Responding to Trauma, or ‘Responsibilising’ Women for It? Gender Responsivity, Trauma, and Women’s Offending in Aotearoa New Zealand

Abstract

This paper examines whether rehabilitation delivered to women in prison in Aotearoa New Zealand can be considered trauma-informed. The ability of Corrections departments to implement trauma-informed rehabilitation in prison has been questioned by feminist criminologists. This paper finds there is scope for prison rehabilitation to address the effects of interpersonal violence on women’s offending in ways that build women’s agency and control. For this to happen in a trauma-informed way that doesn’t render women responsible for their trauma, a rethinking of responsibility is needed that is more attuned to the realities of women’s lives and the constrained circumstances they’re living in.