The Needs of Women Offenders

Abstract

Recent corrections research indicates that programs and community services providing assistance and training for women offenders are lacking. Using a sample of 402 female felony offenders, women's needs, including those thought to be criminogenic (i.e., characteristics and circumstances that heighten an individual's recidivism risk), are examined to determine whether certain groups of women possess similar sets of needs. Cluster analysis is used to identify combinations of needs shared within subgroups of female felons. Identification of common and co-occurring needs, particularly those associated with high risk for recidivism, can assist program staff, advocates for women offenders, and correctional administrators in determining what combination of program elements should be available to women, and the degree to which programming must address multiple domains.     

Defeminizing and Dehumanizing Female Murderers

Abstract

Case studies of the 35 women on death row in 1993 suggest that hetero-feminine image is important in engendering chivalry and thus leniency toward female offenders. Lesbians in particular were over-represented in atypical death sentence cases. Featured are media and prosecutorial representations of the cases of five lesbians on death row. These offenders were depicted as manly and man-hating women who occupy additional marginalized statuses, and who vent their rage and irrational desire for revenge through killing. Argued is that this homo-sexualized portrayal of female evil may affect sentencing decisions as an additional “aggravating circumstance” in an already heinous crime.     

Modeling Substance Use and Related Risk Behaviors Leading to Criminal Justice Involvement Among Young Adult Women

Abstract

Using structural equation modeling, two models of the relationship between trauma, attachment, substance use, risk behavior, and criminal justice involvement among young adult women were tested. Overall, the model constructs explained approximately 23% and 36% of the variance in Illicit Substance Use and Risk Behavior, respectively, and 28% of the variance in Criminal Justice Involvement. Data were taken from a longitudinal study of pregnant and parenting adolescents (N = 239). This population is important because they may be at increased risk for involvement in problem behaviors across adolescence and adulthood. Findings suggest that patterns of emotional dysregulation are significant contributors to women's illicit substance use and risk behavior. Implications for intervention and prevention are addressed.     

Reproducing plantation society: Women and land in colonial South Carolina

Some women in colonial South Carolina inherited, possessed, and sold real property. This article examines how and why women took on roles as landowners. Such practices were part of a range of innovative strategies designed to hand down plantation capital to the next generation. High mortality rates in the region challenged white families as they sought to establish their children within the planter class. Recent scholarship on women in South Carolina has identified instances in which “female planters” wielded control over land and slaves, temporarily assuming authority otherwise reserved for men. Tracing the presence of female landowners in land records, plantation advertisements, and court records reveals that although women made up only a small minority of landowners, they performed an important role in transmitting land and bringing it into production. Unlike their counterparts in other slave societies, white women in the Lowcountry were engaged directly in managing the domestic economies of plantation businesses. Even the archetypical female planter, Eliza Lucas Pinckney, conceived of her influential experiments with indigo production as an extension of her primary, domestic responsibilities as a planter's daughter and as a planter's wife. Such intensive and extensive domestic experience accounts for the unusually active roles South Carolina women undertook as family agents tasked with reproducing plantation society.     

Crime Victims and the Social Services: Social Workers' Viewpoint

The aim of this article is to analyse how social workers in the social services describe crime victims and their role in supporting these victims. Based on focus groups with social workers in the social services, it is established that social workers discriminate between a categorical understanding of crime victims and an assessment of individuals in need. The categorical understanding of crime victims is connected to weakness and innocence, and the discussions are constructed with a focus on women and children. However, when the social workers move beyond this idea and describe individual victims of crime they have met, they attribute a more complicated picture and acknowledge the complexity of crime and victimization. The social workers give themselves a vague role regarding support to victims of crime. They consider themselves as able to connect individuals in need with helping resources, but they do not regard themselves as resources in this area. According to the social workers, an individual should not receive support from the social services just because he or she is categorized by them as a victim of crime. One conclusion is that the category ‘crime victims’ has not gained acceptance among the social workers.     

Reconstructing Identity

Abstract

This article provides an account of the challenges faced by a group of women refugees in recreating shattered identities in the aftermath of the conflict in the former Yugoslavia. As a result of civil war, national identities were challenged and changing roles involved negotiating new definitions of self. Participants developed a new identity to reflect the realities of their situation, and at the same time transcended national and ethnic boundaries to recognize a common humanity. The article concludes that further research should focus on the special challenges to identity for refugees from civil wars and encourages social workers to be sensitive to these particular issues.     

The Downside of Patriarchal Benevolence: Ambivalence in Addressing Domestic Violence and Socio-Economic Considerations for Women of Tamil Nadu,India

Social values and status cause diverse obstacles for escaping abuse (e.g., belief in the sanctity of marriage vs. financial necessity to stay for survival). India provides a unique opportunity to explore the interplay of status and corresponding patriarchal values in relation to the incidence of domestic violence and how it is viewed, coped with, and psychologically impacting native women. Sixty-four women of Tamil Nadu, India were surveyed. Women of higher status were found to be less likely to acknowledge abuse as a societal problem, accurately identify abuse events, and seek help or report abuse. Women who had more realistic conceptions of abuse were more likely to seek help but also likely to experience more severe psychological distress. All of the women surveyed had symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder that were exacerbated by unsuspected variables. The implications of these findings are discussed in light of public health strategies.     

Gender encounters university—university encounters gender: affective archives Aarhus University,Denmark 1928–1953

ABSTRACT

This article deals with the encounters between female students and Aarhus University, Denmark during the first twenty-five years of its existence. My goal is to identify the affective processes of female student life as resulting from the intra-actions of immateriality and materiality. The paper offers an invitation to join me on my research journey into the archives and history of the university. Maria Tamboukou's thinking about the archive as a fragmented, experimental space entangled with the life rhythms of the historian guides this journey. Logbooks from the kitchens in the student halls stand out as holy grails, where affective histories haunt the pages. Affective methodologies are my tools in unlocking a world of seriousness and senselessness, bullying and fun, hate and affection, camaraderie and humiliation.     

‘The film gone male’: women and the transition to sound in the British film industry 1929–1932

ABSTRACT

Taking its cue from Dorothy Richardson’s essay, ‘The Film Gone Male’ written for the critical, Left-wing British film publication Close Up in 1932, this article looks at women working in the British film industry during the transition from silent to sound cinema between 1929 and 1932. It considers the effects of new sound technology on women’s roles in front of and behind the camera from production to reception and critique. It also questions whether sound technology further marginalised women as producers of cinema and interrogates whether synchronised sound masculinised film as Richardson asserted.     

Women seafarers in Taiwan: survivors during the evolution of the special shipping relationship between China and Taiwan

The first Taiwan women seafarer appeared on a container ship as a training deck officer in 1998, but so far only a handful of Taiwan shipping companies are willing to provide female navigational students with on-board internship opportunities. Therefore, this study attempts to explore the career development of women seafarers in Taiwan. The author has adopted the qualitative research approach, conducted in-depth interviews with women seafarers and representatives of shipping companies, and sailed on an LPG carrier for 14 days to conduct on-site observations. This study discovers that, in the seesaw battle between occupational gender-equality awareness and the shipping market mechanism, the dominant power remains in the hands of employers who demonstrate gender bias towards women seafarers. A noteworthy finding in this study is that the political forces, which include the evolution of the special shipping relationship across the Taiwan Strait as well as the domestic regulations limiting the employment of foreign seafarers, have had a non-negligible positive impact on the seafaring career prospects of Taiwanese women.