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Prison : Recidivism And Reentry

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Women in Prison: Recidivism and Reentry The study of recidivism amongst women in prison is important because most research focuses on the male population. The reasons for the “revolving door” phenomenon are different for women; therefore, their treatment should be more gender focused and specific to their needs. Judging by the rates at which women recidivate, you could assume that somewhere along the way the system has failed them. What role does drug use, motherhood, mental health, physical, sexual, and mental abuse play in the recidivism of female inmates? According to Stuart and Brice-Baker (2004), drugs have been one of the major culprits leading to incarceration and repeat criminal offenses among women in recent years. Drug offenses have the largest increase of any crime committed by female offenders. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics (2012), the most serious offense for 59.4% of women in federal prison and 25.1% of women in state prisons is violation of drug laws (Carson & Sabol, 2011). In addition, Stuart and Brice-Baker (2004) found that the rise in female criminal behavior and incarceration can be attributed to changes in women’s behavior and changes in the drug laws. The rate of drug sales, use, and addiction has increased, which has caused the number of women incarcerated for drug related crimes to increase. Although drug dealing has commonly been seen as a male dominated criminal activity, women have become more involved in the distribution

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