Offender Victimization

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.

Throughout the world, we hear many stories about individuals being victimized, and individuals who have are the perpetrators. Also, many of these news segments are based off of headed situations between intimate relationships. Many relationships become this way because of stress about work, paying bills, past circumstances, and much more. There are many micro and macro level risk factors that pertain to victims (prior history of intimate partner violence, female sex, and youth), and perpetration (anger issues, low self-esteem, low income, and depression). “These factors are some of the very important factors that shape victimization and perpetration in intimate partner violence” (Seccombe, 2015, p.318).

In the defense and critique part of the debate the yes side said men are at least as likely as women to be victims of domestic assaults that lead to injury and pain. In defense, the no side said men inflict more serious injuries than women. However, research by the yes side states that consistent with victimization rates the results here suggest that women inflict serious injuries at least as frequently as men (Arriaga, & Oskamp, 1999). The yes side also stated men are considered more violent, because of underreporting. This is because if men report being hit or injured by a woman they will be considered less masculine, and wimpy. Police are also less likely to arrest a

The findings on the website show how female offenders have been perceived as less violent offender compared to males (NCJRS). Although, in the past females were perceived to commit minor offenses, but there has been a rise in females committing violent offense (NCJRS). There has also been a rise in the percentage of female offender overall, which younger girls represent a larger proportion of juvenile arrest (NCJRS). The reason for this could be many younger girls are experiencing trauma, abuse, violence, and poverty issues at home. For example, if a younger female leaves in a home and all she sees is her mother and father fight, which could lead her to think that it’s okay. She also gets beaten by her father and her mother never say anything so she might think it’s a way of life. This cause for whenever this younger female gets into a confrontation at school, she automatically leads to violence. The reason why is that’s all she seen growing up. The victimization that the female offender go through cause them to have different needs compared to male offenders. The findings on NCJRS states how due to the different victimization females go through they are more likely to be addicted to drugs and have mental

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

When most people hear the phrase sexual abuse we all have a tendency to assume the victim is a female. It is only a myth that males are not sexually assaulted, or that it only happens in while incarcerated. Sexual assaults can happen to anyone no matter their age, sex, orientation, or even identity. In fact, in between 9-10% of all male rape survivors outside of prisons are male and 16% of men have experienced sexual abuse before the age of 18. These reports are only an estimate because most male survivors of sexual abuse will either never report it or they encounter barriers while trying to report it. (Male Survivors of Sexual Assault, 2015) “The U.S. Department of Justice records an average of greater than 12,000 reported sexual assaults of men annually, and predicts that if unreported assaults are included, the actual number of men who are sexually assaulted in the United States each year is approximately 60,000.” (Male Survivors of Sexual Assault, 2015)

38). Furthermore, they claimed that female criminals were “monsters” (as cited in DeKeseredy, 2009, p. 38). These false images painted all female offenders with the same brush and served to dehumanize their characters. Furthermore, these theories negatively impacted the media and the public’s conception of female offenders. As a result female offenders were treated poorly, to say the least. To make matters worse, research in this area was conducted by males, dedicated for males, and served only to benefit males. For example, theoretical authors of this era were men who studied characteristics of males with respect to criminality. Women were thrown into the mixture of the alleged gender-neutral research, when what they needed was gender-sensitive studies. Even though these early theories inspired more accurate research, they served as a double edge sword to the female offender profiles.

The characteristics of these offenders and the crimes they are committing are also changing over time. Demographically the juvenile female offender is most likely coming from a single parent home and may have been physically or sexually abused at some point in her life. She will also most likely be under the age of 15 and even more likely to be a woman of color, African-American young woman comprise almost 50 percent of all young women in secure detention, while Hispanics make up 13 percent (Bergsmann, 1994). In 1996, females represented 57 percent of the arrests for running away. In 1996, females represented 15 percent of juvenile arrests for violent crimes, while arrests of boys for violent offenses declined by 9 percent (Snyder, 1997). Aggravated assault, the most frequent of the violent offenses committed by juveniles, represented 20 percent of all arrests for juvenile females, while declining for boys by 10 percent (Snyder, 1997). In considering these changes it is still important to note that girls are still arrested more often for status offenses it is becoming more evident that girls are engaging in delinquent behaviors more often

In viewing the information contained in the aforementioned articles, one can immediately understand the underlying reasons that women are committing more crimes than men. Through the mid-1990s, the arrest rates of both genders has increased steadily, with the male rate far exceeding that of females (Gross, 2009, pp. 84). However, in recent years, a shift has been seen, with the numbers of female offenders rising significantly, especially at the juvenile level, which significantly raises the likelihood of re-offending later in life. As such, an understanding of the differences between the sexes in terms of the reasoning behind their offenses has long been researched.

Since 1970, there has been an increasing and alarming rise 138 percent of violent crimes committed by women. Still, while the equivalent percentage compared to male violence is small 15 percent to 85 percent the fact that the numbers have elevated so drastically points to something changing in society.

Statistics show that the number of female offenders in the legal system has been increasing steadily. The number of female offenders entering the American justice system is growing at a rate faster than males. Statistics from the United States in 2010 show the female offender population to be increasing by 2.7% each year, compared to the male population at a rate of 1.8% each year, with similar statistics being seen in other Western countries (West & Sabol, 2010). The continued increase has made understanding female offenders and their catalysts for committing crime more imperative.

Females are said to be very emotional and if they were troublemakers at a young age they are said to possess “masculine traits and characteristics” (Siegal & Walsh, 2015). Males tend to commit crimes like robbery, assault and burglary. This has changed in the last decade. The rate of offending has decreased for males by 27 percent and females about 15 percent. “Girls have increased their

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.

According to the theory observed by the researchers, the criminal justice system not only has emphasized the interests of the offenders but has put the victims secondary to those offenders. Individuals can experience many types of victimizations which include domestic violence, theft, and child abuse. The perception of the masses in our society about these crimes and others are not always valid or accurate. The perceptions that are driven by those of the media include myths about certain crimes and the distinguishing characteristics of some of those that have been victimized. Some examples of these perceptions that are held by our society are people are to blame for their own victimizations, they might deserve this kind of treatment because of who they are or where they live and lastly, individuals usually recover from being victimized rather quickly. These perceptions are to blame for negative reactions that victims receive from the public and the criminal justice system.

For most individuals, the thought of blaming the victim of a tragic experience for their own pain and suffering, seems preposterous. However, ascribing at least some of the blame to the victim is not uncommon (Niemi & Young, 2014). Victim blaming refers to individuals finding reasons to hold the victim of an incident responsible for the crime that took place (Hayes, Lorenz & Bell, 2013). For victims of sexual assault, who may already be experiencing self-blame and distrust of others, being blamed adds insult to injury (Harber, Podolski, & Williams, 2015). According to Harber et. al, victim blaming can also have long-term effects on victims, such as, increased anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder. In an effort to increase support and resources for survivors of sexual assault researchers must determine why individuals are prone to blaming the victims rather than the perpetrator of a crime.