Gendered Justice in the American West: Women Prisoners in Men's Penitentiaries

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University of Illinois Press, Aug 15, 1999 - History - 304 pages
In this shocking study, Anne M. Butler shows that the distinct gender disadvantages already faced by women within western society erupted into intense physical and mental violence when they became prisoners in male penitentiaries.

Drawing on prison records and the words of the women themselves, Gendered Justice in the American West places the injustices women prisoners endured in the context of the structures of male authority and female powerlessness that pervaded all of American society. Butler's poignant cross-cultural account explores how nineteenth-century criminologists constructed the "criminal woman"; how the women's age, race, class, and gender influenced their court proceedings; and what kinds of violence women inmates encountered. She also examines the prisoners' diet, illnesses, and experiences with pregnancy and child-bearing, as well as their survival strategies.
 

Contents

Abbreviations
xi
Preface
xiii
Introduction
1
Chapter 1 The Woman Prisoner
21
Chapter 2 The Male Prison World
49
Chapter 3 Women of the Prison World
81
Chapter 4 Womens Worlds of Violence
112
Chapter 5 Womens Health inside the Walls
148
Chapter 6 Women and Prison Work
174
Chapter 7 Women Prisoners Respond
199
Conclusion
225
Selected Bibliography
235
Index
249
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