INTRODUCTION A RISE IN STATISTIC OF FEMALE OFFENDING The rise of female offending can be seen in various countries, but the reasons in the rising trends vary by continents. It was reported across various jurisdictions that, the rise of female offenders is particularly prominent in the U.S and Europe (Mclvor & Burman, 2011). Between the years of 1986 to 1995, women who are sentenced to imprisonment for drug offenses increased by 888%, this is particularly seen in states which uses severe penalties for drug offenses and among black women. Spain and Brazil were reported to have a high rising rate of female prisoner among other European countries; which were mostly incarcerated for substance abuse and between the periods of 1988 to 1998, the female imprisonment population was also increased by 291% (Mclvor & Burman, 2011). It was suggested that, factor which promoted the rise could be due to the lack of alternatives in punishment than imprisonment (Fair, 2009). In England and Wales, the prison statistic as of 2013 also showed a constant rise in female offending from year 1995 to 2005, especially in the category of violence against the other person (VATP). As of June 2013, it was reported that 4.6 % of the prisoner population were women and 28% of the population in prison do fall under the age of 30 to 39 (Berman & Dar, 2011: 7-9). Likewise for Scotland, the increase of female offenders was also being observed, it was reported to have increased by 66% from the year 2002/3 to 20011/12 (Berman & Dar, 2011: 13) with particularly in the category of alcohol and drug offenses, shoplifting, assaults and breach of the peace. According to the data provided by the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS), more women in thei... ... middle of paper ... ...e and hence needed to be treated with leniency, but the fact that most women have children responsibilities; where the attachment need of mothers of a child is irreplaceable, there are also various links to which children without proper mother care and touch can have undesirable results in the progress of growing up. The vast individual differences in men and women are evident in the need of having a different set of approach in female offending interventions, but most of the primary causes of their offending are nevertheless similar – victimisation and trauma. It should be recognised that female offenders are likely to require more support after their release from incarceration or other custodial sentences. Without these supports, these female offenders may not be successful at breaking their cycles and also enable to avoid passing their legacy to their children.
These women have been increasingly going to jail for longer periods of time for minor crimes, the most frequent crimes that are being convicted are mostly related to drug and alcohol related crimes as well as theft (Mental Health Coordinating Council, 2010). A survey conducted in New South Wales of female inmates had concluded that; 80% are current smokers, 78% have used an illicit drug(s), 67% were unemployed in the six months prior to incarceration, and 66% of these women had also been in a violent/abusive relationship (Mental Health Coordinating Council, 2010). It has been argued that the risk factors for offenders are derived from that of genetic theories of crime and that they are an adequate guide for correctional supervision and treatment-planning decisions for females, however others argue that this approach is highly flawed and does not take into account gender differences (Rettinger & Andrews 2010). This is an issue in the CJS and its importance cannot be undervalued, the assessment for the risk and need has implications for the assignment of female offenders to a correction option that is the least restrictive, the assignment to an appropriate intervention dosage, appropriate targeting of criminogenic needs, and an understanding of female offending (Rettinger & Andrews 2010). Due to the increasingly large number
In 1981 women only made up around 4 percent of inmates in prison. The criminal justice world is very set on race. For example in the book Criminal Justice a brief introduction by Frank Schmalleger, it says that race is so marginalized that even though in the united states population there are only about 13 percent of African Americans, African Americans that are incarcerated account for somewhere around 50 percent. This shows that African American women are more likely to encounter incarceration has opposed to white women. This is also why women’s prisons are study less than men’s prisons. Because there are less violent crimes committed in a women’s prison and there are significantly less women inmates than men. .However, this could soon change in the years coming if the crime rate in women keeps rising like it
Erin G., 2010, A Woman Doing Life: Notes from a Prison for Women: The Southwest Journal of Criminal Justice. New York: Oxford University Press, 2010. Pp. vi, 202, Vol. 8(2)175.
Classical and contemporary theory helps to explain gendered crime patterns. The feminist school of criminology argue criminology and criminal theory is very masculine, all studies into criminal behaviour, have been developed from male statistics and tested on males. Very little research is conducted into female criminality, this may be because women who commit crime are more likely to be seen as evil or mentally ill rather than criminal, this is because women are labe...
Women in Prison. Washington, D.C.: Bureau of Justice Statistics Varnam, Steve. Our prisons are a crime (reforming the prison system). Editorial. Christianity Today 21 June 1993
Since the early 20th century, the Scottish penal system has gone through numerous transformations as the society changes and grows, including the important period where Scotland struggled to create it’s own identity, separate from the rest of the UK. These developments have been pivotal in regards to the modernization of the Scottish Criminal Justice system, which is often described as being made up of a complex set of processes and involves many different bodies . Over the past decade, the main problem at hand is that Scotland, a relatively small country in the scheme of things, has a serious problem with imprisonment , meaning that we have a higher imprisonment rate than nearly anywhere else in Western Europe. Recent research has shown that it sends over twice as many people to prison than the similarly sized countries within Europe , but in a debate on penal policy in 2007, the Cabinet Secretary for Justice Kenny MacAskill, stated that “the Government refuses to believe that the Scottish people are inherently bad or that there is any genetic reason why we should be locking up twice as many offenders as Ireland or Norway.” The aim of this essay will be to look at the recent changes within Scotland’s penal system, and whether this ‘imprisonment crisis’ has been the outcome of penal developments in the past.
middle of paper ... ... emale population in Cornton Vale Prison is represented by black or ethnic minorities, (HM Inspectorate of Prisons for Scotland 2001). One Area that could use further research was highlighted in the Herald newspaper this week; it has become a very worrying state that women are apparently being coerced into working in illegal saunas as prostitutes. Sauna owners are buying the women's debt they then 'work' to 'pay off' the debt, according to retired Chief Inspector Nannette Pollock " the wording that refers to these women is debt-bonded", (The Herald 1/11/02) One other area for further research could be the use of language used within the criminal justice system, terms like 'common prostitute' could and should be removed then maybe some of the stigmatisation that these women are subjected to would also be removed.
Feminist Criminology, 7(2), 146-162. Kinder-Matthews, J. & Co., Ltd. (1994) The 'Standard' of the 'St Working with female sexual abusers. (pp. 57-67). The 'Secondary' of the Miccio & Fonseca, L.C. a.
Although the years since Smart’s study have seen much more interest in the study of female crime and deviance, many general theories in this area continue to neglect gender as a factor influencing criminality. This is despite the fact that official figures suggest that gender is perhaps the most significant single factor in whether an individual is convicted of crime. Any theories which fail to explain this relationship could therefore be seen as inadequate. OFFICIAL STATISTICS, CRIMINALITY AND GENDER Pollak – the ‘masked’ female offender – ‘chivalry’ thesis Writing in 1950, Otto pollak argued that official statistics on gender and crime were highly misleading.
For many women, one of their primary roles relates to motherhood. This means that once a woman returns back to their family, she must take on the caregiver role again. However, the separation between women offenders and their children often strained family reunification. It was noted that such reunification could not take place without securing the custody of their children through stable housing and economic support. Many women face difficulties in their attempts to regain custody of their children as they cannot meet the criteria. This is due to the social stigma attached to being a prisoner which pull back women's capability towards gaining sustain employment in society to financially regain the custody to reintegrate with their children. These difficulties are exacerbated by the prevalence of mental and physical health issues within the female prison population. Once a woman is released from prison these health problems result in the difficulty towards securing housing, employment, and predicts reoffending.
Historically, criminology was significantly ‘gender-blind’ with men constituting the majority of criminal offenders, criminal justice practitioners and criminologists to understand ‘male crimes’ (Carraine, Cox, South, Fussey, Turton, Theil & Hobbs, 2012). Consequently, women’s criminality was a greatly neglected area and women were typically seen as non-criminal. Although when women did commit crimes they were medicalised and pathologised, and sent to mental institutions not prisons (Carraine et al., 2012). Although women today are treated differently to how they were in the past, women still do get treated differently in the criminal justice system. Drawing upon social control theory, this essay argues that nature and extent of discrimination
Women in prison need to rehabilitate, which involves or should foster relationships, men on the other hand need vocation, but when it comes to establishing goals for gender specific sentencing there is no adaptation for women and therapeutics.... ... middle of paper ... ... Not to mention the health risks of not having protection, when you consider that females were participating in ninety percent of the occurrences of sexual crimes by personnel, it is no wonder our institutions incidences are epidemic.
Not only is prison ineffective in preventing reoffending in women and is expensive, it can be extremely damaging to the female’s well-being and their families. The effect that a custodial sentence has on women is arguably far worse than for men. Women are often not prepared or equipped for their life following their prison sentence; due to the fact that women are more likely to be lone parents before prison (Social Exclusion Unit, 2002), are more likely to leave prison homeless and unemployed (Wedderburn, 2000), and are more likely to lose access of their children whilst serving their sentence (Corston, 2007). Statistics from 2010 showed that around 17,000 children become separated from their mother by imprisonment (Wilks-Wiffen, 2011). This can be absolutely devastating to not only the female offender, but to their innocent children too. Moreover, due to the small number of women’s prisons, the average distance that women are sent away from their homes is around 60 miles (Women in Prison, 2013). Therefore, even if the women are lucky enough to keep in contact with their children, it can be tremendously hard to organise visitation and uphold
The Feminist Theory argues that due to the high rates of female poverty, and women raising children on their own, they are more likely to turn to less violent crimes for money (Macionis. 2015). The 'Secondary' of the 'Secondary' of the 'Secondary' of the 'Secondary' of the 'Secondary' of the 'S For example, in 2013 women made up 41% of fraud arrests, 48% of embezzlement, and 68% of prostitutes (Macionis). 2015). The 'Secondary' of the 'Secondary' of the 'Secondary' of the 'Secondary' of the 'Secondary' of the 'S Unfortunately, the response to crimes committed by women is not much better. When it comes to policing for certain crimes, women are arrested in higher numbers.
Feminist criminology is the study of crime in terms of gender for example why men commit more crime than women, why women do more petty crimes, like shop lifting, than violent crime, sexism in the court system, and female victimization. Feminist criminology contains many branches. Liberal, radical, Marxist, and socialist feminism are widely recognized, although other "strands" exist such as postmodernism and ecofeminism. Most feminist criminology involves critiques about how women offenders have been ignored, distorted, or stereotyped within traditional criminology, but there is no shortage of separate theories and modifications of existing theories.