Coercion and Women Co-offenders

Book excerpt: This is the first book to study the role coercion plays as a pathway into crime for women who are arrested alongside other defendants. Drawing on court files and newspaper accounts, it analyzes four cases of women who were arrested alongside a partner and who argued in their defense that they had been coerced. Charlotte Barlow examines these cases from a feminist perspective that allows her to highlight the importance of gender expectations and gendered discourse in both the trials themselves and the way the media covered them.