Chapter 3: Dangerous or Disregarded: Older Women in Prison

There are substantive gaps in the literature in relation to older women in prison This chapter will utilise the risk, need and responsivity framework to develop a more comprehensive understanding of the characteristics attributable to this small but significant group. To date most research into the experiences of older women in prison consist of relatively small-scale qualitative research. Wahidin (2004) argues that this group may have been overlooked and broadly neglected because of a latent form of ageism which has served to permit organisational oversight (p. 10). While others reflect on the difficulties posed by such small numbers and subsequent lack of statistical power resulting in a dearth of research (Omolade, 2014).

Britton and Jensen (2003, p. 2) emphasised a well-documented dichotomy when they stated that a ‘women’s violence stands in stark contradiction to prevailing norms around (white) femininity’. For older women, a crude lack of intersectionality and denial of reality is combined with the systemic male bias of the criminal justice system (Kerr & Shackel, 2018), limited acknowledgement of variability (Chrisler & Palatino, 2016) and how these factors are considered in terms of risk, need and responsivity (Wilson-Smith & Carr, 2017).

This chapter will utilise these considerations as a foundation together with theoretical underpinnings of development, socialisation and incarceration, in order to further develop knowledge while emphasising the hidden challenges of older women in prison and identifying areas requiring urgent development.