The importance of adapting correctional practices to the realities of women is now widely recognized, both in academic and professional circles. Numerous studies have highlighted the limitations of an approach based on a male clientele in women’s prisons. However, gender-sensitive considerations have received less attention in the field of community supervision, even though the majority of justice-involved women serve their sentences in the community, where they remain a minority.
This presentation explores the integration of gender-sensitive interventions in community supervision practices. It is based on a study conducted with about sixty practitioners working in either the community or correctional sector, supporting women under community supervision, whether on probation or serving a conditional sentence. Some of these practitioners specialize in working with a female clientele, while others work with mixed-gender caseloads, where women represent only a very small fraction of the cases managed.
The findings indicate that while most practitioners recognize significant differences in their interventions with these populations, some remain reluctant to acknowledge that they adjust their practices when working with women. The discussion then focuses on the main obstacles to implementing gender-sensitive practices in this field, including the severe precariousness of justice-involved women, which complicates intervention efforts and limits the support that can be provided beyond meeting their basic needs.
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Chloe Leclerc
Full Professor, University of Montreal, Canada
Chloé Leclerc is a Full Professor at the School of Criminology at the Université de Montréal, specializing in the judicial and penal systems. Her research has focused on plea bargaining negotiations, access to and costs of justice, the potential punitive shift in Canadian courts, and public perceptions of the judiciary. She is currently studying the supervision of community sentences for women.
She is the Director of the International Centre for Comparative Criminology, a research center that brings together more than 70 researchers from Quebec to explore criminological issues.
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Amélie Couvrette
Professor, Université du Québec en Outaouais, Canada
Amélie Couvrette is a professor in the Department of Psychoeducation and Psychology at the Université du Québec en Outaouais. Her research interests focus on the issues of marginalized, criminalized or incarcerated women and she has conducted several studies on the motherhood of marginalized women. She has recently focused on the importance of gender-sensitive approaches in prison and their implementation difficulties. She is currently studying the supervision of community sentences for women.
She is a regular researcher at the International Centre of Comparative Criminology.
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Catherine Arseneault
Professor, Université de Montréal, Canada
Catherine Arseneault is an Associate Professor at the School of Criminology at the Université de Montréal. Her research focuses on the relationship between drugs and crime, examining both the needs of individuals who engage in these behaviors and the services available to them. She has a particular interest in the experiences of women who use drugs and engage in delinquent, marginal, or deviant behaviors. Additionally, she explores the experiences of those who support individuals involved in crime, seeking to understand the challenges they face in providing care and assistance.
