ABSTRACT
Long overlooked in studies of crime and punishment, the woman ‘in conflict with the law’ arrived on scholarly and policy agenda toward the end of the twentieth century, a period of contradictory developments that position this era among the best of times for feminist scholarship and the worst of times for many women’s lives. As feminist theory consolidated its place in universities and as references to women’s equality started to appear in policy discourses and decision-making fora of national and international institutions, changes associated with neo-liberal economic restructuring began to make the conditions of life for most women harder and less secure (Cossman and Fudge 2002; Balfour and Comack 2006; Luxton and Bezanson 2006).
