Violence in the Lives Of Women Prisoners: A Mixed Methods Approach

Abstract

Women have become the fastest-growing segment of the incarceration population in the United States. This dissertation examines women’s to offending and incarceration utilizing an integrated feminist pathways approach, informed by life course theory and General Strain Theory (GST). Through a series of quantitative and qualitative analyses, several overlapping pathways to offending and incarceration were identified among Oklahoma women prisoners. First, individual, cumulative, and clusters of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) were directly linked to women’s experiences with physical, sexual, and psychological abuse in their adult intimate relationships. Second, coercive control and PTSD symptomology characterized women’s pathways to using physical violence. The third pathway involved lifelong trauma and abuse and women’s use of violence against their intimate partners and others Battered women characterized the fourth pathway. These women’s adult intimate relationships often involved extreme physical, sexual, and psychological abuse. Finally, the fifth pathway involved severe childhood trauma or abuse, involvement in gang activity, and women’s use of violence against others. Suggestions and implications for future research are discussed.