Title: Women Prisoners
1Women Prisoners Victimization
2What is the relationship between maltreatment,
substance abuse, and criminality? Does the
relationship differ for males and females?
3Hypotheses
- Maltreatment during childhood and adulthood will
be greater among female than male inmates - Childhood maltreatment will be more strongly
related to adult depression for female inmates. - Depression will be more prevalent among females.
4Hypotheses
- Substance use (presumably as a means of
self-medication) will be more highly associated
with maltreatment for female than male inmates. - The severity of substance misuse and problems
associated with misuse will be stronger
predictors of female rates of criminal activity
than male rates.
5Why would we hypothesize that there will be
differences in womens and mens maltreatment and
their responses to it?
6What have earlier studies shown?
7Literature Review
- Females experience more frequent and more serious
victimization than males. - Women are more likely than men to react to sexual
victimization with self-blame and depression.
8Literature Review
- Depression is far more common among women than
men. - Abused females are more likely to respond to a
depressed mood with thoughts that contribute to
the perpetuation of the mood, whereas males
engage in instrumental behaviors that distract
them from depression.
9Carol Gilligan writes
- In early adolescence girls begin edging toward
relinquishing what they know and what they have
held fast to, as they come face to face with a
social construction of reality that is at odds
with their experience, so that some kind of
dissociation becomes inevitable.
10Carol Gilligan writes
- Girls initiation or passage into adulthood in a
world psychologically rooted and historically
anchored in the experiences of powerful men marks
the beginning of self-doubt and the dawning of
the realization, no matter how fleeting, that
womanhood will require a dissociative split
between experience and what is generally taken to
be reality.
11What did our studies of women prisoners in Texas
show?
12Studies of Women in Texas Prisons
- Who are these women?
- What is life like for these women behind
- bars?
13Similarities to Men Prisoners
- 32 years old
- Minority
- Poor
- Single Parent of 2 children
- High School Dropout
14Differences Between Male Female Inmates
- Females experienced more abuse than males
- Frequent physical, emotional, sexual abuse
- Frequently felt unloved, unsafe and in danger
15Female Prisoners in Texas
- 1/2 reported childhood abuse
- 3/4 experienced abuse as adults
- 1/2 reported being violently attacked
- 1/3 were sexually abused as adults
- 1/2 had partners who had substance abuse or
psychiatric problems
16Did you know?
- Women who were abused as children are more likely
than men to be depressed as adults. - 1/2 of the women were substance dependent
- Drug dependence more likely to lead to criminal
behavior in women than men
17Most problematic drug for women?
18Crack in particular, offers the equivalent of a
born-again metamorphosis.
19Instantaneously, the user is transformed from an
unemployed, depressed high school dropout,
despised by the world--and secretly convinced
that her failure is due to her own inherent
stupidity and disorganization.
20- There is a rush of heart-palpitating pleasure,
followed by a jaw-gnashing crash and wide-eyed
alertness that provides her life with concrete
purpose. - Get more crack--fast!
21The Story of the Women in our Study.
- A poor girl
- Victimized in childhood
- Increasingly victimized in adulthood
- Feels powerless and low
- Suffers depression
- Self-medicates to relieve her misery
22Results.
- Drug Dependence
- Arrest
- Incarceration
23There are theories that help us to understand
this story.
24Seligmans Learned Helplessness Theory
- There is a relationship between powerlessness and
depression. - People who come to expect that they have little
if any control over important outcomes in their
lives tend to develop symptoms of depression.
25What experiences would lead to a sense of
helplessness in women?
- Victimization and subtle ways women are made to
feel less than.
26Lenore Walkers Extension of Learned Helplessness
- A stance of learned helplessness actually
increases the likelihood of a woman being
battered. - Battered woman syndrome and learned helplessness
are linked to post-traumatic stress disorder.
27- Females are more likely than males to react to
sexual victimization with self-blame and
depression.
28Carol Gilligans work on womens distinctive
voice suggests that
- Womens response to maltreatment may be a
function of their greater self-critical morality
(it must be my fault).
29Womens Cognitive Style
- May be more maladaptive than mens.
- Womens thinking makes them more vulnerable to
depression. - Once depression sets in, womens response tends
to perpetuate the mood.
30Mens Cognitive Style
- Mens instrumental behaviors distract them from
it. - Mens more active responses to their - mood may
be more adaptive than womens less active
responses.
31- Women tend to turn their feelings inward against
themselves in the form of anxiety and suicidal
thoughts. - Depression and maltreatment increase womens
vulnerability to substance abuse.
32Disparity in Treatment of Men Women in Texas
- Women received more disciplinary infractions than
men! - Rules are enforced in womens prisons and ignored
in mens!
33Some surprising findings
- 1322 women cited for violating written or posted
rules compared with 9 men - 350 women cited for possession of contraband
compared with 41 men - 43 instances of trafficking trading
- (sharing shampoo in the shower, lighting
someones cigarette) - They call is trafficking and trading, we call it
caring and sharing.
34- They call it trafficking and trading, we call it
caring and sharing.
35How does it happen?
- In a year women prisoners incurred an average of
15 citations/men less than 3 - Almost 1/3 of the women receive 21 or more,
compared to only 2 of the men
36How is it possible?
- Female inmates received 85 of the most severe
disciplinary punishment - solitary confinement,
- loss of good conduct time
- reduction in time-earning status
37Biology is Destiny
- In Texas prisons gender determines what
constitutes a disciplinary infraction.
38Intensive Surveillance of Females
- An historical vestige
- Reflects the belief that women should conform to
gender-based stereotypes stressing obedience,
dependence, and deference
39- The warden of the male prison stated that he
effects an accommodation with male inmates, a
tacit social contract of noninterference, in
return for relative compliance with rules. - The women wardens of the womens prisons demand
total compliance with every rule on the books and
punish violations through formal mechanisms.
40- Women in prison are subject to an official system
that carries the patriarchal pattern of social
control to absurd lengths.
41- As night follows day, omnipresent surveillance
elicits the behavior it is installed to control...