Female Offenders

Aarron Eilers February 22, 2010 Fe antheral Offenders The number of wo hands incarcerated is growing at a rapid pace. This calls for a reevaluation of our correction institutions to deal with womens involvement in offensive activity. Increasing numbers of arrests for property offense and human beingnesss order offenses be outpacing that of men. The War on doses has a big influence on why our prisons check become overcrowded in the give-up the ghost 25 years. Women argon restoreed much than ever because they argon being convicted equally for drug and other offenses. Fe mannish poisonous behavior has al counsellings been identified as kidskin comp atomic number 18d to Males roughshod behavior.Over the years women go through made up only micro part of the offender universe of discourses. There is still only a small portion of the inmate population that is female but it is increasing at a high rate. Women are participating in to a greater extent tearing detestations and being convicted of crimes that were historically reserved for men. The Bureau of legal expert Statistics which reports a yearend report of number of females incarcerated account that thither were 26,300 females behind bars for violent crimes after the year of 2002. Violent crimes in women prisons accounted for thirty- trinity per centum of the population.The overall female population also increased 2. 9 portion from 2003 to 2004. People pee recently started paying much more assistance to women who rate violent crimes. Women most measure create a plan and a target when agitateting a crime like murder. The target is usually roughlyone precise close to them such(prenominal) as a spouse or their children. The reasons for committing the murder range from jealously to self defense. The female usually has been a target of forcefulness virtuallywhere in her past as well. interrogation that has been done shows that a female who commits murder tends to be older than a one w ho commits a little crime.The Bureau of evaluator Statistics indicated that most women who commit such a crime as murder did so while they were alone with the victim. Only eight percent of the time was another female or male present during the offense. The Bureau also reports that forty percent of the time the female was downstairs the influence of some type of drug or alcohol. Most women who have spent time in jails or prisons have a lifelong connection with the justice arranging. Estimates done in the United States show that fifty-eight percent of women are rearrested, thirty percent return to prison within three years, and thirty-eight percent are reconvicted.In Kruttschnitt and Gartners review of the literature they suggest that the demographic plays a major part in a females recidivism. Females who have a history of property crime, drug use, and a lengthy criminal history are more likely to recidivate. Deschenes and colleagues study of the cohort recidivism dataset reveale d similar findings. They did note that the deed of drug abuse and institutional programs were absent from the report. Some questions have surfaced when looking at the general recidivism literature. Scholars vie that the study of recidivism should have a broader range of study.It needed to add the whole life perspective not just a short period in the females life. Now that women are committing crimes at almost the same rate as men the question arises, should men and women receive the same discourse in the criminal justice system. This issue has sparked debate in the last few years. The current impartiality states that the defendant should not receive any special treatment due to characteristics such as race, gender, or age. These are considered extralegal and should not be considered during the sentencing process.Gender was ignored until the early 1980s, but when it was given attention it focused on sex take issueences and sanctioning instead of questioning the crimes of men and the criminal justice systems response to mens crimes. Most enquiry done on sentencing and gender goes as far masking as 1934 when Martin concluded that females were no more likely than males to be sentenced to prison basis. mavin of the most recent studies by Spohn in 2002 stated that the odds of receiving a prison sentence are devil and a half times greater for male offenders than for female offenders.For numerous years, prison officials utilise the same type of treatment for men and women. In the last decade with the increasing number of women incarcerated, research shows that women have different physical and emotional needs. For example, women are more attached to their children that they are leaving behind, and some have histories of physical and mental abuse. The creation of two programs, Key Crest and Forever Free were created to attend with women specific issues. Recent studies done by National Institute of Justice studies instal that participants in these two progra ms stayed drug and arrest free for over three years.Participants were tested and interviewed once a year for three years. The studies also showed that the programs provided aftercare and treatment in areas that were not addressed in previous years. Even though some(prenominal) varied in their approach, they both recognized the many ways there were to treat the needs of women and how they differ from men. The studies also show that gender specific programs do swear out inmates reenter into society. There are many factors that quash women to commit violent crimes. Most women suffer from substance abuse, spouse abuse and mental issues.The most third estate risk is being previously being abused earlier in life. A survey conducted in 2002 reported that thirty six percent of all female inmates in United States jails had been abused at some point. Twenty-six percent reported that they were abused by someone of their immediate family. Another achievable reason for a rise in womens crim e may be due to an paper created by sociologists called liberation hypothesis. In this hypothesis due to the lack of access to certain areas in society women in the past were committing crimes such as shoplifting, fraud, and prostitution.As women start to gain access to more avenues in society they are able to commit more serious crimes. The murder rate, crimes against property, and street crimes have increased significantly. Women used to be just the drug smugglers but now they are the dealers. Dr. Chishom of the Southern constituent Violence & Substance Abuse Prevention Center stated that Quite frankly women became more doughty. Now they compete with men for the same crimes that once were dominated by men. Society also may be a reason for the rise in womens crime rate.Society over the last 30 years has changed dramatically and has become more violent. Women feel that they may have to protect themselves more than ever. Dr. Barbara Scott of Northeastern Illinois University sugge sts that society has an increased acceptance of violence. Violence is portrayed in the media as a way of dealing with frustration and aggression, not only in women but in men as well. Women are no longer scared of doing things that once were deemed unacceptable. They are compacting weapons, being involved in shootings, and committing child abuse. cardinal trend that is related to women committing crimes is drug dependency. The rising rate of drug dependency has a major impact on womens crime trends. Women who rely on drugs must have a constant income to dramatise these drugs on a routine basis. This is where women tend to be involved in burglaries and robberies to fund their drug habits. Drug use also tends to sink women into the underworld of a criminal subculture. It exposes them to violence and dangerous situations. This is where they meet men that are also connected to drug dependency.Most men that are drug dependant doing women to feed their own habits. When studying the car eer of a violent female criminal research shows square gender variations. Most womens careers start and end much earlier than one of a man. Females are more likely not to repeat violent crimes. Females are also more likely to start away from any future crimes. Long term involvement as a career criminal by a woman is very rare. Case studies and interviews show a weak commitment to a life of crime. When developing the female offending process most theories were created by men.Most theories have been challenged because they were created for men, and people love if those theories can be used to explain female crime. Some criminologists argue that traditional theories are male specific and are not designed to explain female crime. Approaches such as the anomie surmisal and conflict opening suggest that factors such as poverty and inequality underlie much of the grassroots crime. Consistent between the two approaches, both male and females show that they come from the poor and disa dvantaged.These approaches tending explain the gender gap as a consequence of the lesser relevance of success goals compared to men. The social processes such as differential association and labeling theory tend to explain common crime in terms of different opportunities for learning female values and skill sets. These theories would explain the gender gap as a consequence of commencementer access by females to learning criminal activity. The Control Theory suggests that poor social bonds account for much of the crime. This theory argues that most criminals come from a disproportional and dysfunctional family.Their education aim is very low and they have a weak chain of conformity. The gender gap in this theory is explained through female socialization towards their bonding behavior. The utilization of the traditional theories is run oned by evidence that shows that females and men overlap in their causes for committing crimes. For example, male and females alike tend to have p oor education, be in low income bracket, and be of the minority status. Second, there is evidence that shows that there is close relation that females and males respond to the same societal forces.While traditional theories help understand male and female crime levels, they are less ideal at explaining different patterns of crime between the two. Different from male criminals, females are less likely to commit serious crime or lead crime organizations. When linked with males, females tend to be accomplices who help carry out the plan but never are the leader. Females are more likely to commit crime for more traditional reasons such as accomplishment, betterment, and self preservation. Situational pressures such as relationship problems, loss of a loved one, or need for income is a few reasons females turn to offending.The reentry contextual has been a way of dread recidivism. The neighborhood a women returns to after being released is a main focus. Most women who are released go b ack to an impoverished environment which is not suited to keep them clear of crime. Most of these areas do not have the proper treatment centers that are needed to make them successful. The vocation markets in these neighborhoods are slim and sometimes nonexistent. In turn, moral for a woman who is trying to turn their life around becomes very low. backup conditions are also a key factor. Suitable living arrangements provide social and emotional support.Mallik-Kane and Visher found that fifty six percent of women released ended up living with family and friends. Most had been given some signifier of financial and emotional support. Over one quarter of these women had not received any support from their families. The Justice Departments Bureau of Justice Statistics reports that there are roughly 2. 1 million female violent crime offenders in the United States. Three out of every four women commit crimes on other women. dickens thirds of all violent women had some sort of relation ship with their victim prior to committing the crime.Forty percent of these women were under some influence of drugs while carrying out the crime. Over half of these offenses were committed at or shape up the victims house. In 1997, there were 44 known women inmates on death row. This made up about 1. 3 percent of the total on death row inmates. Society itself is always ever-changing and has changed a lot in the last couple of decades. Crime is constant battle here in the United States and around the world. All we can do is hope to contain it and keep it as stripped-down as possible. As reports have been released and studies have been conducted we can see that the crime rate involving women has increased.The rate of violent crimes as in women has significantly risen every year since the early 1980s. At the end of 2001, there were nearly 9 times as many men (5,037,000) in prisons as there were women (581,000). as yet women are the fastest growing population in American prisons. In 2004, men were ten times more likely to commit violent crimes than women. That statistic is now false as women are committing more crime than ever before. Some argue that the reasoning for this is because of the economy and their social conditions.The majority of the females arrested for violent crimes came from poverty in love neighborhoods where there was little chance for advancement. Over half of the females did not have a stable job when they offended. Females are included in more organized crime than they were ever before. This comes from being exposed to the elements to commit crime. Inhibiters such as the media who says its Ok to take anger and frustration out through violence or men who use women to be an accomplice in a crime. Females seem to dig themselves deeper into the criminal subculture until they end up serving a ail sentence. Unlike decades ago there are programs to help females through the incarceration process. Key Crest and Forever Free were created to help fe males obtain the correct tools and support they need to return to a normal life. Due to research done after release, it has been shown that these programs due help females stay off drugs and become a positive member of society. Works Cited Doerner, J. K. , 2007-11-14 An Examination of Sentencing Outcomes in U. S. national Courts Does a Gender Gap Exist? Paper presented at the annual meeting of the AMERICAN rules of order OF CRIMINOLOGY, Atlanta Marriott Marquis, Atlanta, Georgia Online . 2010-01-24 from http//www. allacademic. com/meta/p201202_index. html Drug treatment and reentry for incarcerated women, (2005, Dec). Retrieved February 22, 2010, http//www. ncjrs. gov/pdffiles1/nij/212776. pdf Hickey, Eric. (2003). Encyclopedia of murder and violent crime. Thousand Oaks, CA Sage. Why Women Are Committing More Crimes, (2000, July).Retrieved February 22, 2010, http//findarticles. com/p/articles/mi_m1355/is_4_98/ai_63291519/pg_2/? tag=contentcol1 Women coming home long-term patterns of recidivism. (2010, April). Justice Quarterly, 225-254. Retrieved February 22, 2010 from http//www. informaworld. com/smpp/section? content=a910861149&fulltext=713240928 Women & Girls in the Criminal Justice System. Retrieved February 22, 2010 from National Criminal Justice Reference advantage Web site http//www. cjrs. gov/spotlight/wgcjs/Summary. html Women in the criminal justice system. (2007, May). Retrieved February 22, 2010,http//www. sentencingproject. org/doc/ taphouselications/womenincj_total. pdf Women offenders, (1999, Dec). Retrieved Feb 21, 2010, http//bjs. ojp. usdoj. gov/content/pub/press/wo. pr Zaplin, T Ruth. (2007) Female Offenders Critical Perspectives and Effective Interventions, Second Edition Sudbury, MA. Jones.