Expanding our understanding of women’s risk of re-incarceration

This chapter examines whether motherhood and marriage have an influence on re-incarceration among Dutch females. Studies finding that marriage and parenthood contribute to desistance are predominantly based on men. Therefore, the chapter examines whether the demographic transitions are also beneficial for women in the sense that they reduce the likelihood of re-incarceration. Using criminal career data on a sample of Dutch female prisoners, the chapter addresses re-incarceration patterns and the influence of motherhood and marriage on the risk of re-incarceration during a five-year follow-up after release from prison in 2007. A series of Cox proportional hazard models were estimated to examine the influence of motherhood and marriage on the occurrence and timing of re-incarceration. To be able to capture the dynamic nature of motherhood and marriage, time-varying variables were constructed to measure motherhood and marriage during the different follow-up years.