Citation

Geiger B. Int. J. Offender Ther. Comp. Criminol. 2006; 50(5): 582-594.

Affiliation

Department of Criminology, Bar-Ilan University, Western Galilee Campus, Acre, Israel. geigerb@netvision.net.il

Copyright

(Copyright © 2006, SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/0306624X05282890

PMID

16943382

Abstract

Mizrahi female offenders have been described as passive victims propelled into crime, prostitution, and drug abuse as a result of traumatic childhood and life course experiences. This qualitative study adopts a postmodern critical orientation and Foucault's bottom-up microsocial analysis of power to examine the trajectories of resistance of 8 female offenders who break the silence to tell their life story. Analysis of narratives, informal conversations, and more focused, in-depth interviews with these women allow the deconstruction of the stereotype of the passive and helpless female offender. Using the sensitizing concepts of control, agency, and resistant efforts and letting the data speak, this research reconstructs female offending as a hidden script of resistance against intolerable socioeconomic deprivation and extreme forms of abuse.

Language: en