To read this content please select one of the options below:

Women, the embodiment of health and carceral space

Dominique Robert (Department of Criminology, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada)
Sylvie Frigon (Department of Criminology, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada)
Renée Balzile (Bas‐Saint‐Laurent Youth Centres, Matane, Canada)

International Journal of Prisoner Health

ISSN: 1744-9200

Article publication date: 1 March 2007

271

Abstract

Using the example of women incarcerated in Canada, this paper aims at showing the necessity of studying prisoners’ health and healthcare through a perspective informed both by a criminology of the body and prison/penal sociology. Health is too often constructed as a set of discrete variables that can be isolated from the whole person and her environment. In this paper, we want to show the complexities and richness of situating carceral health and healthcare within the experience of the body and prison. After describing the situation of women in prison in Canada and their health status before incarceration and while in prison, the intricacies of health, healthcare and punishment will be described and we will conclude by showing how health and the body act as a site of control and a site of resistance for incarcerated women.

Keywords

Citation

Robert, D., Frigon, S. and Balzile, R. (2007), "Women, the embodiment of health and carceral space", International Journal of Prisoner Health, Vol. 3 No. 3, pp. 176-188. https://doi.org/10.1080/17449200701520099

Publisher

:

Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2007, Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Related articles