NCJ Number: 73991
Title: Evaluating Changes in Female Criminality (From Handbook of Criminal Justice Evaluation, P 549-571, 1980, Malcolm W Klein and Katherine S Teilmann, ed. - See NCJ-73970)
Author(s): R J Simon; M Benson
Date Published: 1980
Page Count: 23
Sponsoring Agency: Sage Publications, Inc
Sale Source: Sage Publications, Inc
Type: Statistics
Language: English
Country: United States of America
Annotation: This essay addresses the issue of the scarcity in volume and quality of available data on women's participation in crime in the United States.
Abstract: Major objectives of the work include interpretation of available data on female crime patterns and statistics, identification of issues on which research about women in crime is inadequate or lacking, and identification of the types of data that should be collected. Arrest statistics indicate that there has been an increase in female arrests over the past decade, and that the increase has been primarily in the property economic offenses, such as larceny, theft, fraud, and forgery. No data are available on the demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of the women who have contributed to the rise in female arrests. This study hypothesizes that women property offenders are motivated by the same interests and desires as their male counterparts, and that should be an insignificant variable in deciding upon police programs. Focusing on women offenders in court, the authors consider the question of whether women are treated differently from men when charged with the same types of offenses. Their findings indicate that contrary to popular impression, the treatment of women by the judiciary is not characterized by either preferentialism or punitiveness when decisions pertaining to dismissal or determination of guilt or innocence are made. However, women defendants appear to be the recipients of positive discrimination in sentencing. Judges, at least in New York State and Washington, D.C., are less likely to sentence women to prison than they are to sentence men. Considering women offenders incarcerated in State and Federal prisons, changes seem to be occurring in State and Federal prisons to meet the vocational and educational needs of women who are expected to support themselves or to contribute to their own and others' support. More opportunities appear to be available to women in vocations in which they will be able to find employment after release. There is evidence that educational programs at all levels are being introduced and expanded in women's correctional institutions. However, in contrast to such countries as Sweden, Denmark, and West Germany where prison officials allow women (on an experimental basis), babies born to them in prison, the United States has no such programs. The issue of coeducational versus segregated correctional facilities is still under consideration in the United States. The need for more and better data on women offenders at all stages of the criminal justice process is emphasized. Endnotes and 15 references are appended.
Index Term(s): Crime patterns; Crime Statistics; Evaluation measures; Female inmates; Female offenders; Sex discrimination; Women's correctional institutions; Women's rights
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