In the Eyes of Hong Kong Chinese Female Drug Offenders
| Author | Wing Hong Chui,Loraine Gelsthorpe |
| DOI | 10.1177/00048658040370S107 |
| Published date | 01 December 2004 |
| Date | 01 December 2004 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
In
the Eyes of Hong
Kong
Chinese
Female
Drug
Offenders
Wing Hong
Chui
City University
of
Hong Kong, Hong Kong, People’s Republic
of
China
Loraine Gelsthorpe
University
of
Cambridge, United Kingdom
he rehabilitative model of probation with
its
inherent social work
T
values, knowledge and methods of intervention remains the dominant
approach to the supervision of offenders in Hong Kong.The major aim of
this
paper
is
to look at the perceptions and experiences
of
10
female drug
offenders aged from
19
to
30
of their one-year community probation
sentence, using
a
gender analysis of criminality and drug misuse. Allowing
female offenders to speak
is
essential not only in understanding their
problems and needs related to their offending behaviour but also to
empower them to inform practitioners what in practice will work best
with them. According to data generated from in-depth face-to-face inter-
views, females used drugs as a means of coping with relationship break-
downs and their complex lifestyles, and preferred being treated as friends
rather than criminals who required close supervision. These women also
quoted the support of their family, and their own determination
as
being
the most important factors to bring about change in their offending behav-
iour. In relation to the Chinese culture,
it
is
argued that a concern for
personal relationships
is
an important part of probation work in order to
reduce the risk of reoffending.
The purpose of this study is to explore women’s perception of their criminal behav-
iour and their experience of probation
by
using a piece of qualitative research.’
It
is
indeed the first effort to look at Chinese women on probation. Research concen-
trating on women’s personal experience of probation is scant in Hong Kong, and
research that focuses on nonwestern women’s experiences is even more
so.
Thus
this
paper is unique in that the women in the research are drug offenders from a
specific nonwestern culture
-
that of Hong Kong
-
and in-depth interviews were
used to allow them to tell their stories in their own words. This paper has three
aims: to highlight the gender implications that define and account for female crimi-
nality; to discuss women’s experience of the criminal justice system, particularly
focusing on probation orders; and to present some aspects and characteristics of
Address
for
correspondence: Wing Hong
Chui,
School
of
Law, City University
of
Hong Kong,
Tat
Chee Avenue, Kowloon, Hong Kong,
PR
China.
E-mail:
1wericQcityu.edu.hk
I07
THE AUSTRALIAN AND
NEW
ZEALAND JOURNAL
OF
CRIMINOLOGY
VOLUME
37
SUPPLEMENT
2004
PP.
107-
I2
I
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