Crime: The Role Of Women In The Criminal Justice System

Throughout history, the criminal justice system has mainly focused on men entering the criminal justice system rather than women. This is not portrayed largely by the media and society because it is not truly considered a highlight topic. Men and women face incarceration on a daily basis, causing them both to have different experiences based on their gender. The crimes and punishment faced by each gender is different and can affect the way society views the person as an individual and/or as a group. The nature and role in society can be a factor of the incarceration and the experience they may face while in the criminal justice system. Although the depiction of men entering the criminal justice system is portrayed regularly, the rate of women entering the criminal justice system has faced a higher increase than men entering the system.

The number of women incarcerated is growing at a rapid pace. This calls for a reevaluation of our correction institutions to deal with women’s involvement in crime. Increasing numbers of arrests for property crime and public order offenses are outpacing that of men. The “War on Drugs” has a big influence on why our prisons have become overcrowded in the last 25 years. Women are impacted more than ever because they are being convicted equally for drug and other offenses. Female criminal behavior has always been identified as minor compared to Male’s criminal behavior. Over the years women have made up only small part of the offender populations. There is still only a small

Male and female offenders alike are incarcerated every day for various reasons. Some commit violent crimes while others are arrested for drug use or public-order offenses. The difference between the two are the rates at which they are incarcerated, the length or harshness of their sentences, for the same or similar crimes committed, patterns of drug use, and previous correctional history. While men still lead in violent crime rates, 54.3 percent male verse 36.6 percent female, women are more likely than men to serve sentences due to drug-related offenses and other nonviolent property crimes (American Corrections, 2016).

Very little work has focused on studying recidivism by offenders after punishment and how prevention measures may improve recidivism rates and affect cooperation. “National recidivism rates are at an estimated amount of 73% and of the whole jail population 42.5% are women” (Berenji, 2014, p.131). As you can see about half of the inhabitants of the jails are women; so recidivism is an ongoing issue that needs to be solved. Recidivism is a growing distress in the U.S today, not only with men but women as well. Not many studies have been steered towards women reverting back to crime as there are men, but it is a concern. It is impossible to make this issue disappear fully, but with fundamental changes the

The United States criminal justice system, an outwardly fair organization of integrity and justice, is a perfect example of a seemingly equal situation, which turns out to be anything but for women. The policies imposed in the criminal justice system affect men and women in extremely dissimilar manners. I plan to examine how gender intersects with the understanding of crime and the criminal justice system. Gender plays a significant role in understanding who commits what types of crimes, why they do so, who is most often victimized, and how the criminal justice system responds to these victims and offenders. In order to understand the current state of women and the way in which gender relates to crime and criminal justice, it is first

In many countries, the female prison population has increased dramatically over the last years. This has generated widespread awareness in our society, leading people to question why the percentage multiplied exponentially. In the past, female offenders have not only been compared to their male counterparts, but to society’s view of the role of women; this role categorized them as housewives and mothers. But how did these housewives and mothers go from the home to the prisons? In most countries, women represent a minority of the prison population: normally between 2% and 8%. There are now more than 600,000 women behind bars and more than one million on probation and parole, (Bastick and Townhead 2008) most of these women are sentenced to prison for non-violent crimes. Many of these women in prison struggle with substance abuse, mental illness, and histories of physical and sexual abuse. According to the researchers Bastick and Townhead, all over the world women in prison suffer from intersecting

After visiting www.womenandprison.org a website created by incarcerated women, I learn the ins and outs of what are some of the leading factors for women and prisons now. Most of the women interviewed have a brutal past with drug addiction, prostitution or abuse. These are the main reasons women today still are being incarcerated. However gender experience in prison expressed by women is very painful. Unlike men women suffer from the state of mind where they are home sick. Those who tend to have made families back home it begins to be tougher for women to be separate from her child. Also it is said to be all mind games a lot of women loose a sense of social control where they are no longer accepting to the reasoning which has brought them to

It can be said the males make up the vast majority of the prison population. It can also be said that men are just plain different than women when it comes to ethics, morals, and violence. Whether gender has any influence on whether or not a crime is committed is not fully understood, but there are many theories.

In recent years, the rates for women being imprisoned in Australia have significantly risen, with many factors contributing to this greater increase in the rate for female prisoners compared to male prisoners. From 1995 to 2002, a 60 percent increase in rate per 100,000 was recorded (Karen Gelb 2003), with women making up seven percent of Australia 's total prisoner population, as stated by Fiona Dowsley, the ABS director of the National Centre for Crime and Justice Statistics. According to the annual 'Prisoners in Australia ' report in 2012, the number of women incarcerated increased by 48 percent since 2002. It is necessary to identify the issues that affect women which account for the surge in imprisonment of women. Recent studies have suggested that the main factor of the rise of imprisonment is the sentencing practice itself considering women

Women are an increasingly visible segment of the prison population confined in not just Amderican prsions but also prisons worldwide. Their numbers are increasing at such a rate that far outstrips even the remarkable rate of growth among incarcerated men. In a interview with the Independent, Carol Hedderman, professor of criminology at the University of Leicester, said “looking at the growing number of women in jail could eventually help lower the prison population overall” (Branagh, 2010). In response to the growing number of female imprisonment in this assignment I will analyise the key weaknesses in the criminal justice system stating why women end up in prisons, and when they do what disadavatages to they face by being in the system. There are a number of factors that I will discus such as the dispersal of prisons and how they result to isolation the women inmates face, how the system deals with mothers with new born or children on a whole. Also how gender inequality plays a key role in the prisons and finally I will disucss other methods of punishements for women which control the over crowded women population and can help improve the criminal justice process.

Programs in prisons that are tailored to women’s unparalleled needs would benefit society in the grand scheme of things. On an individual level it could break the cycle of abuse, victimization, and self-loathing. It is essential that the double damage done to female offenders be repaired because they deserve an unbiased chance at a good life. After all, they could represent your mother, aunt, sister, niece, wife and girlfriend. In her book, A woman doing life: Notes from a prison for women, Erin George did a fine job in depicting the life of women during the time they were incarcerated. She also included a light reflection of what life was like before prison and what life could be like after prison. This book included vivid passages of how

Women are being incarcerated in today’s prisons at an alarming rate. Unfortunately, disparities in policies, women’s programs, and treatment options in the criminal justice system are virtually non-existent which are causing major problems with overcrowding, health issues, and drug abuse problems.

The rapid increase of female prisoners in a male-dominated system has left fewer adequate resources available for women. In addition, most research shows that women's prison experiences differ drastically from those of men because their relationships inside and outside prison tend to shape the culture then enter into in prison. Women tend to form differing structures than men, finding roles similar to that which they would undertake outside prison. In addition, over 60 percent of women in prison were the primary guardians for their children, causing women

For centuries the general public have perceived that the deep horrors of the prison system only existed within the majority of incarcerated male inmates. However now due to recent investigations researchers are finding that this is not the case. For a lengthened period of time the female prison system have been given low attention in comparison to male inmates

The social process and traditional structure theory explained why female crime rates are rather lower than males. The social process theory tend to explain the traditional crime with regards to differential opportunity to lean criminal techniques and values. The use of the traditional theory shows evidence in which considered the overlap on the causes of crimes committed by both genders. Studies shows that both male and female offenders that came in contact with the criminal justice system often came from a social background that are typically of low socioeconomic status, poorly educated, under or unemployed, and minority groups (Steffensmeir and Allan, 1995). The only difference between male and female offenders is, female