Abstract
Because the gendered pathways perspective was developed and tested primarily in the United States, the applicability of the model in European contexts remains questionable. Also, it is unclear how adult-onset female offenders fit the pathways perspective. In this article we explore the life histories and the pathways to crime and prison of female prisoners in Belgium. Because many participants were late starters, our findings are particularly informative for female adult-onset pathways. These adult-onset pathways show both similarities to and differences from the US gendered pathways perspective. Hence, this pathway might be considered as another gendered pathway to crime and prison, alongside those put forward in mainly US research.
Keywords
Introduction
Criminal career studies have always been mainly focused on male offenders (Block et al., 2010). Since the end of the 1980s, with the emergence of ‘feminist pathway research’ or ‘gendered pathways research’, there has been a growing interest in the question of whether women have distinct pathways in and out of crime as compared with men. In these studies, female pathways to crime and prison are explored, acknowledging the centrality of the perspectives of women offenders (Belknap, 2007). Life histories are often used to contextualize and understand female crime, and to explore the link between child and adult life experiences and offending (see, for example, Batchelor, 2005; Brown, 2006; Carlen, 1988; Girshick, 1999; Simpson et al., 2008; Sommers, 1996). This body of research has contributed a great deal to the understanding of female offending by revealing different pathways to crime and prison, each with specific risk factors that shape these pathways (see, for example, Daly, 1992; Salisbury and Van Voorhis, 2009).
One of the most notable risk factors mentioned in the pathways literature is victimization. Patterns of victimization in both childhood and adulthood are seen as important precursors for the delinquent behaviour of girls and women (see, for example, Daly, 1992; Girshick, 1999; Salisbury and Van Voorhis, 2009). For instance, it is argued that victimized girls become offenders because of a ‘survival strategy’ or ‘resistance strategy’ (Bloom et al., 2004; Gilfus, 1992). Girls run away from home because of victimization in the family and may end up on an escalating pathway to crime and detention in adulthood (DeHart et al., 2014). Girls running away from home risk ending up living on the streets, which, in turn, may lead to drug use and/or prostitution (Belknap, 2007).
More specifically, the pathways perspective brought gendered risk factors to attention in female pathways to crime. Whereas ‘sex’ refers to biological aspects distinguishing male and female human beings, ‘gender’ refers to social aspects attributed to males and females based on social conventions and constructions (Heidensohn, 1994). Hence, gender refers to common personality characteristics, activities, interests and behaviour attributed to sex at a certain time in a certain social context, defining expectations linked to ‘masculinity’ and ‘femininity’ (Messerschmidt, 1993). In the pathways perspective, it is argued that risk factors for female offending are often highly gendered (shaped by gender). For example, because of structural inequalities, women tend to find themselves in disempowered positions in the workplace, in relationships and in society at large (Girshick, 1999: 72). This gendered life context is linked to women’s offending and imprisonment. Because victimization of women, one of the alleged precursors of female offending and imprisonment, often takes place in such a gendered context, this factor is also seen as a gendered factor (see, for example, Wesely, 2006).
Although the pathways perspective has yielded many insights into female pathways to crime and prison, it has several flaws (Nuytiens and Christiaens, 2015). First, because the pathways perspective was developed and tested primarily in the United States, the applicability of the model in European contexts remains questionable. Other pathways to crime and prison may exist in European countries. There are many differences between Europe and the United States (for example, social security, criminal law, imprisonment policies, socio-economic composition of populations). Moreover, it appears that the pathways literature has been heavily focused on race. Many studies involve (partly or entirely) African American women (see, for example, Richie, 1996) or native Hawaiian women (see, for example, Brown, 2006; Chesney-Lind and Rodriguez, 1983). However, in Europe other ethnic minorities may be important.
Second, it remains unclear how adult-onset female offenders, women who start offending in adulthood, fit the pathways perspective. These female offenders might, however, be important when investigating female pathways to crime and prison. Retrospective studies of women in prison have shown high numbers of adult-onset offenders. For example, Simpson et al. (2008) identified 54 percent adult-onset offenders in a sample of 351 mostly African American incarcerated women. In Canada, of 141 interviewed female prisoners, 63.3 percent began offending in early adulthood (18–30 years) (Forouzan et al., 2012). 1 Recently, there has been a growing interest in female adult-onset offending. However, not much is known about the qualitative aspects of this phenomenon (Andersson and Torstensson Levander, 2013: 173). Research about who these female late starters are, and why they start offending in adulthood, is scant. Because little is known of their life histories and factors leading to offending, female adult starters remain a ‘mysterious group’ (Wong et al., 2009: 258). Some scholars have found that predictors of adult offending are similar for all adult offenders, independent of past delinquency (Eggleston and Laub, 2002: 612). Others have argued that late starters are characterized by fewer risk factors than childhood-onset or adolescent-onset offenders, and their childhood background is either not problematic or is less so (Simpson et al., 2008; Wong et al., 2009). It remains unclear whether the pathway of female late starters is shaped by gendered factors and whether they fit the pathways perspective as described in the (mainly) US literature.
In this article, findings from a study based on autobiographical interviews with detained women in Belgium are presented. We will discuss their life histories and their pathways to crime and prison, and we will investigate whether the pathways of the participants fit the pathways perspective as developed mainly in the United States. Our findings turn out to be particularly informative for female adult-onset pathways, because many of them were late starters.
Method
Data collection
We conducted autobiographical interviews with 41 female prisoners in all of the four prisons in Flanders (the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium) that had a women’s section: Antwerp, Bruges, Ghent, Hasselt. The study aimed at exploring how women experience and interpret their life history and their offences. We were not seeking ‘reality’ or ‘the truth’ but rather the construction of reality by the women themselves (Flick, 2004). By exploring the women’s own perspectives, we tried to capture the subjectivity of the impact of life events on their pathways to crime and prison. In Belgium, between 400 and 500 women have resided in prison during the last decade, of whom approximately 200 were in Flanders (Nuytiens, 2011: 21). In all four prisons we sampled convicted Dutch-speaking women. 2 We maintained the language criterion for two reasons. First, sharing your life history can be an emotional event and the presence of an interpreter might jeopardize a confidential atmosphere. Second, without a full understanding of the language, it would be difficult to grasp nuances and to observe/interpret non-verbal information (Nuytiens and Verwee, 2009).
We found 90 women who fitted our selection criteria but we excluded 10 women who were interned as mentally ill, for reasons of security, emotional instability or limited communication skills. 3 These women were in serious psychological trouble (for example, psychosis) or intellectually disabled. In order to assess the capability of women interned as mentally ill, we discussed these cases with the special care unit of the prison, a team consisting of psychologists, psychiatrists, physiotherapists and social workers. We contacted the other 80 women individually. Each woman was called separately to the interview room where she was informed about the study and asked whether she would like to participate. Depending on the prison, this was a conference room, an office or a vacant prison cell. We provided the women with detailed information about the study, stressed that there were no implications if they refused to participate and that they could stop the interview at any point. Of the 80 women, 43 agreed to participate. The interviews were conducted on a one-on-one basis by one researcher in an interview room, away from staff and other prisoners. However, we were able to complete only 41 interviews: two interviews had to be stopped because the interview invoked strong emotional reactions by the participant. The emotional impact of this kind of qualitative research, not only on the participant but also on the researcher, appeared to be a particularly challenging part of our study (see Scheirs and Nuytiens, 2013).
Most participants were Belgian natives. One woman had Italian roots but had grown up in Belgium, and one woman was Dutch and had grown up in the Netherlands. Because we included only Dutch-speaking women, a number of women with foreign roots were not selected. These women, however, comprise a large percentage of the Belgian female prison population. In 2008, 39.7 percent of the female prison population in Belgium did not have Belgian nationality (Nuytiens, 2008). 4 Respondents’ backgrounds for what concerns the offences they committed, their criminal career and their age were highly diverse. The women were between 20 and 69 years of age (mean age: 39.8), which is slightly older than the average for the female prison population in Belgium (36.7) (Nuytiens, 2008). At the time of the interview, five women were interned as mentally ill. These women were capable of doing the interview. Because the decision on internment is based on the state of mind at the time of the offence, the criminal procedure or the trial, interned women are not necessary still in psychological trouble during imprisonment. The remaining 36 women were sentenced to a prison term ranging from 5 months to life. In comparison with all convicted women in Belgian prisons, our sample contained fewer women interned as mentally ill and fewer women with prison sentences between three and five years. Our sample contained more women with sentences of five years or more, and more women with punishments of less than one year (Nuytiens, 2008). The total number of convictions in adulthood was quite low: 17 women had been convicted only once; only 8 women had more than 5 convictions and were convicted for more than 20 offences. Offences ranged from theft and/or drug offences to homicide. Most of the offences were property offences (78.9 percent). Drug offences comprised 11.1 percent and offences against the person covered 5.5 percent. This is in line with the offences that women in Belgian prisons have been convicted of (Nuytiens, 2008).
The women were interviewed once between April and December 2008. All participants signed an informed consent form to formalize anonymity, voluntariness and approval for us to access their criminal data after the interview. We formalized ethics and privacy issues by registering our research project with the Belgian Commission for the Protection of Privacy. At the time of our research, research projects did not have to receive permission from an ethical committee at our university. Because the study was conducted from an inductive perspective, we did not present a list of topics to the respondents. No hypotheses were formulated nor was a theoretical framework proposed prior to entering the field. We did provide respondents with a document with life stages and corresponding (model) school stages 5 in order to stimulate a chronological story and to avoid multiple interventions by the interviewer. This document turned out to be an important aid for many.
Still, conducting autobiographical interviews with female prisoners appeared to be quite difficult. In autobiographical interviewing, the interviewer is described as an ‘active listener’ (Flick, 2009). Apart from one opening question, interrupting respondents should be kept to a minimum and interviewers should resist active intervention and further probing. Participants can be encouraged to proceed, for example by nodding, affirmative humming or repeating their last words. Although some scholars apply this principle very strictly (see, for example, Nijhof, 2000), others argue that (minimal) probing should be allowed. Owing to the unstructured character of the autobiographical interview, the interviewer depends on the information spontaneously narrated by the respondent. However, the women we interviewed could be too shy, too emotional or too timid to narrate their life history with minimal structure and probing. In practice, the autobiographical interview often evolved into a classic open interview where we asked non-suggestive questions in order to receive an answer to our research question. 6 Structured methods such as the life history calendar, or a combination of both interviews and the calendar, may be more appropriate for this kind of research (Nuytiens and Christiaens, 2010). 7
Interviews lasted between 31 and 226 minutes (with an average of 94.5 minutes), were fully recorded and were transcribed verbatim as soon as possible. Youth Court case files, criminal records and detention records of the prison administration were consulted after the interviews in order to chart registered contacts with the youth justice and/or the criminal justice system.
In order to explore whether participants were childhood-onset or adult-onset offenders, we included self-report data. 8 Occasionally, women revealed (minor) offences that were not recorded by the police. Only 7 out of the 41 women had committed at least one offence before reaching the age of 18. 9 Offences committed before 18 usually concerned (occasional) drug use or minor property offences such as shoplifting. This was often a one-off event. Consequently, most women (N = 34) were adult-onset offenders who had committed their first offence after reaching the age of 18. Based on sentencing data, McGee and Farrington (2010) make a distinction between ‘early adult-onset offenders’ (first conviction before 30th birthday) and ‘late adult-onset offenders’ (first conviction after 30th birthday). Applying this to the 34 adult-onset offenders in our sample, we identified 18 early adult-onset offenders and 15 late adult-onset offenders. 10 Nine women were even older than 40 at the time of their first conviction. A number of adult-onset offenders were one-time offenders. Of the 18 early adult-onset offenders, 7 had been convicted only once. Within the group of late adult-onset offenders, this was more than half (8 out of 15). In general, these women had committed only one serious offence, such as homicide, arson or drug smuggling.
Data analysis
In the first research phase, we analysed the autobiographical interviews in order to explore the women’s lives and their pathways to crime and prison, and to gain insight into their perspectives on their life course and offending. Because the study was conducted from an inductive perspective, we did not select topics in advance that we then looked for in the interviews. Instead, we worked inversely; we searched for common key themes in the qualitative interview material in order to explore similarities in the life histories and to explore different female pathways to crime and prison (see also Batchelor, 2005; Sommers, 1996). It was only afterwards that we linked our findings with the literature. To connect as much as possible with the interview data, we did not use computerized software but, instead, analysed our data manually. Because the present study was a PhD study conducted by one researcher, the analysis was also conducted by one person. In the second research phase, the judicial and criminal pathways were analysed. For each respondent we gathered all the available official data retrieved from the Youth Court case files, criminal records and detention records. We then added self-reported offences and organized all the information chronologically.
In this contribution we will focus on the interview data. We will draw on the women’s narratives to shed some light on their life histories and their pathways to crime and prison.
Research findings
In this section we will first paint a picture of the life histories of the women involved in our study. Despite the unique character of each woman’s life, several key themes emerge in the narratives. In the second part we will elaborate on the pathways to crime and prison and explore which factors shape these pathways.
The women’s lives before incarceration
Relational vulnerability as the central topic
The lives of the interviewed women are characterized by vulnerabilities in at least one of the following three domains: individual, relational, societal/social. Individual vulnerability is mainly reflected in three key topics: (1) low self-esteem and low sense of worth, (2) psychological problems and (3) addictions (alcohol, medication and illicit drugs). Social vulnerability or societal vulnerability is reflected in the women’s fragile position in society. The most important societal vulnerabilities are related to education, work and finances, with an obvious strong link between these vulnerabilities. In this contribution we will mainly elaborate on relational vulnerability because it is the central issue in the majority of life histories and it plays a crucial role, often acting as a catalyst in a chain of negative life events and other vulnerabilities (see below). Moreover, elaborating on all three vulnerabilities would lead us to exceed the maximum length of the article.
The collected life histories show that relational vulnerability is a two-sided concept (Nuytiens and Christiaens, 2012). On the one hand, the interviewed women are vulnerable because they are victimized (physically, emotionally and/or sexually), often repeatedly, by caregivers and/or boyfriends. On the other hand, they are vulnerable because they are deprived of ‘mutually empathic relationships’ (Miller, 1976) with significant others, 11 sometimes as a result of victimization within these relationships. Most women mentioned troubled relationships with several significant others in their lives: parents, intimate partners, friends and children.
The difficult relationship with the parent(s) is reflected in the fact that the interviewed women often consider themselves as unwanted, mostly by their mothers. Moreover, building a mutually empathic relationship with parents is, in many cases, hampered by the physical absence (for example, death) or emotional absence (unavailability) of parents. This might be the result of the mother being overburdened by her own (relational) problems. Belinda,
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aged 33 and in prison for repeat drug and property offences, said: I always had a quite good relationship with my mother, but I never went like: ‘mum, I have this problem, and I don’t know what to do’. For us (me and my sisters) it was like: leave that woman alone. She already has enough troubles on her mind. And that is why we never shared our worries or problems with her.
For others, the relationship with their parents is disturbed owing to victimization at home. Because of this victimization, some women ran away or left home at a young age, such as Winnie, aged 27 and convicted of attempted infanticide: My dad is an alcoholic . . .. I’ve been through a lot with him, he did not hit me, but he sexually abused me between the ages of 6 and 15. I ran away from home several times . . . and eventually I left when I was 17.
For many, the relationship with their own children was also disturbed. Although 28 women had one or more children, 13 several of them were already living apart from their children prior to their (current) detention because they had been placed in foster care due to the addiction of the mother or because of the behavioural problems of the child. This means that the separation from their children is not always caused by the mother’s detention (see also Blanchard, 2002). As in other studies (Medlicott, 2007), it appears that very few children stay with their father during the mother’s detention. Only two women said that at least one of her children under the age of 18 years lived with their father. Because the interviewed women tend to be detained far from their home town, and they have to rely on caregivers for visiting, a lot of them had lost contact with their children or see or hear from them only sporadically.
It appears from the life histories that relational vulnerability interacts with individual and social vulnerability. These three vulnerabilities mutually influence and reinforce each other, which might invoke a chain reaction of vulnerabilities throughout the life course. Within this chain reaction it seems that relational vulnerability often plays an important role. We will illustrate this with some interview excerpts. First, Kristel, aged 43 and in prison for homicide, told us how being maltreated at home had important implications for her school career: My mother hit me until my skin turned black and blue and as a result I could not attend school.
Not finishing school has obvious important implications for one’s position in the job market. Second, some women said they became ‘hooked’ on drugs because they tried to forget the abuse of relatives or boyfriends. Drugs provide a feeling of relaxation and an escape from reality (DeHart, 2008; McClellan et al., 1997). Some eventually ended up becoming addicted and fell into financial difficulties. Apparently, this is especially the case for women hooked on heroin, as Mona, aged 33 and in prison for repeat drug and property offences, narrated: In my case it seriously went wrong with heroin, I really lost everything then. I sold everything . . . My washing machine . . . I sold everything to buy heroin . . .. We couldn’t afford our rent, we had gigantic debts.
Third, some women perceived problems in the family (for example, death of a parent, placement in foster care) to have led to more internally directed problems such as depression, suicidal behaviour and self-mutilation, both in childhood and in adulthood. Ann, aged 33 and in prison for drug and property offences and prostitution, said: I went to therapy, I followed courses and everything, I had suicidal thoughts . . . when I was 12, 13, 14 years old because I couldn’t handle it anymore, that misery.
Abusive intimate relationships as a shared experience
If we look at relational vulnerability in detail, it appears that a negative experience in intimate relationships is by far the most mentioned topic. Despite great differences in the respondents’ individual characteristics, social background and criminal career, there is one shared life experience in the narratives: abusive intimate relationships.
All but one life history reflects a pattern of abusive intimate relationships in adulthood. The most mentioned problem is physical abuse (including sexual abuse), but quite a lot of women said they were mentally abused as well. Helga, aged 42 and in prison for homicide, said about her husband: After we got married he bluntly said to me: ‘I only married you because of a bet’. . . . He just used me to serve him and to spread my legs apart. I wasn’t good for any other thing. . . . He always looked down on me: ‘you can’t do anything, you this, you that’. It was never good enough for him.
Sometimes the abusive nature of the relationship is situated at a financial level. Whereas some women told us that they were the sole breadwinner in a household with several children and that their husband spent excessive amounts of money, others said they were exploited in prostitution by their partner. The life histories reveal that these abusive intimate relationships are part of a gendered life context in which asymmetric power balances and patriarchal roles are considered normal by both partners (Brown, 2006; Dobash and Dobash, 1998; Wesely, 2006).
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Although (as a result of the large age range of the sample) the participants grew up in different eras, it appears that their experiences on this topic are very similar. As a rule, the abusive partners were described as highly dominant and jealous. Some women told us of how their partner restricted their financial and physical freedom of movement, and how they were not allowed to go shopping alone or to have money. Jenny, aged 45 and in prison for sexually abusing her children, recounted: When I went to the supermarket, I had to send him a text message when I was ready. Then he came in and paid.
It appears from the literature that isolating the woman is a purposive strategy by their partner in order to hide the scars of maltreatment, but also to prevent her from leaving. Women who lack a solid social network are most vulnerable to abusive intimate relationships because social contacts provide social control and a shelter in case she wants to end the relationship (see, for example, Coohey, 2007; Dobash and Dobash, 1998). The women in our research often said they lack a solid social network, for example Julienne, aged 40 and in prison for homicide: I don’t have friends. This is why I depended so strongly on my ex-boyfriend. When he left, there was nobody to go to.
Several women explicitly indicated that they lived an isolated life and lacked social contacts before their detention. This is frequently seen as a consequence of the controlling attitude of their lover, as Jenny noticed: [When I was married] I didn’t have friends. No. Never. And when I talked to someone, [my husband] assumed that I told them that he molested me. And then I was in big trouble. As a result, I never talked to anyone.
Sometimes the woman had lost touch with her family as well, as a result either of the isolated adult lifestyle or of a problematic childhood.
Adult-onset offenders: Women with ‘atypical’ life histories?
It appears from their life histories that the interviewed women are characterized by a vulnerable profile as a result of a chain of vulnerabilities throughout the life course. This is in line with the gendered pathways literature. These studies have yielded important insights into the profile of women in prison and have consistently demonstrated that they are characterized by a particular vulnerable profile, experiencing problems in several life domains (see, for example, Batchelor, 2005; DeHart, 2008; Easteal, 2001; Forouzan et al., 2012; Girshick, 1999; McIvor, 2004; Simpson et al., 2008; Slotboom et al., 2008).
However, in our sample, several women do not (fully) fit the one-sided negative picture of multilevel vulnerability as reflected in other studies of female prisoners (Nuytiens and Christiaens, 2015). First, not all women painted a negative picture of their childhood. At least 15 interviewed women experienced their childhood as mainly positive and pleasant. In their view, their problems started when they reached adulthood. Second, whereas some women disclosed vulnerabilities at different levels throughout their life course, others revealed only one vulnerability in adulthood. These women usually lived a rather ‘normal’ life before imprisonment, with a steady work situation, a solid social network and no addictions. As Bea, aged 43 and in prison for property offences, explained: I had a normal childhood, my parents were self-employed, we always had a wealthy lifestyle. . . . I never did anything wrong. . . . If you have enough money, you don’t even think about doing that. . . . The last 7 years I worked as a cleaning lady . . .. I had enough money, I lived in my own house . . . . Me and my daughter travelled to Morocco, to Tunisia, you name it.
Similarly, Mia, aged 45 and in prison for homicide said: I always worked as a volunteer in community networks. . . . Yes, me and my sons had everything we wanted, I worked, my kids went to school.
The life histories of these women reflect only one vulnerability: an abusive intimate relationship. In the context of the literature on female prisoners, these stories can be considered as atypical. As Mia indicated: Indeed, I am someone who does not fit that picture. I’m really someone who, one couldn’t tell back then that I would end up here, no. . . . Every time the same question is asked: ‘what is someone like you doing here?’
Women with such life histories are always adult-onset offenders, and most often late adult-onset offenders. This suggests that abusive intimate relationships are more important in adult-onset pathways and become more important as the age of onset increases.
Pathways to crime and prison
The impact of abusive intimate relationships on female adult offending
From the interviews it appears that three vulnerabilities are particularly salient in the emergence of offending: (1) financial need, (2) addictions and (3) abusive intimate relationships. Whereas the first two factors reflect ‘classic’ (generic) risk factors, the third factor is a particularly gendered one. The latter is most present in the life histories of our participants. It also appeared to be the most important factor in their pathways to adult offending. Though the dynamics are always unique, a certain pattern emerged from the interviews.
Several women told us how they felt they were manipulated or intentionally (ab)used to commit offences, alone or together with their partner. Indeed, it appeared from their official records that quite a number of the women we interviewed were convicted of complicity. As argued earlier in this article, the abusive relationships are part of a gendered life context. Drawing on their narratives, it becomes clear that they found themselves in unequal power relations and feared their partner, which resulted in isolation and dependence. Several participants committed an offence together with their partners, which was planned or initiated by the partners. Tina, aged 28 and in prison for homicide, said that her boyfriend was a hit man, and told how she got involved in a homicide through him: My boyfriend appeared to be a hit man. He put together this conspiracy . . . . And in the end I participated as well. I went ringing at the [victim’s] door.
Some said they had wrongfully confessed to offences committed by their partner in order to protect him, such as Ann: I knew what he had done. And I said [to the police] that I did it. . . . I just said I did it so he could leave prison.
Cara, aged 23 and in prison for drug offences, said: My boyfriend was a drug dealer . . . When we got caught with drugs in our house I said the drugs were mine because he had this conditional sentence.
Others kept silent about their partner’s crimes, which led to a conviction for complicity. This happened to Bea: My boyfriend and the other guy committed some armed robberies. . . . He told me afterwards. So I knew, and I did not call the police.
Finally, some women felt that they were tricked by their abusive ex-partner. Chiara, aged 45 and in prison for forgery and property offences, said that her ex-husband started to torment her after their divorce: I committed most of my offences because of him. And I was . . . stupid and naïve. Like: ‘can you go to the pharmacy for me?’ I’d left him already, but . . . I went to pick up the prescription, went to the pharmacy, and by the time I got back the police was there already. . . . I didn’t have a driver’s licence, so . . . Then, one time, shortly after I left him, he called me to cash his holiday allowance into my account. I did it and six months later he reported to the police that I stole his money.
For women whose offences were mainly motivated by financial problems, an abusive intimate relationship was often seen as an intermediate factor. Some of the interviewed women said they committed offences because their (violent and unemployed) partner spent the household money and she had to provide for the children. Marie, aged 64 and in prison for repeat traffic violations, forgery and property offences, recounted: We had seven children, and I still had to go out working. My husband was unemployed; he was too lazy to work. . . . My income was not sufficient. . . . And like that it started . . . I started to take things without paying. For my children.
Those who mentioned addiction as an important motive also referred to abusive partners. Several criminal careers reflect a pattern of drug offences and thefts in order to supply money for drugs. Some women told us about how they initiated drug use, linking it to their victimization in intimate relationships. Ria, aged 35 and in prison for drug and property offences, put it this way: When I was 21 I really got hooked on drugs . . . . My daughter’s father molested me when she was there. . . . For me it was like, you know, beatings, he still stalked me because he did not accept that our relationship was over. And hmm, yes, like that I really got hooked on drugs.
Others spoke of living with addicted men and being in contact with drugs through them. One woman indicated that they had a clear-cut division of labour. Whereas some crimes, such as breaking into cars, were committed together, other offences were considered her job, as Belinda illustrated: We broke into cars . . . that were not locked. . . . The shoplifting was my job, he always sent me out stealing.
Limited options: Making choices in gendered life contexts
Numerous studies have shown that abusive relationships are imperative to understanding female pathways to crime (Cobbina et al., 2012; Daly, 1992; DeHart, 2008; Gilfus, 1992; Haynie et al., 2005; Pollack, 2007; Richie, 1996). Our findings confirm that victimization in intimate relationships is important in the emergence of adult offending for most of the women of our sample. The fact that the boundaries between ‘victim’ and ‘offender’ are sometimes blurred raises an important question of agency. As Daly (1992: 48) questions: ‘Where does victimization end and responsibility for acts that harm others begin?’ Some authors have portrayed female offenders as passive victims of their life circumstances who are ‘forced’ into crime. For example, Richie (1996) refers to this as being ‘compelled to crime’. The problem with this approach is that it denies women any agency or choice in their lives (Batchelor, 2005: 361). Most women who participated in the present study perceive themselves as active agents who made choices (see also Ajzenstadt, 2009; Batchelor, 2005; Heidensohn, 1994). Despite victimization, social isolation, perceived manipulation or threats, they recognize their share (albeit sometimes minimally) in the criminal activities. It appears that participants perceive themselves as having agency, as ‘making choices’.
To understand why women made certain (delinquent) choices, we have to consider the cumulative impact of their victimization and multi-layered vulnerabilities (see also DeHart, 2008). The life histories we collected reveal that women’s freedom of choice is affected by a gendered life context. An accumulation of vulnerabilities in adulthood, often catalysed by relational vulnerability, results in the limitation of (real and perceived) options. Anne Worrall (1999: 46) refers to this process as ‘the path of narrowing options’. For the women in our research, choosing the ‘delinquent path’ is, indeed, mainly shaped by these limited options of choice. For example, Silvia, aged 26 and convicted with her boyfriend for attempted infanticide, said: Our relationship had already ended, I was about to leave him. . . . I think to myself: why did I switch from that [the intention to leave], doing this [the offence]? I could have said that day: you know what, I take our son with me, I pack my clothes and I’m gone. But . . . I don’t know why I chose that.
Although Silvia appeared to be unable to answer her own question, other women linked the immediate circumstances of their offences to social isolation.
The importance of social isolation
The question of social isolation is essential within this process of making choices. It appears that the presence or absence of a solid social network, or at least how women perceive this, is a decisive factor. Several women felt that they could not count on anybody to solve their problem(s), which resulted in choosing the criminal path. Some of the women we interviewed explicitly stated that they did not perceive another way out. For example, Winnie told us about her conviction for attempted infanticide: I didn’t do it because I wanted to kill her, I did it because . . . she constantly cried, and, I had no one, I didn’t have contact with my mother, with no one in my family or [my boyfriend’s] family. . . . In that case I would have had someone to rely on, someone to give advice. My mother could have helped me, for example by taking over the baby for a couple of days so that I could calm down. Because that was the problem: I couldn’t find rest any more.
Vulnerabilities in different life domains initiated a chain reaction in Winnie’s life. For example, the disconnection between Winnie and her mother emanated from her childhood. Apparently Winnie’s mother knew that her father abused his daughter but she just let it happen and did nothing to stop it. Moreover, Winnie left home at a young age because of the abuse. Being pregnant, she went to live on her own and soon found herself in financial difficulties. As such, although this vulnerable life context is an important element in her story, Winnie explicitly refers to the lack of a social network (having no one to rely on) as directly related to her offence. Lacking a social network can lead women who have accumulated negative life circumstances and who live in vulnerable situations to commit acts of despair. This is also the case for Greta, aged 55 and in prison for arson, who talked about setting fire to her cell during a stay in a psychiatric hospital: The life I lived, I wish no one would have to live it. The whole day in my cell, alone. I had a room-mate, but she never talked to me. And in order to attract attention . . . I lit a fire. Not to do harm. In court they said that I wanted to burn down the whole building . . . But it’s not true, it was just to get some attention. . . . Because I was lonely and I wanted some attention.
These accounts illustrate that a life in isolation and, particularly, (the feeling of) being deprived of social contacts, may help us to understand why women in vulnerable life contexts begin offending.
Discussion and conclusion
Life histories of female prisoners in Belgium: Gendered vulnerabilities
Research on gendered pathways to crime and prison has consistently shown that female prisoners are characterized by vulnerabilities across a number of life domains. Our findings are in line with these previous studies. Autobiographical interviews with 41 women in Belgian prisons reveal three core vulnerabilities (individual, relational, societal) in the life histories. These vulnerabilities mutually influence and reinforce each other, potentially producing a chain reaction of vulnerabilities throughout the life course. Relational vulnerability appears to be the central theme in their life histories and the most common life experience is an abusive intimate relationship. Hence, relational vulnerability appears to be the principal ‘motor’ in the life course.
Although, prior to incarceration, the lives of women in Belgian prisons resemble the profile described in US pathways research, it appears that adult-onset offenders, and especially late adult-onset offenders, are atypical in respect of the pathways perspective. They often do not mention childhood vulnerabilities and usually lived a ‘normal’ and stable life before imprisonment. It appears that, apart from victimization in adult intimate relationships, the life histories of (late) adult-onset offenders do not fit the profile as described in the pathways perspective.
Pathways to crime and prison of female prisoners in Belgium: Challenging the gendered pathways perspective
In the present study we have explored the pathways to crime and prison of women in Belgian prisons. Comparing our research findings with the (US) gendered pathways literature shows that, although some of our findings are in line with this literature, we have also identified important differences. From the interviews it appears that three specific vulnerabilities are particularly salient in the emergence of offending: (1) financial need, (2) addictions and (3) abusive intimate relationships. The last vulnerability is the most important factor in the pathways to adult offending. This is in line with the pathways perspective, where victimization in intimate relationships is considered an important precursor for female adult offending. A further similarity is that, for the women in our sample, the accumulation of vulnerabilities from childhood to adulthood has an impact on pathways to offending. For example, childhood victimization may engender a negative spiral that eventually leads to limited choice options and, subsequently, to offending. This process also reflects a core component of the pathways literature. However, we found few stories that confirm the model of crime as a survival strategy emanating from victimization. Some life histories did show similarities, such as child abuse and, as a consequence, leaving home at a young age, or drug use to cope with victimization. Yet, in contrast to the pathway literature, few women talked about street life and the related risks of living on the street (for example, ‘street prostitution’) (Nuytiens and Christiaens, 2015). These pathways – referred to as ‘street women’ by Daly (1992) – where female juvenile (status) offenders end up in street crime, are virtually absent in our sample.
Because most of the women in our sample were late starters, our findings are particularly relevant for exploring whether the adult-onset pathway fits the pathways perspective. It appears that the adult-onset pathway, and especially the late adult-onset pathway, shows both similarities to and differences from the gendered pathways perspective. Victimization in abusive intimate relationships is even more important in the pathways to crime and prison of (late) adult-onset offenders; for them, this is the only salient factor. In that sense the adult-onset pathway, as found in our study, is similar to the pathway of ‘battered women’ as described by Daly (1992). One important difference, however, is that, whereas the involvement in the criminal justice system of the battered women in Daly’s sample is directly attributable to the abuse in intimate relationships (for example, killing the husband in a physical fight), our pathways mainly reveal the indirect influences of abusive relationships (via isolation and limited choice options). The adult-onset offenders in our sample, and especially the late adult-onset offenders, also show some resemblance to the female offenders described by Daly (1992) as ‘other women’. These women are considered as atypical in the pathways perspective because their pathways are not characterized by risk factors. They do not have addictions, did not grow up in a damaging environment or had not been arrested before. However, unlike the ‘other women’, the (late) adult-onset offenders in our sample did not have economic motives to initiate offending.
We do have to note here that the women we did not reach with our study (for example owing to selective attrition, sample selection criteria) may fit the US gendered pathways perspective better. This may be especially true for specific subgroups of prisoners such as some groups of foreign nationals and/or women who committed sexual offences. These women are virtually absent from our sample (Nuytiens & Christiaens, 2015). Further research should explore this hypothesis.
Implications for theory, policy and practice
Our findings have important theoretical implications. We found that the adult-onset pathways in our sample are in some ways similar to those described in the US pathways literature. However, because there are also significant differences, the adult-onset pathway might be considered as another gendered pathway to crime and prison, alongside the gendered pathways as put forward in mainly US literature (Nuytiens and Christiaens, 2015). Although the present study draws on a small sample, and our findings are not generalizable, it has clearly indicated that other gendered pathways to crime and prison exist among female prisoners in Europe (in this case, Belgium). Therefore, an adaptation or diversification of the US pathways perspective may be warranted in a European context. European researchers should explore whether similar pathways are found in female prison populations throughout Europe in order to refine and add to the body of knowledge on gendered pathways and female adult-onset offending. It seems that the late adult-onset pathway in particular may be an interesting angle to study and may challenge the (US) pathways perspective.
A second important theoretical implication of our research findings is that predicting the pathways of female adult-onset offenders solely based on childhood factors may not be warranted. The life histories of these women make clear that life events and the life context in adulthood are far more important in their pathways to crime and prison. This is especially relevant for late adult-onset offenders. In our previous work we have elaborated on the finding that the late adult-onset offenders with a problematical childhood follow similar pathways into adulthood to those with an unproblematic childhood. Childhood problems are much less important in their pathway to crime and prison than for the others (Nuytiens and Christiaens, 2010).
Our research findings also have important consequences for prevention policies related to adult-onset (Nuytiens and Christiaens, 2015). Late adult-onset offenders, in particular, tend to have unproblematic backgrounds, live a ‘normal’ life prior to incarceration and, hence, go unnoticed in our society. Because they do not have high-risk profiles with classic childhood risk factors, it may be very hard to identify this group. Moreover, as our findings illustrate, these women often live isolated lives, which means that they may be very difficult to reach. However, because they commit more serious offences than childhood-onset offenders (Nuytiens and Christiaens, 2010), we think that this should be an important target group for prevention policies.
Prison practice and policy should also take into account the specific profile of these women. Women in prison have needs that are different from those of their male counterparts as a result of their specific vulnerable and gendered profile (Bloom et al., 2004; Carmichael et al., 2005; Heilbrun et al., 2008). For example, prison programmes should take account of the relational vulnerability of female prisoners. Bearing in mind the role of abusive intimate relationships that are embedded in gendered life contexts and closely linked to social isolation and limited choice options, gender-specific programmes with a special focus on empowerment should be introduced. Women should be encouraged to engage in mutually empathic relationships with significant others and be supported to consolidate these relationships. Sustaining such relationships is a crucial factor for desistance and for a successful reintegration process (Cobbina et al., 2012). Mutually empathic relationships may lead to increased self-worth and increased empowerment (Covington, 2007), and this may help women to end abusive relationships or to avoid such relationships in the future. Unfortunately, gender-specific programming is not considered a priority in Belgian prison policies.
Footnotes
Funding
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: We are grateful to the Fonds voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (Fund for Scientific Research) for funding our research [grant number G.0093.07N-1].