While the number of incarcerated women is dramatically escalating, women prisoners throughout the world are largely an invisible and neglected population. These comparative essays examine thoroughly the unique problems, challenges, and issues facing women inmates in the United States, Canada, England, New Zealand, Poland, and Thailand.

The insightful volume fills a major gap in criminal justice literature, and it provides a solid basis for further discussion of the too-long ignored subject of women's imprisonment.

Skillfully interweaving Bernice's own eloquent words about her harrowing abuse with descriptions of other women's similar experiences and a rich synthesis of statistical findings, Jody Raphael demonstrates convincingly that domestic violence and dependence on public assistance are intricately linked. In a work that is sure to stir controversy, she challenges traditional views and stereotypes (conservative and liberal) about welfare recipients, arguing that many poor women are neither lazy nor paralyzed by a "culture of poverty," but instead are trapped by their batterers.

Bernice's...

A woman raping another woman is unthinkable. This is not how women behave, society tells us. Our legal system is not equipped to handle woman-to-woman sexual assault, our women's services do not have the resources or even the words to reach out to its victims, and our lesbian and gay communities face hurdles in acknowledging its existence. Already dealing with complex issues related to their sexual identities, and frequently overwhelmed by shame, lesbian and bisexual survivors of such violence are among the most isolated of crime victims.

In a work that is sure to stir controversy, Lori...