Gender Disparities Against Women

When the criminal justice system was established, the main objective was to create neutrality and fairness between the sexes. Even though people might believe that there is no such thing as ‘stereotyping’ in the criminal justice system, it is quite obvious that women are constantly being look down upon because of their sex. In general, women tend to be treated like fragile objects that could break at any moment; the truth is that women can be strong and courageous just like men. Society stereotypes women and the criminal justice system is no different.

women has increased significantly, increasing at a rate double to the rate of male incarceration since 1980 (Covington & Bloom, 2006). Braithwaite, Treadwell and Arriola note that incarcerated women have historically been a forgotten population, and despite the rapid growth of the population, their needs have continued to be ignored (2005). In addition to the stigma that comes with being or having been incarcerated,

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

Robertson-James and Nunez (2012) suggests that the needs of incarcerated women have traditionally been ignored due to the tremendous percentages of incarcerated persons being men. While this may be true, women and men have issues that differ from one another and should be treated as separate issues. The physical and mental health needs, as Robertson-James and Nunez (2012) puts it, may be inferior than those of incarcerated men or women in the overall population. It is almost as if the problems of incarcerated women are undetectable or are seen as less important in the criminal justice

In the past 20 years, women inmates have been one of the fastest growing prison populations in the United States. Women inmates represent a myriad of voices that speak to poverty-stricken lives, histories of abuse, separations of mother and child, struggles with substance abuse, health issues, and economic hardships. Women’s prisons have increasingly become a source of intrigue and controversy, particularly through the broadcasting of a number of television documentaries, such as Orange Is the New Black. This explores all the issues and concerns regarding female inmates. Many times women in prison are overlooked, as the prison problems that receive media attention occur primarily at male institutions.

The growing rate of women in prison has spawned widespread awareness in our society; leading people to question why the percentage multiplied exponentially over the past three decades. In the past, female offenders have not only been compared to their male counterparts, but to society’s view on the role of women; the roles that labeled them as housewives and mothers. But how did these housewives and mothers go from the home to the prisons? The subject of women’s issues has sporadically been discussed in our society, and it has just recently being uncovered that women operate differently than men in situations; and those differences are now starting to effect the growth rate in the population of women in

Women viewed as "feminine" by the court were sent to reformatories, while women viewed as "masculine" were subject to penal institutions alongside male prisoners. To be exact, the odds of incarceration for female defendants were approximately 42% lower than the odds of incarceration for male defendants (Demuth & Doerner, 2014, pg.4). Another study even found that female defendants were sentenced less harshly than male defendants, and on average 14% less likely to be incarcerated and received prison sentences about 7 months shorter (Demuth & Doerner, 2014, pg.4). These statistics prove that female defendants are viewed differently in our court system and thereby receive more lenient sentences. This can be due to the fact that women are looked at as feminine, caregiving creatures, while men are supposed to be the dominant "manly"

Clear et al. (2013) states, “Women correctional facilities are like a three-pronged form of institutionalized sexism”, and the reasons are as follows: (1) women’s prisons are generally built further out causing inconveniences to friends and family; (2) they lack educational and vocation programs; and (3) female inmates are not separated and grouped by the seriousness of crime they have committed (e.g. violent offender is housed together with less violent offenders or the mentally ill) (p. 294). There are fewer correctional facilities for women in the United States as compared to those available for men, and assistant programs that are offered at the men’s prison are limited in women facilities. Clear et al. (2013) further states, “Impoverished women parolees are 83 percent less likely to re-offend if given access to housing and life skills training” (p. 311). Women offenders are known as the forgotten offenders because, “Women have traditionally received discriminatory treatment from judges, few programs resources from prison administrators, and

A significant difference in the means for sentence length exists between men and women for the offenses rape, child sexual assault, and forcible sodomy. In each of these offense categories, men are, on average, sentenced to longer, or harsher, prison terms. It is interesting to note here, too, that the offense that had the most even ratio of men to women and the largest number of offenders, sexual assault, showed no significant differences in sentence length between men and women…Rape, as it typically manifests itself in a violent manner, would demonstrate the most egregious break in gender roles. However, the data suggest men receive harsher penalties, evidenced by a higher mean sentence length. In addition,

It is noted in research that women inmates are seven times more likely to experience sexual abuse, and four times more likely to experience physical abuse compared to male offenders (CASA, 2010). According to the research of Chesney-Lind and Pasko (2004) every 15 seconds a woman is beaten, and in the year 1999 85% of domestic violence victims were in fact women. In a qualitative Canadian study on women who use drugs and work in the sex trade, it was found that men condone their use of drugs by supplying them, and support their work in the sex trade. It was noted that in these relationships “violence - both physical and sexual - is common and the experience of and the threat of violence serves to marginalize women further” (Azim, Bontell and Strathdee, 2015, p.17). An interesting perspective on the victimization of women offenders is noted by Grant (2007) where she refers to the victimization of female offenders not only in the general society, but within the criminal justice system in correctional facilities. She articulates the victimization of women by male guards in prisons, in which case “some women are coerced into sex for favors such as extra food or personal hygiene products, or to avoid punishment” (p.138). Grant (2007) in her research articulates how the victimization of women is essentially overlooked in prison, she refers to the Bureau of Justice Statistics showing that women are overrepresented in comparison to other populations in prison to be victims of sexual abuse, making up 46% of victims of abusive sexual contacts in state prisons, and 28% in local jails. Due to the overt existence of the victimization of women offender’s drug abuse may be used as a coping strategy for these women. (Voorhis, Wright, Salisbury, and Bauman,

The incarceration of female offenders has increased from 168.5 to 215.2 between 2010 and 2017 (Russel.S 2017). The decision by the judiciary to send these offenders to prison, many of whom are mothers or have experienced their own physical trauma, fails to achieve just and equitable outcomes for these offenders (Kilroy. D 2016). It is vital that female prisoners receive adequate rehabilitation to ensure a reduction of crime rates within female prisoners and to receive effective aid upon release into the community.

The female offenders is common in the United States during this generation. People predict that only men commit crimes, but the truth is that everything has been changing over the years. Among male offenders,47% were alone, and 51% were with other males when the offense occurred. About 8% of violent female offenders committed their offense together with at least one men, by effect, about 1%of male violent offender committed the offense in the company of a female offenders. The female offenders has grown among the years pass by, and in fact everything of the history has changed, now it's just iconic.

Almost ten years after the preceding works in 1999, Lawrence Greenfield and Tracy Snell published the report Women Offenders, which examined the growing crime rate and demographics of female offenders. Using a government survey from the National Crime Victimization Center and the National Judicial Reporting Program of the nations population, researchers analyzed female crime rates on a large scale. According to the results, there were an estimated 3.2 million arrests of women & accounting for about 22% of all arrests that year. Women were about 17% of those arrested for the Part I violent crimes (murder, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault) and 29% of those arrested for Part I property crimes (burglary, larceny, and motor-vehicle theft) (Greenfield & Snell, 1999). In addition, the data revealed that in local jails, state prisons, and federal prisons the characteristics of the majority is a black female, between the ages of 25-34, never married with a high school diploma/GED. Interestingly, the majority for probation is a Caucasian female with the same demographics as the previous mentioned majority. Moreover, About 65% of women confined in State prisons had a history of prior convictions (Greenfield & Snell,

All feminist theorists share a common focus on gender inequality; however feminism can be described as a set of perspectives rather than a single viewpoint (Strider, N.d.). Therefore, challenging gender biasness in the criminal justice system from the feminist perspective can take many forms given the fact that there a lot of sources of gender inequality in the system. For example, the early theories of criminal behavior largely ignored gender all together and as a result the field has become largely male dominated and males have also been shown to commit more crimes than women on average.

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