Her Caribbean Blues: The Female Prison Experience
Volume 1 - Issue 3
Melvina T Sumter*, Ingrid P Whitaker, Dianne Berger Hill and Frank R Wood
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- Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice, Old Dominion University, USA
*Corresponding author:
Melvina T Sumter, Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice, Old Dominion University, USA
Received: September 04, 2018; Published: September 21, 2018
DOI: 10.32474/SJPBS.2018.01.000114
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Abstract
In recent history, women were considered the “forgotten offenders.” However, a number of global-political changes have led to
an increase in the female prison population; subsequently, this population has become the focus of considerable research. Even so,
little inquiry has examined how females experience prison, as well an examination of the female prison experience in developing
countries, where the penal culture is significantly different from the U.S., is even more limited. Conversely, both classic and
contemporary prison studies have well documented the social world of male offenders, particularly how males experience prison
and the perils of imprisonment. This exploratory study examines the ways women in a Caribbean nation experience prison and the
challenges they encounter while in prison. Findings indicate that the women faced multiple changes, however, two broad challenges
related to their incarceration were prominent. These included the threat of losing pieces of their social identity and trying to cope
with a penal culture that threatened to reshape how these women viewed themselves.
Abstract|
Her Caribbean Blues: The Female Prison Experience |
Gender and the Prison Experience through the Lens
of Social Identity Theory |
Methods |
Results |
Mother-Child Contact |
Discussion |
References |