CHARACTERISTICS OF FEMALE PRISONERS CONTEXT: Reasons for imprisonment Whilst the crimes committed by both men and women are often closely interrelated to their personal histories and economic situations, it should be recognised that there are many women and girls who are imprisoned after being pressured or duped into participating in criminal activities, or who have been imprisoned due to their association with others engaged in illegal behaviour. In some cases, women are imprisoned for crimes committed in response to coercion by abusive partners. A 2007 study demonstrated that the situation of women prisoners in Afghanistan posed a particular dilemma in relation to rehabilitation efforts.27 The report found that many of the women imprisoned were innocent but had been convicted because they had no legal assistance or because they had been forced to confess. Others had been used or framed by male relatives or were arrested because they were with their husbands or partners when the crime was committed. As a result, offending behaviour programmes – aimed at addressing the underlying causes leading to crime – were not relevant because the women were victims themselves and therefore had entirely different needs. A 2019 study of 10 women from Thailand imprisoned in Cambodia for cross-border drug trafficking revealed life histories marred by a range of vulnerabilities, including individual (for example, mental ill health), relational (such as parental abuse and domestic violence), and social (for example, low levels of education and limited employment opportunities). All of the women had carried drugs across international borders for somebody else. None were career criminals nor had knowledge of the international drug trade. Their offending was characterised by a lack of control and involved varying degrees of exploitation.28 12 | In a 2012 study of female offenders in South Africa, 55 per cent of the women interviewed said they had become involved in criminal activity because they needed to provide for their families. Others reported that they turned to crime in an effort to emancipate themselves from abusive partners, spouses or parents.29 In Kyrgyzstan, one report noted that 70 per cent of women convicted of killing their husband or other family member had experienced a ‘longstanding pattern of physical abuse or forced economic dependence’.30 Another study in Kyrgyzstan found that of 27 women convicted of murder or manslaughter of a male family member, three said they had acted to protect children, 10 had experienced sexual abuse, 14 had experienced frequent domestic abuse, and 15 said that it was an act of self-defence.31 One study illustrated how black women in the US had been forced to commit offences due to physical attacks or even death threats, or following more subtle pressure or provocation. This included being manipulated or ‘talked into’ committing the offence, confessing to an abuser’s crime, or committing physical assaults in response to psychological victimisation.32 In Mexico, it has been estimated that at least 40 per cent of women convicted of drug-related crimes, such as transporting drugs between cities or smuggling drugs into prisons, were coerced into doing so by their boyfriends or husbands.33 Research on 13 women prisoners at Idrizovo prison in the Republic of Macedonia found that virtually all of the women had experienced serious violence at the hands of their husbands or partners, with most of the women reporting that they felt safer inside prison than outside. The research also found that most of the crimes the women committed were related to their previous abuse.34 Penal Reform International and Thailand Institute of Justice | Guide to the rehabilitation and social reintegration of women prisoners