Women in Trouble

Andrea Levan is an associate professor and co-ordinator of the Women’s
Studies Program, Thorneloe College, Laurentian University.

Women in Trouble is a sensitive and scholarly examination of the
connections between women’s histories of abuse and their trouble with
the law. Comack interviewed 24 women in a prairie provincial prison,
using their stories as a starting point for exploring some of the
theoretical problems that arise in trying to understand female offenders
from a feminist perspective. These difficulties include such issues as
labeling, categorizing crimes in ways that reflect legal judgments
rather than integral experiences, and using various theoretical
frameworks as the basis for analysis. Comack looks for patterns from
which to develop an understanding of the factors and conditions that
characterize the women’s lives and situate their law violations in a
larger context.

The main focus of the book is on the women’s histories of abuse, both
in childhood and as adults (numerous studies have noted extremely high
rates of abuse in the histories of female offenders). Comack documents
the kinds of abuse the women experienced, and the coping and resisting
strategies they developed to deal with them. For most of the women,
these experiences are central to their conflicts with the law. They are
often in prison as a direct result of abusive situations in which they
found themselves or of the strategies they used to cope—such as
drinking or drug addiction.

Finally, Comack examines women’s experience of prison, concluding
with an evaluation of its shortcomings in meeting the needs of the women
and of society. She notes the contradiction posed when a system designed
for punishment is expected to correct the damage done by devastating
experiences of abuse and violence. This book is a valuable addition to
the growing literature on female offenders in Canada.