Asian Journal of Research in Social Sciences and Humanities

During the past decades there is an upsurge in number of crimes committed by women. A few researchers attribute this increase to economic and social independence of women in contemporary society. Theorists have argued that women's imprisonment is largely attributable to problems of drug addiction, prostitution, and retaliation against abusive partners. The main objective of this paper is to highlight the type of offences committed by females lodged in different prisons and their response to the punishment assigned to them. A group of 200 women prisoners located in seven prisons in the state of Punjab, the state of Haryana, and the Union Territory of Chandigarh in India were interviewed. A majority of the women lodged in prisons committed violent and drug related crimes. Findings indicate that majority of respondents had no remorse of their unlawful behaviour on the other hand blamed the authorities for falsely implicating them. Such a situation is breaking the stereotypes that women are invisible in crime.