Intersectionality and crime: Reflections from female ex-inmates in South Africa.

Abstract

Intersectionality was used as a lens in this article to analyse the recounted experiences of 20 former female inmates (prisoners) of correctional centres (prisons) in South Africa. It was found that if stratification identifiers such as race, class and gender are simultaneously analysed in conjunction with female crime, distinctive trends of criminality can be identified. Fraud and shoplifting were the two most common offences for which women in this study were sentenced and the majority of them had relatively short sentences. It was found that the types of crime women have committed and their experiences whilst being incarcerated were influenced by their access to financial resources which, in turn, was simultaneously influenced by their educational levels and racial category. Multiple positions of power and hardship were revealed in this study.