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Book Review
Canada and the United States
| L. Mara Dodge. "Whores and Thieves of the Worst Kind": A Study of Women, Crime, and Prisons, 1835–2000. Dekalb: Northern Illinois University Press. 2002. Pp. x, 342. $45.00.
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| This book is a remarkable historical account of female offenders in Illinois. L. Mara Dodge's careful and comprehensive methods of data collection and superbly written text firmly place her in the top ranks of historians of incarcerated women. |
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The book covers several eras in prison reform, and the breadth and depth of data do more than authenticate women's prison experiences over time. In addition to describing how Illinois prison officials treated women inmates, this book provides a meticulous depiction of the processing of these women by their communities, the courts, the parole boards, and the media. In addition to quoting newspapers, judges, psychiatrists, and others, Dodge routinely allows the women's voices to describe their experiences. The data sources are many, and they vary over time, but they include prisoner jackets (files on individual prisoners), pardon petitions, prison-confiscated letters and notes (to other prisoners, family members, and friends), reports on prisoners made by psychiatrists and sociologists (including classifications, pre-parole reports, and parole reports), newspaper coverage, and interviews with thirty-seven prison employees and seven prisoners. Although the type of available data varied by era, Dodge was able to collect a complete demographic profile of all the women incarcerated in Illinois between 1835 and 1970. |
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