Rehabilitation and reintegration needs of female inmates and promotion mental health in Georgian prison

RESUMO: As mulheres presas encontram-se num sistema essencialmente dirigido por e concebido para homens. As mulheres que entram na prisão geralmente vêm de ambientes marginalizados e desfavorecidos e muitas vezes têm histórias de violência e abuso físico e sexual. As mulheres presas são um grupo particularmente vulnerável, uma vez que dentro do sistema prisional as suas necessidades de saúde e higiene são muitas vezes negligenciadas. O primeiro passo para o desenvolvimento de programas e práticas sensíveis ao género é compreender as características das mulheres delinquentes e definir fatores de vida específicos que contribuem para a formação do comportamento criminoso de mulheres. Em junho de 2012 foi realizada uma investigação na única prisão feminina da Geórgia, para estudar as necessidades mentais e psicossociais das mulheres presas. O objetivo da pesquisa foi o desenvolvimento de programas de apoio pertinentes para a reabilitação, ressocialização e reintegração, e a elaboração de recomendações práticas para a gestão das prisões. Foi desenvolvido um instrumento de pesquisa (inquérito) com uma fundamentação conceptual baseada em quatro principais teorias: Teoria dos Caminhos (Pathways Theory), teoria do desenvolvimento psicológico da mulher (Theory of Women’s Psychological Development), Trauma e Teorias da Dependência (Trauma and Addiction Theories). Foram inquiridas 120 mulheres presas. Os resultados deste estudo mostram que muitas das necessidades das mulheres presas são diferentes das dos homens e requerem estratégias adaptadas às suas características e situações psicossociais específicas. A maioria das mulheres encarceradas é jovem, enérgica, pode trabalhar, tem profissão e família. As presas sofrem de problemas psicológicos e muitas vezes são rejeitadas pelas suas famílias. Uma parte substancial das mulheres presas tem múltiplos problemas de saúde física e mental. A maioria delas tem filhos e sofre com o facto das crianças estarem a crescer longe da mãe. Com base nos resultados desta investigação é possível elaborar um contexto promotor do planeamento e desenvolvimento de serviços com um enfoque de género na prisão. Na perspetiva de longo prazo, o conhecimento das necessidades básicas e a introdução de programas e serviços com necessidades específicas pertinentes irá beneficiar as presas e as suas famílias, e melhorar a eficácia do sistema de justiça criminal.----------ABSTRACT: Female inmates find themselves in a system essentially run by men for men. Women who enter prison usually come from marginalized and disadvantaged backgrounds and are often characterized by histories of violence, physical and sexual abuse. Female prisoners constitute an especially vulnerable group given their specific health and hygienic needs within the system are often neglected. The first step in developing gender-sensitive program and practice is to understand female offenders’ characteristics and the specific life factors that shape women’s patterns of offending. In June 2012 a research was carried out in the Georgian only female prison facility to assess the mental and psychosocial needs of women prisoners, aiming to develop effective support programs for their rehabilitation, re-socialization and reintegration, as well as to elaborate new recommendations concerning prison management. A survey instrument (questionnaire) was developed within a theoretical framework based on four fundamental theories: Pathways Theory, Theory of Women’s Psychological Development and Trauma and Addiction Theories. Sample size was defined to be 120 surveyed persons. The study showed that needs of incarcerated women were different from those of men, thus requiring approaches tailored to their specific psychosocial characteristics and situations. The basic population of imprisoned women consisted of young, energetic, working-age females, most often with a professional qualification. Female prisoners suffered from psychological problems and are were more likely to be rejected by their families. Most of them had children and suffered that the children were growing without mothers. A substantial proportion of women offenders had multiple physical and mental health problems. Based on the study findings a conceptual framework can be elaborated towards planning and developing gender-sensitive services in prison. In the long-term perspective, acknowledgement of baseline needs and introduction of the relevant needs-specific programs and services may benefit women prisoners as well as their families, improving the effectiveness of the criminal justice system.

Correlates of intergenerational mobility and political violence

This work project aims at exploring the role of intergenerational immobility in political violence. A cross-country macro-level analysis is done where no significant results are found. Additionally, an individual micro-level analysis is done where intergenerational mobility (measured through a proxy variable) has a negative significant effect in political violence

Transplants: bioethics and justice

Bioethics, as a branch of philosophy that focuses on questions relative to health and human life, is closely tied to the idea of justice and equality. As such, in understanding the concept of equality in its original sense, that is, in associating it to the idea to treat "unequals" (those who are unequal or different, in terms of conditions or circumstances) unequally (differentially), in proportion to their inequalities (differences), we see that the so-called "one-and-only waiting list" for transplants established in law no. 9.434/97, ends up not addressing the concept of equality and justice, bearing upon bioethics, even when considering the objective criteria of precedence established in regulation no. 9.4347/98, Thus, the organizing of transplants on a one-and-only waiting list, with a few exceptions that are weakly applicable, without a case by case technical and grounded analysis, according to each particular necessity, ends up institutionalizing inequalities, condemning patients to happenstance and, consequently, departs from the ratio legis, which aims at seeking the greatest application of justice in regards to organ transplants. We conclude, therefore, that from an analysis of the legislation and of the principles of bioethics and justice, there is a need for the creation of a collegiate of medical experts, that, based on medical criteria and done in a well established manner, can analyze each case to be included on the waiting list, deferentially and according to the necessity; thus, precluding that people in special circumstances be treated equal to people in normal circumstances.

Gender norms in Portuguese college sudents' judgments in familial homicides: bad men and mad women

The gender of the offender has been proved to be an important factor in judicial sentencing. In this study, we analyze the judgments of College students regarding perpetrators of familial homicides to evaluate the presence of these gender norms and biases in the larger society. The sample included 303 college students (54.8% female) enrolled in several social sciences and engineering courses. Participants were asked to read 12 vignettes based on real crimes taken from Portuguese newspapers. Half were related to infanticide, and half were related to intimate partner homicide. The sex of the offender was orthogonally manipulated to the type of crime. The results show that gender had an important impact on sentences, with males being more harshly penalized by reasons of perversity and women less penalized by reason of mental disorders. In addition, filicide was more heavily penalized than was intimate partner homicide. The results also revealed a tendency toward a retributive conception of punishment. We discuss how gender norms in justice seem to be embedded in society as well as the need for intervention against the punitive tendency of this population.

A violência sexual e de género nos campos de população refugiada: análise e enquadramento legal

Dissertação de mestrado em Direitos Humanos

Gender, violence, and politics

მოხსენება მომზადდა სოციალურ მეცნიერებათა ცენტრის მიერ ორგანიზებული გენდერის კვლევაში მე-4 ყოველწლიური კონფერენციის ფარგლებში

Environmental conflicts, environmental justice and valuation

In this article some historical and contemporary environmental conflicts are described. The international environmental liability of mining corporations is discussed. Comparisons are made with conflicts in the United States and in South Africa which fall under the rubric of the Environmental Justice movement. Such conflicts are fought out in many languages, and the economic valuation of damages is only one of such languages. Who has the power to impose particular languages of valuation? Who rules over the ways and means of simplifying complexity, deciding that some points of view are out of order? Who has power to determine which is the bottom-line in an environmental discussion?

On the design of peer punishment experiments

We discuss how technologies of peer punishment might bias the results that are observed in experiments. A crucial parameter is the “fine-to-fee” ratio, which describes by how much the punished subjects income is reduced relatively to the fee the punishing subject has to pay to inflict punishment. We show that a punishment technology commonly used in experiments embeds a variable fine-to-fee ratio and show that it confounds the empirical findings about why, whom, and how much subjects punish.

On punishment and well-being

The existence of punishment opportunities has been shown to cause efficiency in public goods experiments to increase considerably. In this paper we ask whether punishment also has a downside in terms of process dissatisfaction. We conduct an experiment to study the conjecture that an environment with stronger punishment possibilities leads to higher material but lower subjective well-being. The more general motivation for our study stems from the notion that people??s subjective well-being may be affected by the institutional environment they find themselves in. Our findings show that harsher punishment possibilities lead to signficantly higher well-being, controlling for earnings and other relevant variables. People derive independent satisfaction from interacting under the protection of strong punishment possibilities. These results complement the evidence on the neural basis of altruistic punishment reported in de Quervain et al. (2004).

Inter-group conflict and intra-group punishment in an experimental contest game

We study how conflict in a contest game is influenced by rival parties being groups and by group members being able to punish each other. Our main motivation stems from the analysis of socio-political conflict. The relevant theoretical prediction in our setting is that conflict expenditures are independent of group size and independent of whether punishment is available or not. We find, first, that our results contradict the independence of group-size prediction: conflict expenditures of groups are substantially larger than those of individuals, and both are substantially above equilibrium. Towards the end of the experiment material losses in groups are 257% of the predicted level. There is, however, substantial heterogeneity in the investment behaviour of individual group members. Second, allowing group members to punish each other after individual contributions to the contest effort are revealed leads to even larger conflict expenditures. Now material losses are 869% of the equilibrium level and there is much less heterogeneity in individual group members' investments. These results contrast strongly with those from public goods experiments where punishment enhances efficiency and leads to higher material payoffs.

Violence: les femmes font confiance au milieu médical [Partner violence: women trust health professionals]

In 2008, the department of gynaecology and obstetrics of a university hospital centre implemented a program addressing interpersonal partner violence (screening, prevention and care of the patient victims). A qualitative survey was conducted to identify the needs and feelings of patients. The results show that patients are in favour of being actively and directly questioned about violence during the consultation and that they trust medical doctors and nurses to help and support them.

Une approche psychanalytique de la notion de dangerosité. Violence et subjectivation : le risque de la rencontre

Après avoir situé la question de la dangerosité dans les perspectives psychiatriques actuelles, l'auteur propose de penser cette notion complexe dans un renversement du paradigme couramment admis : ainsi la référence à la dangerosité témoignerait-elle, au premier plan, de la part non symbolisée de la rencontre de la violence. Cette proposition prend appui dans un premier temps sur les propositions esquissées par M. Foucault dans sa compréhension du rapport à la violence et à la dangerosité. Puis, le recours au concept psychanalytique d'identification projective permet de proposer une modélisation clinique de la dangerosité, qui sera discutée à partir de deux observatoires dans le champ des violences sexuelles : celui d'une recherche menée auprès d'adolescents engagés dans des agirs sexuels violents et celui d'une pratique d'expertise judiciaire. First the author proposes to situate dangerousness's question in actual psychiatric field. Then, he proposes to think this complex notion into a reversal of dangerousness's paradigm: the reference to dangerousness will be thought as the expression of non-symbolized part through violence's meeting. This proposition relies in a first time on M. Foucault's propositions about a comprehension of the relation with violence and dangerousness. In a second time, the psychoanalytic concept of projective identification allows to propose clinical comprehension of dangerousness's notion. Two clinical situations about sexual violences will be asked in this plan: a research with Young sexual offenders and practice of judiciary evaluation.