrous, and extreme. Arguably, both characterisations are products of unhelpful gender framing, producing not only an ‘at risk’ versus ‘posing a risk’ dichotomy that potentially skews interventions and management but also reduces women offenders to niche research subjects and case studies ripe for voyeurism (for example Myra Hindley). This chapter will critically review these framings and the resultant impact on understandings of and responses to women in the world of risk. Importantly, the chapter will highlight some possible alternatives and solutions to the more unhelpful consequences of the ‘risk lens’ for women.

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Desistance theories consider how the social positionality of an individual and the opportunities to which they are exposed interact with agentic factors to bring about termination of offending and related behaviours. It has been argued that they fail to avoid the androcentricity to which most criminological theories are prone, in that they ignore structural contexts such as gender, class, and race. Research into women with convictions highlights several gendered ‘pains’ which can adversely impact their experiences of criminal justice, including trauma, childhood abuse, intimate partner abuse, relational stress, intersectional discrimination, and socio-economic disadvantage. However, by absorbing women’s experiences into the white male majority, the scholarship on desistance subjugates the specificities of women’s experiences. This chapter will provide a critical review of the key theoretical perspectives of desistance through a gendered lens, exploring how themes of relationships, identity transformation, and agency have been theorised to support desistance generally. It then interrogates these ideas from a feminist perspective using women’s desistance research; advocating that to meaningfully support women in leaving crime behind, the intersectional divergences in their desistance pathways must be understood and accounted for.

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In the context of a criminal justice system (CJS), women with criminal convictions are highly likely to be both victims and perpetrators of crime; they are very likely to have complex trauma histories and are highly likely to be victims of a variety of harms, not least domestic violence, and sexual assault. As both victims and perpetrators, but also as women, these individuals experience discrimination due to their violation of the law, gender discrimination and societal stigma for their violation of social norms and expectations. The reaction to these violations gives rise to the phrase double deviance, the idea that women are punished for breaking social norms and breaking the law. In addition, the experiences of women with criminal convictions can be explained by the concept ideal victim. This chapter examines how the notion of the ‘ideal victim’ is a caricature of women, and how the notion of double deviance reflects most accurately the treatment of women in any CJS. This work draws on the experience of professionals who work with criminalised women in Ireland to better appreciate how they are understood, responded to and how the notion of perpetrator victim is or is not relevant to these women’s experiences.

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Globally, a large share of convicted human trafficking offenders are women; yet little is known about their victimisation experiences and the socio-economic structural constraints that may impact their choices. Even less is known about the way these experiences are constructed by judges within a patriarchal legal system. In Australia, since 2005, ten women have been convicted of human trafficking-related offences involving adult commercial sexual exploitation. An analysis of sparse available data, including sentencing remarks and appeal transcripts, highlights that four of these women were also trafficked victims. This chapter argues that Australian Judges have constructed an oversimplified narrative, which has resulted in a view these women ‘should have known’ AU: Please confirm if the quotes have been set correctly here. better. This narrative sees women’s’ experiences of victimisation intensifying their status of ‘offender’, rather than mitigating it. This chapter discusses the similarities between these four criminalised women and their victims, as acknowledged by the sentencing judges. It uses a critical legal feminist framework, incorporating Giddens’ (Central Problems in Social Theory: Action, Structure and Contradiction in Social Analysis, London: Macmillan, 1979; The Constitution of Society: Outline of the Theory of Structuration, Cambridge: Polity Press, 1984) theory of structuration, to understand the relationship between agency and structure in women charged with acting in offender roles in Australian cases of human trafficking for commercial sexual exploitation.

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Care-experienced women are significantly over-represented within the criminal justice system (CJS): almost a third of women in custody are known to have previous experience of care, compared with a quarter of men (Ministry of Justice (MoJ) (2021) Safety in Custody Statistics, England and Wales: Deaths in Prison Custody to march 2021 Assaults and Self-harm to December 2020. London: National Statistics). Nonetheless, there has been a distinct lack of research on the association between gender, care experience and criminal justice involvement. Drawing on research funded by the Nuffield Foundation, this chapter explores what is – and is not – known about the impact of care experience for women in the CJS. The chapter considers the experiences of girls and women involved in both care and justice systems, including trauma and adverse life events, and their journeys through the care and CJSs. The prevalence of self-harm amongst care-experienced women in custody and the (lack of) mental health and other support available, including after care are highlighted, alongside a consideration of the stigmatisation of care and justice-experienced women. Many care-experienced women in custody are mothers and may experience their own children being taken into care. Whilst the evidence-base is limited, the complex and intersecting relationships between care experience, child removal and criminal justice are highlighted, demonstrating that this topic must be prioritised in future research.

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Traditional approaches to understanding women’s pathways into the Criminal justice system (CJS) tend to focus on the myriad issues, or problems, that manifest in their lives: including trauma, family violence, substance abuse and homelessness. This chapter demonstrates how the very systemic responses established to address these issues tend to either exclude criminalised women, or actively enable and exacerbate their criminalisation. Given the number of major reforms to these areas in Victoria, Australia, this chapter uses this jurisdiction as a case study, drawing on the findings and a range of organisational submissions made to two recent State Government inquiries into homelessness and family violence. It adopts a critical, intersectional analysis to demonstrate how family violence and homelessness or housing support services embrace simultaneously interventionist and exclusionary practices that can discriminate against criminalised women in the community, heightening their risk of re-criminalisation. Furthermore, it shows how these systemic practices are informed and enabled by broader interlocking structures of oppression including racism and sexism. These findings suggest an urgent need to move away from understanding violence in the lives of criminalised women as simply interpersonal, to also systemic and structural. Doing so allows us to consider more transformative policy responses to women’s criminalisation, including abolitionist approaches.

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The presence of victimisation within the backgrounds of women who have come into contact with the criminal justice system has been well documented. Yet, despite recognition that a link between a woman’s victimisation and her offending exists, the relationship between the two is still not well understood. This chapter will summarise the range of academic and policy-based literature which has begun to explore how a woman’s experience of domestic abuse can influence her pathway into crime, criminalisation or ability to carry out her sentence in the community. By focusing on the ways in which women resist, cope with or respond to their experiences of domestic abuse, this chapter will demonstrate how a woman’s pathway into crime can be influenced, either directly or indirectly, immediately or in a longer term context, by her victimisation. Much of the existing literature has focused upon crime committed by women with, for or against their abusive partners. The empirical data included in this chapter will, however, demonstrate how a woman’s offence can occur without her abuser being present, after the abusive relationship has ended or even years after the abuse has ceased, yet her actions can still be attributed to her experience of domestic abuse.

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The desistance and resettlement experience of Muslim women is largely invisible in academia, policy, and practice. The findings of this review outline the ways in which Muslim women’s needs are hidden within academia, policy, and practice in favour of examining collective experiences of women and Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (‘BAME’) individuals. Therefore, this chapter highlights the importance of exploring the intersectionality of culture, faith, ethnicity, and gender to increase the representation within desistance experiences. This chapter further explored the neglect of Muslim women’s needs and experience, in order to encourage greater equality and understanding of minority groups across the criminal justice system. Through an analysis of desistance theorising and insights from practice, this review indicates potential concepts that could be applicable to the resettlement needs of Muslim women. In order to emphasise good practice examples, this chapter introduces the Muslim Women in Prison project, a specialised and culturally informed through-the-gate service in England and Wales. Finally, the review considers future directions of research.

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Across every jurisdiction of the criminal punishment system, women, and more specifically Indigenous women, are the fastest growing prison cohort in Australia. However, women’s needs and the complexity in the lives of many of the women disappeared into the carceral system continue to be ignored. From prisons designed for male prisoners, to the carceral system persisting in treating women’s lived experience as risk factors, to institutionalised settings that render women vulnerable to violence – this system is failing women and killing them. While women’s needs are invisibalised by the system, this also extends to an erasure or silencing of their voices and experiences. This chapter, written by authors with lived experience, will draw on the lived experience of a wide range of women who have been captured and exiled within the systems that exist across Australia. It will include a case study and direct quotes, with a focus on elevating lived experience voices in an effort to pave a path to liberation.

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This chapter places women who have offended in the context of a criminal justice system suffused by religious influence. Focusing on women prosecuted for murder from independence in 1922 until substantial law reform in 1964, the analysis investigates the sensemaking in relation to the use of religious sites of punishment for women, and how the women themselves negotiated these sites. In this period in Ireland, women who were deemed as offending experienced a system in which religious actors could be as powerful as state actors. Convicted women were often sentenced and punished according to religiously constructed modes of understanding. Crucially, although evidence of women’s own interpretations of their fate within these systems is scarce, the chapter foregrounds women’s personal experiences drawing on the extant archival material. Analysis of these historic cases reveals that while religious actors could occasionally offer support and sustenance to women, this was always enacted within a deeply coercive and controlling landscape. Twentieth-century Ireland presents a counter-narrative to the increasing secularisation of criminal justice in this period, demonstrating the emergence of an explicitly gendered criminal justice system in which the power to punish women was vested in religious organisations.

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This chapter draws upon the experiences of 20 women claimants of inheritance and their subsequent interaction with the criminal justice system (CJS) of Pakistan in wake of the 2011 criminal law amendment. The chapter is theoretically grounded in Smart’s (Feminism and the Power of Law, New York: Routledge, 2002) work on law in practice and Gilligan’s (In a Different Voice: Psychological Theory and Women’s Development, London: Harvard University Press, 1993) ethic of care. Perusal of inheritance is socially regarded as a marker of female ‘deviance’ and ‘rebellion’. The chapter explores whether this amendment alleviates occurrences of socially sanctioned denial by empowering female claims. It was observed that women’s interactions with the CJS are mediated through the shifting matrix of socio-economic and political forces. It is argued that the ability of the law to act as corrective is curtailed by the everyday impediments placed by societal patriarchy, with marriage patterns and dowry reifying patriarchal control of resources. Lack of access to legal documents and inaccessible legal jargon also stop many women before they even come in contact with the CJS. However, if contact is made, the interaction itself is fraught with institutionalised sexism of police, revenue and legal departments. Finally, the chapter comments on the efficacy of the CJS when it comes to women’s rights in Pakistan.

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This chapter will entail the lived realities and experiences of women married to incarcerated husbands in India. Following a brief introduction on prisoners’ families and spouses specifically as a forgotten focus in criminal justice research in India, the chapter will emphasise the role of multiple identities that intersect and jointly impact women’s experiences. The chapter will try to make a case for an intersectional analysis, to understand the experiences of spouses of incarcerated prisoners within the matrix of inequalities shaped by caste, class and family in India. The marginalisation of women’s interests in the social and justice system becomes entangled with those social identities. This intersectionality mirrors contemporary society that cannot simply be dismissed. In the second half of the chapter, an overview on the need for a Global South perspective from India will be provided depicting the cultural factors that affect the spouses of incarcerated husbands so that their stories do not get drawn up in the generalised narrative. While there is undeniably more research to be done, this chapter will summarise the interplay of caste, gender and family system to focus on the cultural peculiarities that exist within India.

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This chapter will discuss the limited research and literature available which explores the position of lesbian and bisexual women in the Criminal Justice System (CJS). It will consider the poor record of criminology in engaging with lesbian and bisexual women who might come into contact with the CJS. Initially, the question of the criminalisation of lesbianism will be considered, whilst sexual relationships between women were not criminalised in the UK, the effects of criminalisation have contributed to the discrimination they have experienced. Explanations as to the evident disproportionality of lesbians, bisexuals and gender non-conforming girls’ involvement in the CJS across the UK, the US and Australia are debated. Several causation factors including family rejection and social exclusion which might contribute to criminalisation are considered. Two models, the school-to-prison-pipeline and the Queer Criminal Career lens will be discussed in terms of how they can aid our understanding of over-representation. These approaches move away from single-factor explanations or bio-psychological dysfunction, highlighting issues of the criminalisation of identity. Finally, the writer will reflect upon experiences of working in the CJS for nearly 30 years, reflecting on how disproportionality was realised in practice and the stigmatisation of lesbian women.

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Black women are at the intersection of race, gender, and class, resulting in reduced power, wealth, education, and opportunity in society. The criminal justice system (CJS) echoes society, leaving Black women marginalised, discriminated against, and disadvantaged. Due to this intersection, Black women have unique experiences within criminal justice that this chapter seeks to highlight and address. Black women are overrepresented and adversely affected throughout the CJS, from first encounters with the police to imprisonment. Globally, Black women are subjected to violence, racism and various layers of disadvantage within these institutions. This chapter outlines Black women’s experiences in the CJS before honing in on their prison experiences. Whilst this chapter focuses on British and American prisons, other nations such as Italy and Nigeria will also be discussed to provide a broader global insight. The chapter concludes by detailing the author’s work on Black women’s experiences in English prisons, drawing on themes of systemic disadvantage, negotiation, navigation, resilience, and coping strategies.

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This chapter aims to critically review the literature on gender, bail and remand decision-making and therapeutic jurisprudence (TJ). The use of problem-solving courts (PSCs) has grown increasingly out of recognition that offending can be linked to social and chronic health needs. The research literature has tended to focus on sentencing neglecting one of the most important points in the legal process – the bail decision. This chapter considers whether TJ has the potential to improve women’s experiences of the bail and remand process and aid in reducing remand using Scotland as its focus. In addition, it explores the practical challenges of applying and implementing TJ principles and practices such as therapeutic bail models. It will be concluded that for women, TJ approaches, however well intentioned, can operate in a coercive and paternalistic way because of a lack of understanding of both its core concepts and of criminalised women’s lives and particular needs. Furthermore, any reductions in the female remand population are likely to be modest, due to the costs associated with implementing therapeutic bail models and similar initiatives.

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Previous research suggests an alleged gendered orientation of the youth justice system (YJS) implying that during decision-making practices different attitudes and perceptions would exist regarding girls and boys (Gelsthorpe, L. and Worrall, A. (2009) ‘Looking for trouble: A recent history of girls, young women and juvenile justice’, Youth Justice, 9(3), pp. 209–223; De Bus, S. (2015) ‘Exploring the gender dimension in the juvenile justice court. An analysis of Court hearings’ in Christiaens, J. (ed.) It’s for your own good. Researching youth justice practices. Brussel: VUBPress, pp. 99–119). International and national research has indicated a persistence of controlling the sexual behaviour of girls; concerns that hardly exist towards boys. In addition, significant differences are found between girls and boys in the reporting of the youth court files. In their own research, the author focused on how girls and boys are portrayed in the reporting of youth court files, and how youth court professionals handle the cases and perceive these girls and boys. This chapter will focus on gender in the YJS and the problematisation of girls, with specific attention to the functioning of the Belgian YJS.

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This chapter will explore the types of control strategies used in Norwegian courts regarding young women on trial for having committed serious crimes. The court is a central institution in the criminal justice system, and the courts’ sentencing practices reflect contemporary control strategies in a society. Within the courtroom young women on trial are in minority, and in contrast to some other countries, Norway does not have a separate court for youths under 18 years of age. The court is, though, obliged to follow principles from The Human Rights Act and The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in the preparation of – and during – trials where girls and young women are involved. The chapter is based on a qualitative study consisting of field observations in court and court cases regarding young women between 15 and 25 years of age. Inspired by the philosopher, Harding’s (1986) analytical understanding of gender and the sociologist, Rose’s (2000) concepts of inclusion and exclusion, the courtroom is analysed as a gendered space positioning young women on trial as reformable and not reformable. The chapter is a contribution to the academic literature regarding the sociology of law and courtroom studies.

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This chapter explores the need for and expansion of problem-solving courts (PSCs) as well as the ongoing challenges they face in the wider policy context of long-standing calls for gender-informed responses to female offending. By way of a case study, it considers the development and operation of a specialist Women’s Review Court (WRC) in the North of England aimed at facilitating desistance and avoiding female imprisonment by supporting women on suspended or community sentences. The WRC’s underpinning ethos and approach are outlined and reflected upon alongside some of the outstanding challenges yet to be reconciled concerning gender-specific courts more generally. These comprise considerations concerning the operation and evaluation of such initiatives as well as intersectional considerations, ensuring consistency in access to services/support, and the need for wider sentencing reform. It is also argued that the needs of women must not be side-lined in changes to how courts operate in a post-pandemic era and following the reunification of the National Probation Service (NPS).

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Despite tens of millions of abortions globally each year, abortion remains a criminal act in much of the world, including Britain unless carried out under the provisions of the 1967 Act. This chapter is based on primary research comparing the experiences of women in Northern Ireland (NI) who unlawfully used abortion pills accessed via the internet, just prior to the recent decriminalisation of abortion there, with women in Scotland who had lawful medical abortions under the care of the National Health Service. Through the interviews, the harmful impact of criminalisation can be seen as women in NI did not seek medical assistance for fear of arrest, while social stigma was a key theme in Scotland.

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This chapter applies the theory of symbolic interactionism to present the qualitative analysis of 51 sentencing decisions in domestic violence homicide cases processed in Polish courts. It is argued in this chapter that sentencing, like any other human action, is subject to interpretations at the hands of judges, who engage in the construction and meaning-making process of gender at the sentencing stage. The findings demonstrate the diversely-constructed presence of gendered narratives, which vary in terms of their inclusion of the domestic violence terminology and/or the discussion on the fulfilment of socially-prescribed gender roles. The analysis has exposed a powerful interplay between the judges’ perception of the (abusive) relationship, gender roles, and the defendant’s/victim’s acquiescence to them, which in consequence makes women more likely the subject of double standards of conformity. The chapter offers a qualitative outlook on the topic and invites a new theoretical perspective to shift the attention from the impact of gender – to the meaning of gender – in sentencing decisions.

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Sex crimes have historically been considered male crimes, where the role of women is associated with the victim and not with the offender. This focus in criminological research has ignored the phenomenon of female sexual offenders. The foregoing, in addition to being further evidence of the exclusion of women in the dominant discourse of criminology and law, shows how sexism and gender stereotypes permeate the criminal justice system (CJS). By not sufficiently exploring this phenomenon women convicted of committing sexual crimes against children are deprived of adequate treatment. The study presented in this chapter sets out to address the experiences of women imprisoned for committing sexual offences against children in the Women’s Prison in Bogotá, Colombia. The results explore their experiences of the judicial process, revealing the great impact of the stigma associated with sexual offences on their experiences within the system. It also proposes a reflection on the need to seriously address this issue at a research and policy level.

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The public health effects of punitive policing practices towards female sex workers and women who use drugs have been fairly well documented, but few studies have considered how experiences of policing shape their perceptions of police legitimacy. This chapter explores women’s experiences of street-level policing and construction of law enforcement legitimacy using in-depth interviews with female street-based sex workers and cannabis users in Nigeria. Street-based sex work and drug use increased women’s vulnerability to police targeting and arrests. Street-level policing involved surveillance and raids on street-based sex work and drug use scenes, as well as extra-legal violence and abuse of authority. The women experienced multiple forms of police violence, including physical abuse, sexual harassment and coercion, public humiliations, financial extortion, unlawful arrest and detention in unsanitary facilities. Everyday policing strategies were seen as corrupt and illegal, violating fundamental tenets of procedural justice which underpin police legitimacy. Violence facilitated compliance with police orders despite legitimacy deficits, highlighting the limits of procedural justice concepts for understanding women’s experience of policing in African contexts. On the other hand, the women’s recognition of human rights violations provides a basis for collective action to challenge police impunity.

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While the needs of women prisoners have received a greater acknowledgement within corrective services and academia, the smaller group of incarcerated women with cognitive disabilities has not generated the same level of awareness. It is reasonable to conclude that these women share similar characteristics to non-disabled women prisoners. However, the difference lies in their notably higher levels of vulnerability, arising from compromised cognition and poor adaptive skills. This chapter is based upon research undertaken in women’s prisons in different Australian jurisdictions. Participants included 11 Indigenous and 12 non-Indigenous cognitively disabled incarcerated women, and ten prison practitioners tasked with their care. Focusing on participant narratives, key issues impacting the women’s lives in prison are explored. What emerges are life stories that expose the limitations of a criminal justice system in which cognitively disability in women’s prisons, where the main objective is security and containment, is afforded low priority. This chapter highlights not only the incongruity of using prison as a depository for this group of women but the inadequacy of community responses to vulnerability.

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The aim of this chapter is to focus on the imprisonment experience of women during and after their release from prison in Spain. From a theoretical perspective, three recent pieces of research must be highlighted regarding the situation faced by women in Spanish prisons. Firstly, Cerezo (“Women in prison in Spain. The implementation of Bangkok Rules to the Spanish Prison Legislation”, European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research, 22, 2016, 133–151) described the situation of discrimination against women in prisons, such as the lack of specific rehabilitation programmes for women, the lack of mental health care and the limited use of non-custodial measures. Secondly, Juanatey dedicated her paper to understanding the large female population in prisons. Finally, Navarro has carried out an in-depth analysis of the profile of incarcerated women, with the object of then concentrating on mothers denied their liberty. This chapter will build upon a research which has a sample of 50 questionnaires and 11 interviews. We will present some of the main conclusions from the quantitative and qualitative analysis of 11 semi-structured interviews in order to know more about their imprisonment experiences. The results show the importance of maternity and some difficulties such as drug use, violence and mental health issues.

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Women in prison are more likely to be re-exposed to ‘powerful traumatising processes’ whilst incarcerated (Heney J. and Kristiansen, C., M. (1998) ‘An analysis of the impact of prison on women survivors of childhood sexual abuse’, Women & Therapy, 20, pp. 29–44 as quoted in Dirks, D. (2004) ‘Sexual revictimization and retraumatization of women in prison’, Women’s Studies Quarterly, 32(3/4), pp. 102–115). Therefore their experiences of ‘re-victimisation and re-traumatisation’ need to be addressed by all aspects of the penal regime: in relation to staff, policies, programmes, and penal procedures (Dirks, D. (2004) ‘Sexual revictimization and retraumatization of women in prison’, Women’s Studies Quarterly, 32(3/4), pp. 102–115). The chapter sheds light on peer mentoring for women in prison in England and Wales, specifically taking into account the impact of the peer mentoring relationship. Despite a number of benefits with prison-based peer mentoring, risks and challenges have also been identified. Specifically, research has identified the challenges of vulnerable women attempting to address the needs of fellow vulnerable prisoners; such concerns centre on the possibility of creating further trauma for the peer mentor by having them re-live distressing or upsetting experiences through mentoring discussions (Devilly, G. J., Sorbello, L., Eccleston, L. and Ward, T. (2005) ‘Prison-based peer-education schemes’, Aggression and Violent Behaviour, 10, pp. 219–240). With this recognition of the different challenges and risks to peer mentoring in mind, the study cited in this chapter sought to determine whether peer mentoring enforces unequal power dynamics and control between women in prison, and how issues around recurring trauma were managed.

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The evolution of punishment in the former Soviet Union countries has been largely framed by the tensions between the Soviet past and the ‘Europeanisation’ process. However, breaking away from the Soviet legacy remains a challenging process. Although significant changes in the legal framework, the administration, and modernisation of prisons were implemented in recent decades, living conditions and daily life in prisons have not changed as rapidly. Most post-Soviet prisons still consist of a communal dormitory living, where many prisoners share a cell, and elements of collective incarceration typical of the Soviet period influence prisoners’ daily lives and relationships. Collective incarceration that defines post-Soviet prisons, along with informal social rules of the prison order, has been usually examined in relation to men, while women’s experiences of imprisonment remain on the fringes of criminological research. This chapter focuses on the under-researched experiences of women serving prison sentences in post-Soviet prisons drawing on qualitative research conducted in Lithuanian and Latvian women’s prisons. It aims, among other things, to provide a critical analysis of the everyday practices of collective imprisonment and the survival mechanisms of incarcerated women.

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Maternal imprisonment is extremely disruptive. Most mothers who experience imprisonment have already experienced prior traumas in their lives, such as intimate partner violence, poverty, childhood abuse and sexual violence. Maternal imprisonment adds an additional layer of trauma to the lives of criminalised mothers, their children and their families. This chapter, drawing on the author’s empirical research, examines the persisting, intergenerational impact of imprisonment on mothers. It highlights how this affects relationships with both children and caregivers during imprisonment and post-release. The chapter analyses the enduring and traumatic impact of imprisonment on maternal identity and role, including how this can impact mothers’ successful rehabilitation and family relationships, sometimes for decades post-release. Using a matricentric-feminist and a socio-ecological approach to understand the individual, family, community and societal factors involved, the disruption to homes, lives and relationships caused by maternal imprisonment in the UK are examined and matricentric, trauma-informed recommendations are made to mitigate these harms.

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Reproductive healthcare is a fundamental aspect of women’s rights. Despite this, there has been no systematic approach to the reproductive rights and healthcare of women who are in prison. Approaches to women prisoners have focused on aspects of their reproductive health as ‘issues’ that need to be resolved (such as prenatal care), rather than understanding women’s reproductive healthcare as a fundamental aspect of their lived experiences and rights. Examples of reproductive care and rights include women’s ability to access contraception and abortion services and to determine when, how and how many children they have and how they parent those children (including suitable childcare arrangements). It also includes their reproductive health and access to related screening and healthcare services and health and personal care for mensuration, which includes access to sanitary products and suitable medical care for related gynaecological conditions. This chapter critically analyses approaches to imprisoned women’s reproductive rights and healthcare, advocating that reproductive rights take centre-stage when considering how to support women who are imprisoned.

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Mother–child separations are a gendered ‘pain of imprisonment’ leaving a legacy of further trauma for mothers on release, particularly those who are not reunited with their children. Building on Haney’s (Criminality in Context. The Psychological Foundations of Criminal Justice Reform. Washington DC: American Psychological Association, 2020) contextual approach, this chapter will present a co-produced qualitative analysis of research findings on separated mothers in prison in England and Wales. This collaboration between a mother with lived experience of the prison system (Martin) and a prison researcher (Powell) will draw on feminist criminological work reflecting on personal experience of the prison system. Interweaving lived experience reflections with a study of maternal imprisonment, the chapter will discuss how imprisoned mothers’ experiences of separation from their children are mediated by social support. Three aspects were emphasised by mothers and prison staff: (1) the impact of family relationships; (2) wider systems and agencies beyond prison; (3) prison mother and baby units (MBUs). It is proposed that a contextual understanding of mothers’ experiences is needed to work towards mitigating the harms of mother–child separation.

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Despite the growing rates of incarceration for women internationally, few studies have focused on the experiences of motherhood from within the prison. Nevertheless, the practice of allowing mothers and their children to be together in prison has been widely documented for over a decade. This chapter reviews this literature with a specific focus on both quantitative studies demonstrating the impact of developing secure attachment and reduced recidivism and qualitative research highlighting the first-hand experiences of motherhood within prisons. The author’s recent empirical evidence adds to this body of knowledge by highlighting the experiences of women who have their children reside within the Mother and Baby Unit (MBU) in two New Zealand women’s prisons (Johnson, J. (2019) Monitored mothering: The experience of mothers who parent within New Zealand women’s prisons. (Doctoral thesis, University of Canterbury, New Zealand). Available at: https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="https://ir.canterbury.ac.nz/handle/10092/100061)">https://ir.canterbury.ac.nz/handle/10092/100061). This chapter explores the challenging dynamics resulting from integrating a MBU within an incarceration facility. While increased mother–child bonding and reduced recidivism were a feature of the MBU, the custodial requirements of a traditional correctional facility result in mothers struggling with limited parental autonomy, negotiations of power and control and difficulties establishing themselves as a mother while also being an inmate. The chapter makes a unique contribution to the literature highlighting the complexity for policymakers in meeting the needs of incarcerated mothers and their children.

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Prisons are, by their very nature, gendered institutions. Despite women making up a small percent age of the prison population, those supporting prisoners are generally women – especially mothers and partners. In understanding women’s experiences of criminal justice, it is prudent to consider the women who are punished by the system despite not being incarcerated themselves. This chapter sheds light on these women’s experiences. First, through a review of the growing international literature that illustrates how the economic and relational implications as well as the health, stigma and care for children of prisoners are overwhelmingly experienced by women in the community attempting to keep their families together. Following this, a case study showcasing the excellent work of one organisation, The Straight Path Resettlement Project (SPR) in Leicester, England, discusses Ferzana Dakri’s experience of working in the community with Black and Ethnic Minority Muslim women who have imprisoned loved ones. In viewing prison as sites of punishment, and appreciating how these pains extend beyond those incarcerated, this chapter draws attention to the multiple ways that women supporting prisoners are simultaneously harmed.

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Female prison leavers in Wales face structural disadvantages, inequalities and have multiple and complex needs exacerbated by unstable housing. The current culture of penal populism and preoccupation with risk exacerbates these issues, leaving women vulnerable to re-entering a cycle of homelessness and offending. Although there have been some promising policy initiatives (see the Female Offender Strategy, Ministry of Justice, 2018b; the Women’s Pathfinder (IOM, Cymru, n.d.), the removal of the priority need for prison leavers under the Housing (Wales) Act 2014 places women prison leavers in Wales in increasingly vulnerable situations upon release from custody. This chapter provides a review of literature and policy in relation to women prison leavers and homelessness followed by empirical research on women prison leavers and professionals working with women. Issues relate to not securing suitable accommodation and opportunities in working with women prison leavers. The findings support arguments in existing literature for a more tailored approach to women focusing on their gender-specific needs. More research is required to establish how women’s multiple and complex needs interconnect so that responses can be tailored with a more holistic approach that supports them in overcoming the disadvantages they experience.

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Criminalised women remain one of the most marginalised voices with their experiences of community supervision largely absent from the evidence base underpinning practice. Research does, however, demonstrate the importance of gender responsive, trauma informed and service provision (Covington, S. (2007) ‘The Relational Theory of Women’s Psychological Development: Implications for the Criminal Justice System’. In Zaplin, R. (ed.) Female Offenders: Critical Perspectives and Effective Interventions, 2nd ed., Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett Publishers; Hopper, E., Bassuk, E. and Olivet, J. (2010) ‘Shelter from the Storm: Trauma-Informed Care in Homelessness Services Settings’. The Open Health Services and Policy Journal, 3(2), pp. 80–100). In addition, the importance of supportive practitioner relationships, within a compassionate environment, that overcome shame and stigmatisation is reflected in wider literature. This is especially important as wider relational networks of criminalised women demonstrate limited strong and positive connections within environments of abuse, victimisation and dysfunction. This chapter will highlight the importance of criminalised women’s relational networks and how their experiences and behaviour should be considered within the context of trauma. Through narratives the qualities women deem important to enable them to develop strong, trusting, respectful and encouraging relationships during their community supervision will be presented. In addition, the safe and nurturing practice environments that create these relational opportunities and mutual peer support will be highlighted. Evidence will critique the limited continuity and flexibility within service delivery, concluding with practice recommendations that highlight the need for greater connections between policy, academia and practice.

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This chapter explores women’s experience of imprisonment through a multi-disciplinary lens by linking criminological theory to the implementation of a public health intervention for risky drinking. This is an important issue because the prevalence of risky drinking is higher in women in prison (24 percent), compared to their male counterparts (18 percent) (Ministry of Justice and Office for National Statistics. 2018. Statistics on Women and the Criminal Justice System 2017. https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/759770/women-criminal-justice-system-2017.pdf)">https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/759770/women-criminal-justice-system-2017.pdf). It reviews the literature on the gendered experience of women in prison as the basis to develop and implement strategies and interventions that are designed specifically to support their needs. The chapter then reports on a research study that examined what factors need to be considered when implementing Alcohol Screening and Brief Interventions (ASBIs) (Babor, T. and Higgins-Biddle, J. 2000. Alcohol screening and brief intervention: Dissemination strategies for medical practice and public health. Addiction, 95, 677–686.) for harmful drinking for women in prison. ASBIs are used to detect and prevent alcohol problems and have been shown to reduce alcohol intake and associated harm. This study examined the feasibility and acceptability of using ASBIs in a female open prison to examine how the intervention could be adapted to meet the specific needs of women in prison.

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While Sweden is on the criminological map as an example of suggested exceptionalism in punishment, the country’s exceptionally punitive drug policy is less known. Sweden has one of the harshest drug policies in the globalised north; for example, drug use itself is criminalised. This punitive turn is strikingly illustrated in a 1991 governmental report stating that ‘it shall be difficult to be a drug misuser. The more difficult we make their lives, the more clear the other alternatives, that is a drug-free life, will appear’ (quoted in Lenke, L. and Olsson, B. (2002) ‘Swedish drug policy in the twenty-first century: A policy model going astray’, The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 582(1), pp. 64–79, 65). Criminalised women’s lifestyles are often conflated with drug use, and so their life stories are bound up with the effects of these policies. Drawing on in-depth interviews with women on the route out of crime, this chapter explores women’s experiences with state control of their drug use, paying particular attention to how a culture of intervention influences their desistance processes. Findings include themes of cohesive control, denied desistance identity, and distrust in and disengagement with authorities. The chapter shows that while the Swedish approach has undoubtedly been successful in making it difficult to be a drug misuser, it likewise makes it difficult to be a successful desister.

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This chapter will provide an original contribution to our understanding of women’s experience of criminal justice by critically discussing the lifelong harm of attaining a criminal record. Whilst these so-called ‘collateral consequences’ of a criminal record are receiving increased attention this is still an under-discussed and under-researched issue in European jurisdictions, particularly in England and Wales. Furthermore, the gendered nature of such consequences has, until now, not been explored. 1 The chapter will first provide a summary of how a criminal record can create additional barriers for women who have had interactions with the criminal justice system (CJS). Secondly, in light of these barriers, the chapter will critically examine how criminal record practices systematically reproduce inequality and exacerbate the marginalisation of women. Finally, it will highlight how disclosure can be particularly harmful to women who, at the time of their interaction with the CJS, were experiencing other harmful events such as abuse, exploitation or neglect. This chapter is a timely addition as it lays the foundations for a critical conversation on the importance of gender when exploring the nuances of criminal record experiences, enriching and developing the field as it continues to grow.

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This chapter explores narratives of reintegration as a ‘second chance’, questioning the extent to which desistance theories and redemption scripts reflect the experiences of criminalised women or inadvertently reinforce women’s experiences of systemic discrimination. Using a critical feminist lens, the chapter considers the gendered nature of what is framed in the discourse as ‘good work’ and whether ‘redemption’ is out of reach for women unable to take up paid work, condemning them to permanently spoiled identities. Drawing on the criminological and social care literature, the chapter explores what is meant by a ‘productive life’ arguing that the emphasis placed on paid work is both stultifying and under-researched. Despite women’s inclination to move on, the collateral consequences of conviction undermine their agency to reintegrate through all forms of work. If employment is one of the strongest factors in desistance, society needs to reformulate what work means for women. It closes by calling for the field to move to an Emancipatory Script, referencing the work of two UK-wide charities, Unlock and Working Chance, which centre lived experience.

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The proportion of girls in the juvenile legal system in the United States has grown over the past 30 years. As such, researchers and scholars alike have given increased attention to the pathways, experiences, and needs of girls in the system. The current chapter provides an overview of girls’ entrance into the system and their experiences and needs while system involved. This chapter contextualises girls’ experiences using theories such as feminist pathways, relational-cultural theory, trauma theory, and intersectionality. Further, this chapter contrasts gender-neutral with gender-responsive services utilized in out-of-home placements such as detention centres, residential treatment, and group homes. Community-based placements and diversion practices for girls are also discussed using a gender-responsive and trauma-informed lens. The discussion considers how practitioners and scholars can best respond to this population considering girls’ victimization and trauma histories, unique mental health and relational needs, and the intersection of multiple marginalized identities. Adopting this framework both in residential placements and in the community is crucial to the success of system-involved girls.

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Staff–prisoner relationships are a key feature of prison life. Moreover, trust is a fundamental quality in the social environment of a prison. Despite experiencing incarceration qualitatively different from men, explorations of women’s experiences of trust in staff–prisoner relationships are limited. The experiences presented in this chapter are based on ten semi-structured qualitative interviews exploring staff–prisoner relationships at a high performing open women’s prison in England. The findings suggest that trust plays a key role in the daily lives of the women interviewed and is at the heart of their experiences of staff–prisoner relationships in differing forms. This chapter will analyse key concepts within the literature on trust and develop these arguments through an intersectional lens. The chapter seeks to highlight how these themes intersect and cause and alleviate tensions in trust in these complex and involuntary relationships. It will be argued that pockets of ‘genuine/thick’ trust can be experienced by incarcerated women within an open prison environment when relationships or actions are perceived to operate beyond the prison regime and to be motivated by care and empathy.

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Unlike in other countries, in Spain, there have been no specific evaluations of what works and what can be improved regarding women that serve community sentences. As professionals who work with these women have a central role in their supervision, the aim of this chapter is to present an analysis of what works, and what could be improved, with women service-users from a practitioners’ perspective. As such, 15 semi-structured interviews with practitioners from the Catalan probation system were carried out. In general, the results echo those found internationally: women have multiple issues, responsibilities and needs in comparison to men, and whether what works with criminalised women differs from what works with criminalised men. The results make it possible to compare Catalan practices with those of other jurisdictions, especially the Anglo-American systems, and to identify alternative responses that offer appropriate support and interventions to address women’s underlying problems and to reduce reoffending.

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There has been limited investigation into women’s experiences of resettlement, even more so for those who have had short-term sentences. This chapter contributes to understanding in this area by drawing upon a small-scale qualitative research study that explored the release experiences of four women who served short-term custodial sentences in England and Wales. Interviews captured the narratives of the women and thematic analysis was conducted to identify themes in the participants’ experiences of the Criminal Justice System. Whilst not part of the original aims of the study, the women’s accounts also explored sentencing and custodial experiences and these underpinned broader experiences upon release. This chapter will focus on the themes of relationships, safe spaces and resettlement. At the time of the research, the author was a probation practitioner and so the chapter positions itself within the context of research-informed practice and the implications for practitioner connection.

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This chapter explores young women’s pathways through the criminal justice system in Scotland through an intersectional lens, revealing how age, gender, class and race interact to place them in a unique and marginalised position. Practitioners working with young women in community-based settings providing support after prison or secure care, or to prevent them from returning, have a valuable but under-researched insight into their particular experiences and needs. Such practitioners often work with these young women for long periods of time, building relationships with them and bearing witness to the many challenges they face. Fifty interviews with practitioners working with young women in Scotland were undertaken in prison, secure care, social work and community-based organisations. This exploration of their roles and professional experiences revealed the complexities of the work and of the relationships that practitioners are required to build with the young women. The chapter critiques the narrative of inherent vulnerability that often accompanies this population of young women, arguing instead for a more expansive understanding that recognises the intersecting forms of disadvantage and inequality that shape their lives.