Women’s pathways to incarceration differ from their male counterparts.  A decade of research by Stephanie Covington and Barbara Bloom of the Center for Gender and Justice in LaJolla, Calif. confirms that female offenders face “gender-specific adversities.”

They are more likely to be:

* survivors of sexual/physical abuse as children and/or adults

* in their early-to-mid thirties

* convicted of a drug or drug-related crime

* from fragmented/impoverished families involved in the criminal justice system

* individuals with significant substance abuse problems

* individuals with mental health problems

* unmarried mothers of minor children

* high school graduates, but limited in work history or vocational training

* predominantly women of color

We at writinginsideVT are devotees of Covington’s and Bloom’s gender-responsive & trauma-informed approaches to treatment/services in correctional settings.  We’ll be bringing you more of their research and philosophy, which nicely parallels the thrust of our program.