ABSTRACT
Our society is simply not used to thinking about older people in terms of their involvement in crime and the criminal justice system. Saturated by stereotypical images of the ‘elderly’ as frail victims of crime, the criminal experiences of this age group have been systematically ignored. With an increasing number of ageing individuals committing crime and being sentenced to prison, there is an immediate need to gain a much more comprehensive understanding of this section of the prison population. Existing studies have been carried out predominantly in the USA, with only very recent attention being paid to this area of criminology in the UK (for example see Crawley and Sparks, Wahidin). The majority of existing studies have concentrated on single aspects of older prisoners’ experiences, such as access to education, problems with health care and the benefits of segregation and so it is the aim of this book to make a contribution to the holistic study of the experiences of the ageing prison population in the UK.
