Citation

Pollack S. Int. Rev. Victimology 2013; 19(1): 103-114.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2013, World Society of Victimology, Publisher SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/0269758012447219

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This article examines how correctional systems absorb feminist-inspired reformist discourses that focus upon women's victimization as a 'pathway' to incarceration. Through the absorption process the concept of gender loses its socio-economic and political resonance, centering instead the psychological effects of gender oppression. A psychological notion of gender has been used to individualize and pathologize criminalized women through prison programming and is linked with notions of 'risk' to re-offend. I reflect upon the role of evidence-based practice (EBP) in exacerbating epistemic problems related to the subjectivity of the 'risky victim.' Moving beyond this conceptualization, I suggest the importance of an analysis which draws connections across spaces of confinement and challenges the very role and practices of prisons as examples of racialized and gendered violence themselves.

Language: en