Women in prison in a French-speaking Belgian prison: reducing invisibility to uncover vulnerabilities.

Women are largely invisible in prison studies all over the world. This study focuses on the profile of women in prison in French-speaking Belgium. The core of the article is a descriptive portrait of all women convicted and incarcerated in a French-speaking Belgian prison between 2019 and 2021 (N=261). Using a quantitative approach, the prison folders of the 261 women in the population were systematically reviewed and analyzed. The results reveal that the majority of these convicted women are incarcerated for offenses against property and goods – of a non-violent nature – and also present a series of social, economic, individual and relational vulnerabilities (low level of education, professional and housing precariousness, drug use, dysfunctional social relationships, etc.), thus underlining the existence of an undeniable link between vulnerability and female delinquency. The identification of a series of characteristics specific to incarcerated women adds to the knowledge about women offenders and establishes a starting point for identifying possible specificities related to this population and, as such, offers a future comparative basis with the male population.