Female offenders’ pathways to prison in Belgium

Abstract

This paper examines some results of a research on female offenders’ life histories and pathways to prison in Belgium. Women’s pathways into crime will be presented and the connection of these pathways to their life histories will be explored. The study reveals that the greater part of the research population are adult-onset offenders. The authors argue that the importance of adult-onset pathways for female offenders might be explained by the emergence of (gendered) vulnerabilities within the women’s lives, often accumulated not before adulthood.

Keywords

• women in prison
• life histories
• criminal careers
• adult-onset offenders