The Female Offender; Girls, Women, and Crime

by Meda Chesney-Lind

• ISBN13: 9781412996693
• ISBN10: 1412996694
• Edition: 3rd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2012-03-01
• Publisher: SAGE Publications, Inc

Summary

Scholarship in criminology over the last few decades has often left little room for research and theory on how female offenders are perceived and handled in the criminal justice system. In truth, one out of every four juveniles arrested is female and the population of women in prison has tripled in the past decade. Co-authored by Meda Chesney-Lind, one of the pioneers in the development of the feminist theoretical perspective in criminology, the subject matter of The Female Offender: Girls, Women and Crime, Third Edition redresses the balance by providing critical insight into these issues. In an engaging style, authors Meda Chesney-Lind and Lisa Pasko explore gender and cultural factors in women'¬"s lives that often precede criminal behavior and address the question of whether female offenders are more violent today than in the past. The authors provide a revealing look at how public discomfort with the idea of women as criminals significantly impacts the treatment received by this offender population.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. ix
Acknowledgments	p. xi
Introduction	p. 1
Girls' Troubles and "Female Delinquency"	p. 10
Trends in Girls' Arrests	p. 11
Boys' Theories and Girls' Lives	p. 16
Criminalizing Girls' Survival: Abuse, Victimization, and Girls' Official Delinquency	p. 24
Delinquency Theory and Gender: Beyond Status Offenses	p. 32
Girls, Gangs, and Violence	p. 33
Girls Gone Wild?	p. 33
The Media, Girls of Color, and Gangs	p. 33
Trends in Girls' Violence and Aggression	p. 37
Girls, Robbery, and "Other" Assaults	p. 39
Girl Gang Membership	p. 42
Girls and Gangs: Qualitative Studies	p. 45
Labeling Girls Violent?	p. 54
Girls, Gangs, and Media Hype: A Final Note	p. 55
The Juvenile Justice System and Girls	p. 57
"The Best Place to Conquer Girls"	p. 58
Girls and Juvenile Justice Reform	p. 62
Deinstitutionalization and Judicial Paternalism: Challenges to the Double Standard of Juvenile Justice	p. 64
Rising Detentions and Racialized Justice	p. 71
Offense Patterns of Girls in CustodyùBootstrapping	p. 80
Deinstitutionalization or Transinstitutionalization? Girls and the Mental Health System	p. 83
Girls' Sexuality in institutional Environments	p. 86
Human Rights Abuses in Girls' Institutions?	p. 87
Instead of Incarceration: What Could Be Done to Meet the Needs of Girls?	p. 91
Trends in Women's Crime	p. 97
Unruly Women: A Brief History of Women's Offenses	p. 98
Trends in Women's Arrests	p. 100
How Could She? The Nature and Causes of Women's Crime	p. 102
Embezzlement	p. 103
Driving Under the Influence	p. 104
Larceny Theft/Shoplifting	p. 104
Big Time/Small Time	p. 106
Pathways to Women's Crime	p. 107
Beyond the Street Woman: Resurrecting the Liberated Female Crook?	p. 111
The Revival of the "Violent Female Offender"	p. 114
Sentencing Women to Prison: Equality Without Justice	p. 119
Trends in Women's Crime: A Reprise	p. 120
Women, Violent Crimes, and the War on Drugs	p. 121
Getting Tough on Women's Crime	p. 125
Building More Women's Prisons	p. 129
Profile of Women in U.S. Prisons	p. 130
Childhoods of Women in Prison	p. 130
Current Offenses	p. 133
Property Crimes	p. 134
Drug Use Among Women in Prison	p. 135
Mothers Behind Bars	p. 136
Race and Women's Imprisonment	p. 138
Different Versus Equal?	p. 140
Prisons and Parity	p. 141
Reducing Women's Imprisonment Through Effective
Community-Based Strategies and Programs	p. 148
Detention Versus Prevention	p. 150
Female Offenders, Community Supervision, and Evidence-Based Practices	p. 153
Trends in Probation, Incarceration, and Parole	p. 154
Evidence-Based Practices and Gender-Neutral Supervision	p. 155
Challenging Gender-Neutral Risk-Driven Supervision	p. 162
Criminal History	p. 162
Education and Employment	p. 163
Financial	p. 164
Family and Marital	p. 165
Accommodation	p. 167
Alcohol and Drug Problems	p. 168
Emotional and Personal	p. 169
Challenging Gender-Neutral Supervision: Women's Histories of Victimization, Health Problems, and Child Care Needs	p. 171
Histories of Abuse	p. 171
Health and Children	p. 173
Supervision and Reintegration	p. 174
Moving Forward: Gender-Equitable Supervision for Female Offenders in the Community	p. 175
Promising Examples for Moving Forward	p. 177
Conclusion	p. 181
References	p. 188
Index	p. 212
About the Authors	p. 223
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