ABSTRACT

Women in the criminal justice system are a diverse yet marginalised group, living with the most dangerous of intersectional oppressions. Women from the Global Majority face a "double disadvantage" (Agenda, 2017). Prison is evidenced as the least effective place for women, yet prison places have increased and gender-informed services are inadequate. These obstructions to healing from trauma have created a spiralling crisis, leading to preventable deaths and the destruction of families.

As a white, female art therapist, I argue that an intersectional framework is critical to understanding and supporting this service-user group. I maintain the established perspective generated by Black feminists and marginalised groups, that focusing on the most ostracised and working from the ‘ground up’, is an effective way of tackling social injustice.

A gap in research for art therapy with this service-user group and evidence of epistemological racism within the existing literature presents an opportunity for development and growth within the profession. I discuss the possibilities of using an intersectional framework as intertwined with this service-user group, and with re-establishing ways of knowing within art therapy to ensure anti-oppressive practices. Through a summary of the existing literature developed through research in my final year of training, I will demonstrate how resistance to art therapy occurs at systemic and individual levels and that this cannot be disentangled from the neoliberal status quo.

A call to action is proposed for white art therapists to increase their curiosity about their complicity in white supremacy and find ways to develop alternative epistemologies.

Plain-language summary

The criminal justice system (CJS) provides care for people who are confined in institutions, such as prison or secure hospital, because they pose a significant risk to themselves or others. It also includes people who now live in the community but still need continued support when they leave hospital or prison. Most people in the CJS are men, and facilities have therefore been designed around male needs. The needs of women within the CJS have been persistently ignored by UK government, and women from the Global Majority – Black, Asian, Dual-Heritage, Indigenous and ‘Ethnic Minority’ communities (Campbell-Stephens MBE, 2020) – face particular disadvantages. Race, class and gender oppressions overlap and cause significant harm to the women and their families. Art therapy has been offered within these services for many years; however, there is not much research to support therapy with women in these settings.

As an art psychotherapy trainee on placement at a hostel in the community for women leaving secure hospital, I wanted to find out what literature was available to support this work. I searched online databases and found only 24 published articles and book chapters. It was difficult to relate the findings to my community work as the literature was based mostly in high security settings. Most of the authors were white women in professional roles so other people’s perspectives were not represented. This meant that what I found was not a fair description and therefore, not very reliable. However, art psychotherapy was shown to offer positive benefits and respond to existing recommendations for this client group.

This paper presents an argument for the need for art therapy services for women in forensic services and proposes a call to action for white art therapists to increase their curiosity about their complicity in white supremacy and find ways to develop alternative intersectional, anti-oppressive practices.

The paper also highlights the need for more research from art psychotherapists from different backgrounds that is developed in collaboration with service-users.

中文翻译：

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刑事司法系统中为女性提供的艺术治疗、交叉性和服务

摘要

刑事司法系统中的女性是一个多元化但边缘化的群体，生活在最危险的交叉压迫中。全球多数女性面临“双重劣势”（议程，2017）。事实证明，监狱对于女性来说是效率最低的场所，但监狱场所有所增加，而性别信息服务却不足。这些阻碍创伤愈合的障碍造成了一场不断升级的危机，导致了本可预防的死亡和家庭的毁灭。

作为一名白人女性艺术治疗师，我认为交叉框架对于理解和支持这个服务用户群体至关重要。我坚持黑人女权主义者和边缘化群体所产生的既定观点，即关注最受排斥的群体并从“底层”开始工作，是解决社会不公正问题的有效方法。

艺术治疗与该服务使用者群体的研究差距以及现有文献中认识论种族主义的证据为该行业提供了发展和成长的机会。我讨论了使用交叉框架与该服务用户群体交织在一起的可能性，以及在艺术治疗中重新建立认识方式以确保反压迫实践的可能性。通过对我在培训的最后一年的研究中形成的现有文献的总结，我将展示对艺术治疗的抵制是如何在系统和个人层面上发生的，并且这不能与新自由主义现状分开。

建议白人艺术治疗师采取行动，增加他们对白人至上共谋的好奇心，并找到发展替代认识论的方法。

通俗易懂的语言总结

刑事司法系统 (CJS) 为那些被限制在监狱或安全医院等机构中的人提供护理，因为他们对自己或他人构成重大风险。它还包括现在居住在社区但在出院或出狱后仍需要持续支持的人。CJS 中的大多数人是男性，因此设施都是围绕男性需求设计的。英国政府一直忽视 CJS 中女性的需求，而来自全球多数群体（黑人、亚洲人、双重遗产、土著和“少数族裔”社区）的女性（Campbell-Stephens MBE，2020）面临着特别不利的处境。种族、阶级和性别压迫相互重叠，对妇女及其家庭造成重大伤害。这些服务中提供艺术治疗已有多年；然而，

作为一名艺术心理治疗实习生，我被安置在社区招待所，为离开安全医院的妇女提供服务，我想找出有哪些文献可以支持这项工作。我搜索了在线数据库，只找到了 24 篇发表的文章和书籍章节。很难将这些发现与我的社区工作联系起来，因为这些文献主要基于高度安全的环境。大多数作者都是担任专业角色的白人女性，因此其他人的观点没有得到体现。这意味着我发现的描述并不公平，因此不太可靠。然而，艺术心理治疗被证明可以提供积极的益处，并响应针对该客户群的现有建议。

本文提出了法医服务中女性需要艺术治疗服务的论点，并呼吁白人艺术治疗师采取行动，以增加他们对白人至上共谋的好奇心，并找到开发替代性交叉、反压迫实践的方法。

该论文还强调需要来自不同背景的艺术心理治疗师与服务用户合作开展更多研究。