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Module 3
Characteristics
and Pathways of
Women Offenders
:
1
Who Are the Women Offenders
in the Community?
:
2
Overview
Why profile women
offenders?
Two big stories:
Growth
Drug offenses
Characteristics of
women offenders
Pathways to
imprisonment
The connection:
abuse – drugs –
crime
Implications for
correctional
practices.
3
Why Profile Women Offenders?
Women’s pathways to the criminal
justice system & women’s needs are
different from men’s
Women offenders represent different
challenges to supervision compared
with men
Good correctional practice
acknowledges these differences
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Offense Patterns
.
10
Trends in Women’s Crime
Arrests in 1998 totaled ~14.4 million: 11.2
million for men and 3.2 million for women
Women accounted for only 17% of all
arrests for violent crime.
About 69% of all arrests of women were for
larceny-theft or drug/alcohol crimes.
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Trends in Offense Patterns
Nearly 3/4 of women prisoners are serving a
sentence for a non-violent offense.
More than 1/3 have no prior history of
criminal convictions.
Women are:
Much more likely than men to be serving
time for a drug offense
Less likely to have been sentenced for a
violent crime
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Differences in Female & Male
Offense Patterns (1998)
Violent
Property
Drug
Public Order
Other
Females
27%
26%
35%
10%
2%
Males
48%
21%
19%
9%
3%
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Offenses of Women in Jail or Prison
Offense
Jail
%
State
Prison
%
Federal
Prison
%
7,655
12
21,056
28
644
7
Property
21,869
34
20,304
27
1,104
12
Drug
19,137
30
25,568
34
6,624
72
Public-Order
15,310
24
8,272
11
736
8
Total
63,791
100
75,200
100
9,108
Violent
100
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Offense Characteristics
Drug Offenses account for half of the rise
in number of women in prison compared
to one third for the number for men
In the past 10 years, the arrest rate for
women has increased by about 32% while
the imprisonment rate has increased by
159%
In 1979, violent female offenders were
half of the population, in 1997 they were
just over a quarter of the population.
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Differences in Female & Male
Criminal History
Men more likely to have higher number
of prior convictions
Women more likely to be on probation
prior to imprisonment
Past convictions:
– Priors: 65% of women; 77% of men
– Both adult & juvenile: 16% of women;
31% of men
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Questions….
How is your population distributed across
the basic (violent, property, drug, other)
categories?
What implications do these profiles have
for correctional supervision in your
system?
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Pathways to the
Criminal Justice System
.
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Characteristics of Women Under
Correctional Supervision
%
Community Supervision
%
Jail
%
Prison
Race/Ethnicity
White
African American
Hispanic
62
27
10
48
33
15
44
36
15
Median Age
32
33
31
High School/GED
60
55
56
Single
42
47
48
Unemployed
--
60
62
Mother of Minor
Children
72
65
62
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Women Offenders: Typical Life History
Nearly 6 in 10 women grew up in a
household with at least one parent absent.
About half report that an immediate family
member had also served time.
More than 40% reported
prior physical or sexual abuse.
Of those, 69% said it happened
before age 18.
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Socioeconomic Status
•
Economically disadvantaged as
compared to men
•
Are typically undereducated, unskilled,
& underemployed
•
Employment in entry level, low skill & low
pay jobs
21
Education & Employment
An estimated 55% of women in jail, 56% in state
prisons & 73% in federal prisons have a high
school degree
Approximately 40% of women in state prisons
were employed at the time of arrest compared to
60% of males
37% of women compared to 28% of men had
incomes of less than $600 per month prior to
arrest
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Family Background
Almost 17% lived in foster
care or in a group home
More likely than men to have
at least one family member
that has been incarcerated
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Race & Ethnicity
Make a Difference
African-American women comprise only
13% of all women in this country, yet
they comprise nearly half of the women
in prison.
Black, non-Hispanic women were
3 times more likely than Hispanic
women & 6 times more likely than white
women to be incarcerated in 2000.
Women Offenders and Their Children
70% of all women under correctional
sanction have at least one child
younger than 18.
Based on 1998 data, more than 1.3
million children have mothers under
correctional sanction.
233,600 minor children have an
incarcerated mother.
In all, 1,941,796 minor children have
a parent in jail or prison ...
When a parent is incarcerated, it matters which
parent it is. For Federal prisoners:
if it is the father, 92% of the children continue in their
mother’s care
if it is the mother, only 26% stay in the father’s care.
More than half of the children of women
prisoners never visit their mothers during
incarceration
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Substance Abuse
Approximately 80% in state prisons have
substance abuse problems
About half had been using alcohol, drugs, or
both at the time of their offense
Nearly 1 in 3 women in state prisons report
committing the offense to support a drug habit
Women offenders in state prisons report higher
drug usage than their male counterparts
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Violence Against Women
and Children
•
Witnessing domestic violence as a child
may cause increased vulnerability to
victimization in adulthood
•
Women in the CJ system have extensive
histories of physical & sexual abuse & they are
three times more likely to have a history of
abuse than their male counterparts
•
One-third of women in state prison & one-quarter
of those in jails report being raped at some time
in their lives
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Physical & Sexual Abuse
Physically or sexually abused at some time in
their lives
Women offenders are 3 times more likely than
men to have a history of abuse
Women’s substance abuse is highly correlated
with physical & sexual abuse
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Women Offenders & Abuse History
Women with an abuse history are more
likely than women with no prior abuse to be
incarcerated for a violent offense (42%
versus 25%).
Nearly 1/3 of women in prison serving
sentences for murder were convicted of
killing a husband or ex-husband.
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Look at It This Way...
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Angela Browne’s Study
Of 150 women interviewed in a women’s
prison, 70% reported severe physical
violence from caretaker
Almost 60% reported sexual abuse
75% reported violence from adult intimate
Only 6% said they had experienced no
violence or sexual abuse
“Prevalence & Severity of Lifetime Physical & Sexual Victimization Among Incarcerated Women”
International J. of Law & Psychiatry vol. 22, no. 3-4: pages 301-322 33
(1999)
Characteristics of Women Offenders
• Disproportionately women of color
• In their early to mid-thirties
• Most likely to have been convicted of drug or drug-
related offense
• Fragmented family histories with other family
members in the CJ system
• Survivors of physical and/or sexual abuse
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.
Adapted from the work of
Barbara Owen, Ph.D.
California State University – Fresno
(2005)
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