Marriage: It Can Be A Bless or Hidden Curse of Their Life! A Criminological Study on Husbands‟ Influence for the Culpability of Women Prisoners (Special reference to Welikada Women’s prison)

Abstract

- Within the causes of family relationships both males and females maintain specific tasks and positions based on the gender perspectives since the historic epoch in Sri Lanka. According to sociologists, the tasks are merely divided on gender based decisions. Child births, socialization, fulfill husbands’’ needs, and manage the economy with series of other vigorous activities of the family unit to be fulfilled by the married woman. In this context family disputes were unavoidable when challenges occurred due to ineffective control of family matters. Owing to changes occurred in the society transformation of the role and tasks of women too, were happened resulting that women represent comparatively to the men in the current labour market. The continuation of uninterrupted family system within the said composition is still a task coming under the purview of women. Married women are accustomed to perform the tasks within the family units while accomplishing the status of malefemale gender aspirations. Women who are enduring penalties being imprisoners in contradictory to their bestowed tasks and status based on the gender related matters at domestic level, this study attempts to emphasize the causes affected them to be guilty on some offenses and also to analyze whether influences were there or not from their husbands, if so, in what nature and which form of influences was the problem to be determined through this research. Accordingly, 63 married women prisoners were selected from different age categories and from mixed religious backgrounds. The research was launched through discussions, using questionnaire, observations, and case studies and via focused group discussions, too. The investigations revealed that 79.66% of informants were in the opinion that main cause behind their offensiveness was the muddles involved by their husbands. It was also disclosed that husbands’ direct involvement on drug related actions, abusing women, murder, theft and burglary were candidly affected them to face the current situation. The research findings endorsed the need of mandatory as well as socially adapted amendments targeted on the family system which could endorse an intelligible community that ensures healthy relationship between husband and wife and within the family units.