Pathways and penalties: Exploring experiences of agency among incarcerated women in South Africa

Despite the documented rise in the population of incarcerated women over recent decades, female offenders only represent about 5% of the total global incarcerated population. South Africa is no different – female offenders total less than 3% of the country’s incarcerated population, a populace that was previously counted as one of the ten largest correctional systems in the world. This small representation of women in the correctional system leads to interpretations of their pathways to offending and experiences of incarceration to be the same as those of male offenders, delegitimising any role that gender may play in offending behaviour. By utilising a feminist pathways research approach, the narratives of 17 women incarcerated in the Johannesburg Female Correctional Centre are contextualised in this study, to reveal conduits to women’s incarceration that primarily involve victimisation and socially constructed gendered vulnerabilities that are interconnected with poverty and oppression. As seen through excerpts of their life history interviews, this confluence of factors, coupled with pathways of narrowing options, contribute to female offending. Ultimately the research allows for a holistic understanding of the unique choices and challenges incarcerated women in South Africa face, and the role agency and patriarchy has played in the pathways taken.