Class Notes
- Focus: distinctive risks that women face which contribute to their entry into/escalation of
criminal offending
- Acknowledges they’re differently exposed to, respond in diff manner, to risks for criminal
behaviour compared to males
- Associated with both women’s + men’s crime + recidivism: gender-neutral factors e.g.
Education, criminal history, criminal networks
- Gender-specific factors (e.g. victimisation, mental health) → more prominent role in woman
offending
- Differences between men, women, within women groups
- Explanatory value ito aetiology (causes) + progression of women offending
- Has pragmatic applicability ito:
Addressing risks for women offending
Identifying resource + programming needs for women
Responsivity to justice + service intervention for women
Most noteworthy contributions to feminist pathways perspective in Criminology:
- Chesney Lind:
, Based on research published in late 1980s/early 1990s: highlighted inadequacy of
major Criminology delinquency theories to explain behaviour of young women who
are in conflict w/ cjs
Society criminalised the survival strategies of young girls e.g. Running away from
abuse at home, self-medicating with substances
Pioneer in female Criminology
- Gilfus:
Qualitative analysis of life histories of 20 incarcerated women, elaborated violence,
neglect, loss in backgrounds of female offenders
Found marginalisation of women/ girls from mainstream → pushed them into crim
subcultures
Highlighted: gendered nature of women’s options within crim subcultures (exist
different pathways to crime for each gender)
- Daly:
Used court reports + transcripts to identify subsets of cases based on characteristics
e.g. Past victimisation, substance use, crim histories
Qualitative analyses of 40 cases generated typology based on pathways to felony
court (most to least frequent)
Harmed + harming women:
o Experienced chaotic childhoods characterised by physical/emotional
abuse
o Histories of victimisation were linked to addiction, inability to cope,
behavioural acting out
Street women:
o Ran away from abusive households/ forced out
o Survived through making living on the street through prostitution,
theft, drug dealing
Battered women:
o May have experienced intimate partner violence (ipv)
o Unlikely to have ended up in felony court had they not been
involved with abusive men
Drug-connected women:
o Involved with drugs via their relationships with partners/fam
members
Others: committed crimes in response to immediate economic
circumstances/greed
- Richie:
Role of racial/gendered marginalisation in women’s pathways to crime
Study on 37 black, white incarcerated women (some experienced IPV)
pathways compelling black battered women to commit crime:
Women held hostage:
o Severely abusive relationships, too isolated + afraid to reach out for
help
o E.g. Women who were arrested for the death of one of their
children
Projection + association: women who directed violence at men other than
batterer in symbolic/projected retaliation for past abuse
, Sexual exploitation
o women involved in illegal sex work
o perceived this source of income as their only viable option after
having been subjected to early or repeated incidents of child sexual
victimisation
Fighting back: women who directed acts of arson, property damage, assaults
toward their batterer
Poverty: women who committed economically motivated crimes
partners portrayed themselves as more vulnerable to law enforcement →
used to coerce women into committing crimes
Addiction: women arrested for drug crimes; drug use means of connecting
with their partners
Elements of gender entrapment for black battered women in USA:
Criminal activities as response to violence/threat
Crimes as extensions of internalised gender roles + racial identity
Black women perceive their role as protectors of black men - vulnerable to
institutionalised racism
Some women turn themselves in to authorities as strategy to avoid abuse
- Simpson, Yahner, Dugan:
Quantitatively tested factors represented in Daly’s typology - using 351 jailed women
awaiting trial/disposition (Factor Analysis)
Identified 2 distinct groups of street women:
High number of lifetime arrests, incarceration, felony convictions
Group representing strong links with crim networks
Harmed + harming: revealed strong associations with serious childhood
abuse, violent victimisation, offensive violence in adulthood incl. Partner +
non-partner violent incidents
Drug-connected: strong association found with unemployment, drug use,
drug dealing, drug-involvement of partners, defensive violence against
partners
Battered women: strong associations were identified with violent
victimisation, not defensive violence
Co-offended with partners in property crimes unrelated to substance use
Other women: strong association identified with older women from 2-parent
homes with later ages of criminal onset + sexual activity
- Salisbury, Van Voorhis:
Path analyses using risk/needs assessment data from 313 female probationers to
predict recidivism
Identified for 3 models for repeat offending:
1. Childhood-victimisation model: trauma impacted depression, anxiety, substance
abuse
2. Relational model: dysfunctional adult relationships contributed to adult
victimisation, low self-efficacy, depression, anxiety, substance abuse
3. Social capital model: deficits in self-efficacy, support, education contributed to
low employment, financial difficulties, imprisonment
- Brennan, Breitenbach, Dieterich:
, Person-centred quantitative approach to identify latent subgroups of females with
similar profiles based on risk/needs assessment findings
Highlighted: complexity of grouping women offenders along dimensions such
victimisation, mental health, relationships, housing, family background
Identified: 4 overarching groups of women in sample of 718 soon-to-be-released
incarcerated women (2 subgroups within each)
1. Normal-functioning drug-dependent women: low levels of victimisation, less
marginalisation, low criminal history
2. Victimised/battered women w/ high levels of child + adult victimisation,
depression/other mental health issues, drug use, use of retaliatory violence
3. Socialised subcultural women: from less stable housing, but not as much
childhood abuse, fewer mental health issues, crimes often involved drugs/
trafficking them
4. Aggressive antisocial women: from high-crime abusive families, experienced IPV
+ mental health issues, committed violent crimes
- De Hart:
Sample of 60 incarcerated women to develop heuristic model to guide future
research/interventions
Women recruited from maximum-security correctional institution where more
serious/violent offenders are incarcerated
Female offender typology: developed based on women’s decision rules pertaining
their use of violence + IPV experience
Largest group: aggressive career offenders - comprised of women who use
generalised violence, multi-crime careers, heavy users of alcohol/drugs,
mental health problems\
Next largest group: women who killed/assaulted persons in retaliation/self-
defence
Experienced substantial mental health problems, tended toward heavy
alcohol/drug use, but criminal histories less embedded than those women in
aggressive group
3rd largest group: women who maltreated children, incl: women who
committed overt acts of violence, neglectful acts that resulted in
death/injury to children, less extensive criminal histories
Substance-dependent women experiencing IPV: non-violent women whose
crimes often related to drug dependence, used drugs with abusive partners
Social capital offenders: older, less educated women from poor, rural
upbringings - engaged primarily in drug related crimes e.g. Trafficking,
manufacturing of drugs
Theme 1-8 notes:
- What we know about crime, justice, + punishment in SA is based almost entirely on
frameworks that have been developed to explain the experiences of men.
- Very little is known about women incarcerated on the African continent, including SA.
- Circumstances that lead women to commit crimes + way in which these circumstances
interact, leading to patterns of offending poorly understood.
- Way in which female offenders experience prison life +impact of their incarceration on their
health, well-being, their connections to people in their lives have attracted little research
attention
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