Motherhood is a significant factor in women's criminality. Many authors have been writing about it and discovered, that: motherhood encourages conforming behaviour of women and impact the treatment and punishment of offenders. More and more attention is paid on the issue of motherhood among incarcerated women.
Master's thesis is set into three sections. The introductory part begins with a presentation of the theoretical concepts of influence of motherhood on deviant or conforming behaviour of women. The second chapter examines the impact of motherhood on the treatment and the sentencing of defendants in the criminal court. It pays special attention to the existing studies and theoretical concepts which address the following questions: (1) are female offenders treated more lenient than male offenders within the criminal justice system and (2) in which cases courts consider motherhood as a mitigating or aggravating circumstance. What follows is the review of the Slovenian case law and an introduction to the global trend towards harsher treatment of women offenders. The final chapter presents the basic guidelines on the imprisonment of mothers in the law of the United Nations, the European Union, the Council of Europe and the legislation of Slovenia. The central part of the chapter presents an outline of serving a prison sentence of offenders, who are mothers in the Ig women’s prison (Slovenia). The thesis finally discusses the impacts of the imprisonment on the mother and her child.
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