Building context specific understandings of Gender, Crime and Justice

• In Event: Rutgers 50th Anniversary: The Progression of Research on Gender in Criminology

Abstract

Research on the intersection of gender, crime and justice is growing. However, the majority of these studies are anchored in the Global North. Due to social, economic, political and cultural differences, we need context specific understandings of how gender shapes crime and justice. My research explores pathways to incarceration among women in India and Sri Lanka. Ninety-five women were interviewed in one prison in Sri Lanka and eighty-five interviews were completed at three prisons in India. Findings from the study complicate the monolithic story often told about South Asia and identify the unique experiences that shape women’s pathways to incarceration in India and Sri Lanka, expanding our understanding of the intersections of gender, violence, inequalities, and crime. The two countries provide fitting comparative examples of how gender inequalities embedded in society limit women’s agency, restrict legal support, and act to facilitate women’s pathways to incarceration; leaving one to conclude that gender acts as a pathway to incarceration among Indian and Sri Lankan women.

Author

• Ntasha Bhardwaj, South Asian Institute of Crime and Justice Studies