Male vs. Female Offenders

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 prisoners also continue to make up the majority of the prison population. However, women prisoner rates have been on the rise and have exceeded that of male growth rates since 1995. In fact, due to the increase of the women prison population, various issues have arisen which require women to be treated differently from men. Such issues correctional facility’s face because of this increase include program delivery, housing conditions, medical care, staffing, and security (American Corrections, 2016). These problems are in part due to the different social and economic differences women are faced with in prison and while preparing for their release back to society.

The system unable to adapt for such a small number in comparison to men, incarcerated women are expected to fit into an institution developed by men for men, resulting in worse conditions, less familial contact due to fewer facilities, and more rules as if the women were children, all direct reflections institutionalized sexism and HM both in and out of the corrections arena. Additionally, due to the Madonna-like factor, women who are convicted have a farther fall from grace within society and do not have the luxury of the “good old boy” connections for defense and protection. While gender roles and expectations are assigned by society, believing women should be equal to men demands the acknowledgement that women can offend like men (Pearson, 1998) and therefore should be incarcerated not ‘like men’ but in an equalized manner. Perhaps, rather than revamping institutions developed to house and rehabilitate women, we first investigate the standards currently in play for the policing, convicting and sentencing of men as the foundation of creating a nonsexist criminal justice

Multiple sources confirm that the population of female prisoners is rapidly increasing in the United States. The population now far exceeds one million prisoners (Bloom & Covington, 2008) (Lewis, 2000). It is pertinent to recognize the group of female offenders with mental illness; they are a group that is seldom considered when pondering societal groups relating to communication. Through substantial research, several issues that ail this community have been distinguished and can be connected to communication, as this work will reveal. Some of these issues include the reality of self-harm, histories of sexual and physical abuse, and aggressive behavior. Through the review of literature related to female prisoners with mental health

When individuals are sent to prison, many are forgotten, disregarded, and deemed worthy of being there. The high-stress environment is simply unlivable for many Americans and the exploitation of the prison system is used to steer many in the right direction. However, the mental health of these prisoners, especially female prisoners, is more ignored than ever. Research findings reveal the need for advocating and help to these women.

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

When a nation leads the world in the population incarcerated, women incarcerated and recidivism rate a question of what policies are causing these high statistics. Commonalities such as lack of supportive programing, conditions and over sentencing seem to appear in all these statistics. Although the controversial American prison system is often overlooked it is a grave social issue that no longer focuses on the rehabilitation of inmates.

Gender conflict is an issue that still exists within our society, long after the days of the Women’s Rights Movements and the division of career opportunities amongst men and women. While many times women are the ones facing obstacles, there are several instances in which the U.S. Prison System has made it harder for men to deal with their convictions. In Joanne Mariner’s article, “Deliberate Indifference,” she thoroughly describes the horrendous acts of rape and assault that occur within prison cells across the country. As male inmates are raped and violated, their suffering is setting the standards for different types of “masculinity” within our society. Nell Bernstein also discusses how the use of video-chat software is affecting the

In my research, I read an academic journal, articles and watched two documentaries that support my claim. Which is that women go through many obstacles like mental health, sexual harassment, and inequality in and out of prison. In the Documentary 20/20 “A Nation of Women Behind Bars,” by Diane Sawyer. She visits four prisons and interviews women on the crimes they committed and if they changed in the time they were incarcerated. Nicole Koester is from Maryland Correctional Institution for Women in Jessup. She is married

Women face losing their family and friends, making it harder on them to locked up (Bohm and Haley). In retrospect, I believe women are more sensitive and have better coping skills than men do. They tend to bond together because they understand what the other is dealing with. A lot of women turn to one another for support and end up with make-believe families (Bohm and Haley). There are times that in these make-believe family’s homosexuality exists and it is more accepting and consensual in the female prison than in the male prisons. Gangs are a lot more prominent in male prisons also. With a lot of gangs there tends to be racism which leads to interracial tension. Men tend to be more temperamental and do not how to control their anger.

Prisons are not traditional environments. They are ‘total institutions’ in the sense that they encompass inmates’ lives to an extent qualitatively greater than any other total institution. Prisons administer troubled human beings, who often bear long histories of violence as either offender or victim, into confined spaces against their wills and these individuals are brought into close contact with prison staff and other inmates, which often results in many forms of violence. This paper will examine the violence and victimization that occurs in prisons by focusing on inmate-on-inmate sexual violence, staff-on-inmate sexual violence, and physical violence and their prevalence in men’s and women’s prisons.

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

According to the article, I think it would be safe to say that most of the women offenders are of younger ages around 20’s - 35’s. More than likely to be single and not likely to be married. The article said “Nearly half of women in both State prisons and local jails have never been

When we think about prison, what typically comes to our mind is all male populations, and most covered in tattoos. The picture fewer see is women in prison. There has been a dramatic increase in the number of female offenders over the years. It is thought that men commit more crimes than women, but the statistics over it are beginning to change. Women were less likely than men to have offended or commited a crime in the last couple of

The literature on gender differentiation suggests that women and men distinguish and take action to the world in dissimilar ways (Adamek & Dager, 2007) One dissimilarity may be that women personalize interactions and events. We have by now noted how relationships of female inmates with additional inmates and staff are likely to be more private and to have more emotional components than those of males. The officers also recommended that female inmates take the reality of imprisonment more "personally" than males. This response seems to happen in response to disciplinary hearings and to officers giving instructions and reprimands. Officers state that women "take things to heart" (Ott, 2006) more than do males, which is an additional way of saying that similar event impacts more harshly on the women. Women may not be capable of isolating themselves from the shock of stress in the way that most men