There are several risk factors that have been identified and associated with higher incidences of female offending. In 2004 greater attention was put in to place focusing on female offending. The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention gathered professionals to explore and further examine the: causes, connections, and outcomes in juvenile female criminal actions to better comprehend and solve this faction of offenders. As we know boys and girls are exposed to several different risk factors. Risk factors of boys and girls relate in some ways and there are a number of dissimilarities as well. Professionals gathered evidence that show female offenders have suffered trauma, trauma pointing to sexual abuse and rape. Which leads …show more content…
Starting at an adolescent age in females life events greatly impact future behaviors. The "purpose of relationships" i.e. family, friends, and intimate relationships play big roles in shaping ones character. In being either a victim and or witness to situations that include domestic violence relate to future criminal activity. Emotional disorders also arise if physical or sexual abuse occurs. Female offenders may go on having abusive relationships and committing crimes based on their adolescence (McAleavy, T. 2009). Myths and misconception of juvenile female offenders would be risk factors. Risk factors may affect both females and males. Females are impacted at a much higher level. Between females and males, females commit crimes more so in the lower level of crimes but criminal behavior has increased over the years. Mental illness in juvenile female offenders are elevated compared to juvenile male offenders. In conclusion female offending has and does play a role in our society. Statically over the past years, numbers seem to show decreases in certain areas of law-breaking. But in today's age there has been an increased growth in criminal activities overall for males and females. Gaining the proper knowledge about this specific subject will allow experts to find solutions in reducing criminal
With this in mind, this study shows that research could contribute to crime control theories considering it identified a correlation between gender and crime by focusing on the physical attributes of criminals. However, this theory for the physical differentiation between criminal and non-criminals is viewed by modern studies as statistically insignificant. Furthermore, this suggests that crime control has change over recent years considering theories have been challenged by researchers using more reliable and valid measures. In addition to the relationship between criminality and gender, Klien (1973:185) states that, “These characteristics are of physiological or psychological nature and are uniformly based on implicit or explicit assumptions about the inherent nature of women. This nature is universal, rather than existing within a specific historical framework.” In other words, the observable difference in crime rates between criminal and non-criminal women might have been due to economic, social, and political factors. As a result, several criminologists have tried to establish a theory that explains all crime is still possible, while others have suggested that crime control should focus on understanding particular types of crimes instead. Therefore, it is clear that crime control has been modified over the years to accommodate for more rounded theories.
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
Women offenders are different from male offenders in many ways. Whether it be from the way women develop differently in the psychological aspect, or the services that are available specifically for them. Female offenders are more likely to be convicted of a drug or drug related crime, they are more likely to have a past with significant substance abuse, have a childhood or recent adult life that was abusive both physically and sexually, and female offenders are more likely to participate in group therapy because they are trying to gain the connectedness and sense of belong that they crave for in their life. Although there is significant proof showing that female offenders have problems that need treatment while incarcerated before going
There have been many studies conducted that examine ways in which the juvenile justice system responds to female offenders. Historically juvenile female offenders have been treated under status offense jurisdiction (Zahn et al., 2010, p. 10). United States Courts would exercise the principle of “parens patriae” to place the female in detention as a form of punishment for misbehavior (Sherman, 2012, pp. 1589-1590). This principle also remains prevalent as it pertains to how the juvenile justice system currently responds to juvenile female offenders.
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).
Gender and Crime Sex is commonly used to describe the innate biological characteristics of humans constituting their femaleness or maleness. Gender on the other hand, covers the social characteristics and usages associated with one sex or the other. Since such roles and customs can vary and be modified it follows that masculine and feminine the terms applied to the respective genders are much more flexible than female and male. In order to cover the subject of gender and crime it is important to explain its prehistory and standing as well as addressing the extensive material which appeared in the modern
Gender plays a big role in whether or not the juvenile offenders get the treatment they need. Often female offenders are misunderstood or not taken seriously because they are stereotyped as criers, liars, and manipulators. If and when these girls do get treatment for mental health care, often it is not the correct one. In the Gaarder, Rodriguez, and Zats (2004) article
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
Females are increasingly becoming more active in the juvenile justice system and this is said to be happening at alarming rates. It is important to learn more about why and how girls commit crimes so that we may also attempt intervention in an effective manner to prevent potential offenders and rehabilitate the girls who have already committed offenses. The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention has produced a report that includes a review of how these girls are getting into these situations, how states are dealing with this population of offenders, the national efforts that have taken place to attempt to address the needs of the adolescent female offender including training for individuals who work with these females and
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.
Despite the general consensus that the number of females involved in crime is continuing to rise, males are still the dominant gender committing crimes, especially for violent offences. This may be why there is a continued lack of research on female offenders using a gender specific approach that accounts for gender differences. Historically, female offenders have been primarily studied using a gender-neutral model comprising mainly male offenders. Although there is support that a gender-neutral model can effectively apply to both male and female offenders (van der Knaap et al. 2012), there has been an ongoing debate on whether the pathways and processes that lead to female offending can be successfully explained and ultimately applied to interventions and preventions by using theories originally created to explain male crime (Steffensmeier & Allan, 1996).
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
When one thinks of the juvenile corrections system, they tend to gender this institution, focusing mainly on young boys. Due to this, one often neglects the thought there are also young girls that are in the system. This may be due to the fact that when compared to young boys within the juvenile corrections system, in previous years the girls consisted of a small portion within in this space. However, according to recent studies, girls in the juvenile system has been rapidly increasing over the last 20 years (Levintova, 2015). This is an issue which needs to be acknowledge due to the fact that young women are caught in this system for starkly contrasting reasons when compared to young males. These reasonings are described in the book Girls in Trouble with the Law by Laurie Schaffner which we will further explore.
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