1st Edition
Women's Desistance in a Colonial Context Lived Experiences from Aotearoa New Zealand
This book adds to global knowledge of pathways out of crime (desistance) by exploring the desistance narratives of 15 women with histories of imprisonment in Aotearoa New Zealand (10 of whom identify as Māori, New Zealand’s Indigenous population). By voicing these women’s experiences, the book adds to desistance research by moving beyond the mainstream Western nations which dominate desistance literature (such as the United States and UK), to explore how historical and structural influences – including Aotearoa New Zealand’s colonial history – shape women’s offending and desistance trajectories.
This book explores the women’s journeys in and out of crime, including the various socio-structural constraints which could impede the women’s desistance efforts, especially for Māori women, who are overrepresented in Aotearoa New Zealand’s prison population. This book explores the influence of the women’s personal relationships (with families of origin/whānau, intimate partners, friends/associates, and children) and their institutional interactions (i.e., their experiences of employment, drug/alcohol addiction treatment and other forms of rehabilitative support). The book also takes a close look at the role of housing – and the more subjective notion of ‘home’ – in the women’s offending and desistance journeys. It makes recommendations for policy and practice to support women leaving prison in Aotearoa New Zealand (and internationally) with an emphasis on the importance of wider community support.
This book makes an original contribution to desistance literature by bringing greater conceptual clarity to gendered aspects of the desistance process and how these manifest in a colonial setting. It will appeal to students and scholars of criminology, desistance, gender studies, recovery from addiction, and to practitioners and policy makers in these fields.
Introduction
Part One: Method and Context
Chapter One. Gendered Desistance in a Colonial Context
Chapter Two. The Study
Part Two: Personal Relationships
Chapter Three. Families of Origin, Intimate Partners, and Friends/Associates
Chapter Four. Children and the Salience of Motherhood
Part Three: Institutional Interactions
Chapter Five. Employment
Chapter Six. Recovery Programmes
Part Four: Housing and ‘Home’
Chapter Seven. Housing and ‘Home’
Part Five: Conclusions and Implications
Chapter Eight. Conclusion: Theoretical and Practical Implications for Women’s Desistance
Biography
Grace Low is a researcher and lecturer at Oxford Brookes University. Her research interests concern women’s desistance from crime, with a focus on their experiences of motherhood, social relationships, and housing or ‘home’. She completed her PhD at the University of Auckland in 2023.
This book makes a significant contribution to the internationalisation of the desistance literature in general, and to the field of women’s desistance in particular. Low offers a nuanced and rigorous analysis of the intertwined areas of housing, gender and minority positions that – through a historically-aware discussion of the broader socio-political context, including colonial legacies – also sheds new and thought-provoking light on the role of macro-levelled aspects of desistance. A strongly recommended read!
Linnéa Österman, Senior Lecturer in Criminology and Social Work, Gothenburg University, Sweden.
Through powerful narrative interviews, Low offers a compelling and empathetic exploration into gendered experiences of desistance. Her ground-breaking analysis highlights the essential, but often neglected role of housing and home in supporting desistance, making this an essential read for academics, students, and practitioners interested in the gendered complexities of desistance within a colonial context.
Alice Mills, Associate Professor of Criminology, University of Auckland, New Zealand.
Dr. Low's beautifully written book tells a clear and compelling story that contributes to the small but important literature on women's desistance. Even more importantly, this book forefronts the experiences of indigenous Maori women of New Zealand, whose experiences of the impact of colonization are so very important, and which have traditionally been neglected in the literature about desistance.
Dr Venezia Michalsen, Associate Professor of Sociology, Southern Connecticut State University, U.S.A.
