The Impact of Punishment on Life Course Outcomes for Female Convicts in 19th-Century Australia.

Hamish Maxwell-Stewart, University of New England
Kris Inwood, University of Guelph
Adrian Graves, University of Tasmania

While many studies have linked sensory deprivation punishments to elevated risk of suicide and other immediate poor health outcomes, there have been relatively few examinations of potential medium and long-term impacts. This paper explores the effects that the experience of punishment, including solitary confinement, had on the life courses of 12,000 female convicts transported in the period 1816-1853 to Van Diemen’s Land. It does so by first testing to see if some female prisoner were disproportionately subjected to particular forms of punishment. After controlling for such selection effects, it explores the way in which different punishment regimes, and the frequency of punishments, impacted upon family formation and life expectancy.

No extended abstract or paper available

 Presented in Session 264. Gender, Race and the Criminal Justice System