Engendering Resistance: Agency and Power in Women's Prisons (Advances in Criminology)

This text presents an examination of power relationships in three women's penal establishments in England. It aims to demonstrate that, despite the prisons' undeniable restrictions, prisoners manage to resist their full control. The book's central argument is that a prison's control over its subjects is contingent and incomplete. Women manage to resist the pains of imprisonment, to some degree, despite their limited choices and opportunities. Particular attention is given to the ways in which choices and opportunities in race, class and sexuality enable such resistance. The study combines theoretical analysis of agency and identity with empirical research conducted in prison. It suggests that there has been a gap in previous literature about women in prison and draws on literature outside traditional criminology. The text indicates that there are continuities between women's experiences of imprisonment and their lives outside.