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  • Book
  • © 2017

Female Imprisonment

An Ethnography of Everyday Life in Confinement

Palgrave Macmillan

Authors:

  1. Catarina Frois

    1. Centre for Research in Anthropology, ISCTE – Instituto Universitário de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal

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  • Provides a criminological and anthropological analysis of a "safe haven" prison setting

  • Offers a detailed exploration of women's lives in a facility in South Portugal, exploring inmates' detailed narratives, a focus on female confinement, and the importance of family and relationships before and after imprisonment

  • Speaks to academics and professionals in Criminology, Sociology, Anthropology, Human Rights and Psychology

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Prisons and Penology (PSIPP)

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eBook USD 139.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • ISBN: 978-3-319-63685-6
  • Instant PDF download
  • Readable on all devices
  • Own it forever
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  • Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout
Softcover Book USD 179.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
Hardcover Book USD 179.99
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Table of contents (10 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xi
    PDF

  2. Introduction—“A Doll’s House”

    • Catarina Frois
    Pages 1-26

  4. Entering Odemira Prison Facility

    • Catarina Frois
    Pages 51-69

  6. The Effects of Imprisonment

    • Catarina Frois
    Pages 97-122

  7. Tension, Authority, Rights

    • Catarina Frois
    Pages 123-144

  8. The Rule, the Letter, the Spirit of the Law

    • Catarina Frois
    Pages 145-165

  9. Institutionalizing Exclusion

    • Catarina Frois
    Pages 167-187

  12. Back Matter

    Pages 217-231
    PDF
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About this book

This book is a reflection on the nature of confinement, experienced by prison inmates as everyday life. It explores the meanings, purposes, and consequences involved with spending every day inside prison. Female Imprisonment results from an ethnographic study carried out in a small prison facility located in the south of Portugal, and Frois uses the data to analyze how incarcerated women talk about their lives, crimes, and expectations. Crucially, this work examines how these women consider prison: rather than primarily being a place of confinement designed to inflict punishment, it can equally be a place of transformation that enables them to regain a sense of selfhood.
 
From in-depth ethnographic research involving close interaction with the prison population, in which inmates present their life histories marked by poverty, violence, and abuse (whether as victims, as agents, or both), Frois observes that the traditional idea of “doing time”, in the sense of a strenuous, repressive, or restrictive experience, is paradoxically transformed into “having time” – an experience of expanded self-awareness, identity reconstruction, or even of deliverance. Ultimately, this engaging and compassionate study questions and defies customary accounts of the impact of prisons on those subjected to incarceration, and as such it will be of great interest for scholars and students of penology and the criminal justice system.


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Keywords

  • Anthropology of Crime
  • Anthropology of Identity
  • Crime and Identity
  • Purposes for Confinement
  • Meanings of confinement
  • Consequences of confinement
  • Prison
  • Female Incarceration
  • Punishment
  • Identity
  • Crime
  • ethnicity, class, gender and crime
  • criminal justice
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Authors and Affiliations

  • Centre for Research in Anthropology, ISCTE – Instituto Universitário de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal

    Catarina Frois

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About the author

Catarina Frois is Senior Researcher at the Center for Research in Anthropology and Invited Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology, ISCTE - Instituto Universitário de Lisboa, Portugal.
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Bibliographic Information

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Access via your institution
eBook USD 139.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • ISBN: 978-3-319-63685-6
  • Instant PDF download
  • Readable on all devices
  • Own it forever
  • Exclusive offer for individuals only
  • Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout
Softcover Book USD 179.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
Hardcover Book USD 179.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
Learn about institutional subscriptions