A Woman's Life Before Serving Life: Examining the Negative Pre-Incarceration Life Events of Female Life-Sentenced Inmates

Leigey, Margaret E.; Reed, Katie L.

doi:10.1080/08974454.2010.512229

Cited by 43 publications

(44 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…Abuse is an all too common reality for incarcerated women (Leigey and Reed 2010), including those incarcerated for filicide. Having interviewed 37 women incarcerated at the Ohio Reformatory for Women, Oberman and Meyer (2008) note that violence is "endemic to these women's lives" (p. 5), it is common during childhood and persists into adulthood.…”

Section: Negative Life Events During Adulthood Of Filicidal Womenmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Examination of the Mental Health and Negative Life Events of Women Who Killed Their Children

Poteyeva

Leigey

2018

Social Sciences

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Research on filicide, the killing of a child by a biological or a de facto parent or parents, has largely focused on mothers. However, little is known about how filicidal women compare to filicidal men or whether they differ from women who commit non-filicide murder. The study explores pre-incarceration negative life events and mental health histories of women incarcerated for filicide as compared to men incarcerated for the same offense and women who were incarcerated for non-filicide murder. Extensive gender differences in filicidal parents were found in terms of economic marginalization, physical and sexual abuse, mental health problems. Filicidal women had more mental health problems and lower monthly income than women incarcerated for non-filicide murder, but there were more similarities than differences detected between the two groups of female offenders. The paper concludes with policy recommendations.

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Section: Negative Life Events During Adulthood Of Filicidal Womenmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Examination of the Mental Health and Negative Life Events of Women Who Killed Their Children

Poteyeva

Leigey

2018

Social Sciences

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“…For women in prison, there also is a dramatically increased risk of having experienced physical, emotional, and sexual abuse-especially among women serving life sentences for killing abusive partners (Dermody-leonard, 2002;leigey & reed, 2010;Schneider & Feltey, 2009). leigey and reed (2010) reported the prevalence of lifetime physical and sexual abuse for life-sentenced female inmates as high as 77.8% and 59.6%, which was significantly higher than the comparison groups of non-life-sentenced females and lifesentences males.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…With the exception of leigey and reed's (2010) most recent examination of a national sample of female life-sentenced inmates' preincarceration experiences, much of the extant literature on female lifers consists of small samples from prisons in California (owen, 1998California (owen, ), ohio (roscher, 2005, the united Kingdom (Genders & Player, 1995), and Canada (Jose-Kampfner, 1990) as well as anecdotal accounts (George, 2010;talvi, 2007). Among these accounts, the prevalence, risk factors, and consequences of suicide ideation and attempts are minimally addressed, although there is some evidence that female lifers may be at increased risk for suicide (leigey & reed, 2010;Magaletta, Wheat, Patry, & Bates, 2008).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“I Just Wanted to Die”

Dye¹,

Aday

2013

Criminal Justice and Behavior

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For women serving life sentences, adjustments to prison are often marked by thoughts of suicide. Many enter prison with specific vulnerabilities that place them at risk for suicide. using data on 214 female lifers, the authors examined the extent of suicide ideation prior to incarceration as well as current suicide ideation. the relationships between preprison abuse, mental health indicators, prison adjustment factors, prison and family supports, and time served along with sociodemographic variables were analyzed with respect to four categories of preprison and current suicide ideation. Multinomial logistic regression results indicated significant group differences in suicide ideation for abuse histories, depression, family and prison supports, and education level. Among the preprison ideation groups, current depression-not abuse history-distinguished between women with or without current ideation. that is, the way women coped with past abuse was a stronger predictor of current suicide ideation than abuse itself.

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“…Women serving life sentences comprise a distinct population for whom reducing recidivism is not necessarily a relevant goal. However, the significant changes observed in the alleviation of mental health symptoms and indirect aggression for this subsample of women are crucial, given these women's intensified risk factors, such as higher rates of suicide attempts and more extensive trauma histories than women without life sentences (Leigey & Reed, 2010). Previous research has also shown that women with long-term sentences often experience multiple forms of trauma before and during incarceration (e.g., Kupers, 1999;Kubiak, Hanna, & Balton, 2005), resulting in high rates of PTSD and making a significant decrease in PTSD symptoms for women with life sentences all the more notable.…”

Section: Table 4 Group Difference Between Women With and Without A Dumentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing Short-Term Outcomes of an Intervention for Women Convicted of Violent Crimes

Kubiak

Kim

Fedock

et al. 2012

Journal of the Society for Social Work and Research

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Women convicted of violent offenses represent a small but important subpopulation of women involved in the criminal justice system. Correctional administrators working with these women often rely on treatment and rehabilitation programs developed for violent male offenders. Although women's trajectories into violent behavior-as well as their trajectory out-differ from their male counterparts, the field is marked by the absence of interventions designed specifically for women with violent offenses. As attention grows in the research literature and in community settings about "women who use force" it is important to develop interventions that effectively modify aggressive behavior as well as the underlying precursors of such aggression. This paper describes a pilot study as one step in a developmental approach to intervention research. Beyond Violence, a gender specific and trauma-informed intervention, was piloted with 35 women incarcerated in a state prison with a conviction for a felony-level assault. Short-term outcomes assessed through changes in pre-and posttest measures show reductions in mental health symptoms associated with depression, anxiety, posttraumatic stress disorder, and serious mental illness. The encouraging results of this pilot study have led to the next step in the intervention research process of testing the program in a randomized controlled trial that is currently underway.

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A Woman's Life Before Serving Life: Examining the Negative Pre-Incarceration Life Events of Female Life-Sentenced Inmates

Cited by 43 publications

References 35 publications

An Examination of the Mental Health and Negative Life Events of Women Who Killed Their Children

An Examination of the Mental Health and Negative Life Events of Women Who Killed Their Children

“I Just Wanted to Die”

Assessing Short-Term Outcomes of an Intervention for Women Convicted of Violent Crimes

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