Mujeres jóvenes con medidas de protección y judiciales y sus tránsitos hacia la prisión

Abstract

The aim of this work is to analyse the influence of protective and/or judicial measures on the transit to prison of young women who have been through these situations as minors, starting by identifying risk factors associated with the process. Consequently, it provides new verified benchmarks for intervention with the population of young women in prison. To this end, qualitative and quantitative methods are used with a sample of 599 female inmates from 42 Spanish prisons, to whom 538 surveys and 61 interviews were applied. Three subsamples were selected: protection centres (n = 60); foster care (n = 36), and judicial measures (n = 72). A descriptive and interpretative study was carried out using frequency analysis, contingency tables, independence tests, and measures of association. The results show that 20.3 % of young women in prison have a prior history of institutionalisation in protective measures and 13.4 % with judicial measures. The main risk factors identified are: low educational levels (69.4 % below secondary education), environments with family members or partners in prison (between 48 % and 63.2 %), addictions (drugs and alcohol), either personal or affecting family members (over 60 %), and a significant relationship between young people who experienced judicial measures as minors having made reports of abuse. In the discussion and conclusions, growth in criminal behaviour by young people, especially women, is evident. Regarding the group studied, the low valuation of their time in protection centres and judicial measures by the imprisoned women, the difficulty of their family and affective background, and their worryingly low levels of education are striking. These data support the bases for evaluating the early impact on processes of transit towards prison and the options for socio-educational intervention aimed at reintegration and inclusion.