2015 Association for Women in Psychology Conference

Current Research highlights the discrepancy of treatment programs offered for incarcerated domestic violence and sexually exploited victims. New data on traumatic brain injury has highlighted the commonalities between victims and perpetrators in trauma history and social and emotional functioning. Social Justice measures of treatment propose the importance of treating and healing both the victim and the perpetrator through honesty and investigation of the ways in which society fails victims of intimate partner violence and sexual assault. This societal systemic failure leads the researcher advocate to the importance of early intervention and the inability to reach victims within the multilayered systems of education, legal, and foster care. The facilitators of this structured discussion will present case studies from the Margaret J. Kemp Girls Camp in San Mateo, CA, offering gender responsive programs to encourage rehabilitation for incarcerated adolescent girls and girls who are on probation. Young girls in this program hold current and historical dual roles of both perpetrator and victim. Current research shows young girls who suffer from traumatic histories find themselves vulnerable to becoming further victimized or becoming perpetrators in an effort to gain control and manage the environments they find themselves in. This experience ultimately increases the possibilities for violence, increasing the chances of extreme injury and acquired disability. The presenters will discuss how working with this culturally diverse and socially and economically disadvantaged population informs more appropriate treatment guidelines and intervention strategies. The discussion will open a space for dialogue around the provision of ethical client centered, feminist treatment interventions. Strategies for increasing educational programs in multilayered systems will also be explored.

During the past few decades, criminal justice policies have led to a dramatic increase in women behind bars (Willmott & van Olphen, 2005). Many women enter prison from a position of disadvantage and marginalization (Corston, 2007) due to past trauma, disempowerment, and poverty. Incarcerated women need mental health care which takes into account these interconnected environmental factors (Moloney & Moller, 2009). Instead, they often receive programming based on gender-based stereotypes (Chesney-Lind, 2003; Morash, Haarr, & Rucker, 1994) or on an adapted version of programming developed for men. Feminist therapy offers a way of helping incarcerated women deal with both past and current issues that are tailored to women. In addition, incarcerated men may also benefit from services grounded in a feminist model. Based on feminist tenets such as resistance, diversity, mutuality, and empowerment, it takes into account the unique needs of individuals in a social and political context (Marcus-Mendoza, 2004). Although feminist therapy can help incarcerated persons live and grow in a healthy manner, it can be difficult for professionals and graduate students alike to practice feminist therapy in correctional settings and to negotiate conflicts between the theory and the correctional system. Faculty, students, and alumni from Wright State University School of Professional Psychology propose hosting a structured discussion to explore the use of feminist therapy with incarcerated persons and how we can help psychology trainees to work from this model. We invite the audience to participate in our discussion about how we can better assist trainees to use feminist therapy within this setting by exploring the following challenges: educating corrections staff of effectiveness of feminist therapy; developing egalitarian therapeutic relationships; examining and resisting harmful social structures; advocating for gender-specific and/or trauma informed programming; exploring biases that impact clinical work; and advising students through the graduate training process (e.g., internship).

The incarceration of women and girls has shifted in our society. According to the CDCR (2014), Female incarceration rates have increased dramatically in the last 10 years. Working in the county jail and juvenile hall systems within California for the past few months has exposed me to the different needs that men and women demonstrate while incarcerated. For many women, being locked up provides safety and protection from the sexual and physical violence they have experienced throughout their lives (Bradley & Davino, 2002). The safety that is felt by some women while incarcerated is very different than the expressed experience for men regarding safety. This is not to minimize the trauma and violence experienced by men in these settings, however through my early experience in incarceration, I have noticed different needs and ways of being protected and provided safety for women and girls compared to men and boys. The culture of a female correctional unit feels very different than that of a male correctional unit, which represents nothing novel or groundbreaking. Carol Gilligan’s (1982) characterization of male and female differences is very evident in the environment of incarceration. The male standard of treatment found within the walls of juvenile halls, jails and prisons, serve to disregard the gender-specific needs for women if the aim is for rehabilitation. Even the ways in which genders are tried in court is conflicted: “A distinction was drawn between male’s emphasis on autonomy and an ethics of right and justice in resolving a case and women’s subscribing to an ethics of care with an emphasis on the social impact of a decision.” (Von Wormer, 2010). Furthermore, restorative justice from the perspective of Barton (2001) recognizes multiple ways of enacting justice for the offender and the victim, however the victimization of women in the male-dominant correctional environments hinders that corrective process.