Prison violence researchers have traditionally studied older offenders housed in maximum-security institutions. The present study analyzes victimization data from a sample of young offenders in a medium-security state prison. Youthful inmates were most often the victims of verbal harassment and property theft. Conversely, few inmates reported having been sexually assaulted, extorted for money, or had weapons used against them. In general, victims were more likely than nonvictims to be White, have higher levels of fear, experience more severely the "pains" of imprisonment, and be less psychologically healthy.
Deprivation and importation theories propose that the experience and adjustment of inmates to prison life is dependent on the restrictive prison milieu and their pre-prison experiences and orientation. This implies that prison's sub-culture mediate the relationship between demographic characteristics and adjustment to prison life. Although this core assumption underlies both theories, few researchers have attempted to test its validity, while those that does have largely focused on male offenders. Guided by an integration of the two theories, this current study explored the specific gender-related challenges that female inmates of Nigerian prisons are confronted with and the adjustment measures adopted by female prisoners. Qualitative, in-depth oral interviews were employed to gather information from 32 purposively selected female inmates and six prison officials of Ijebu-Ode and Old Abeokuta prisons. There are evidential supports for the integrative/alliance theory as key findings of this study confirm determinants of adjustability of the inmates to prison life as including age, level of religious commitment, years of incarceration, prison history, and pre-prison experience like socioeconomic, marital (especially those with children) and educational status. Various strategies used to adjust to prison life by the inmates included self-withdrawal, indulgence and some level of social reclusion (asceticism); forging cordial relationships with fellow inmates and staff; and participating very actively in the religious programmes within the prisons. The study suggests that both government and nongovernmental organisations should intervene and develop social supports that recognise the biogenic peculiarities of female inmates in order for the prisons to meet the two objectives of rehabilitating and reforming the female offenders.
AbstractPrison populations are experiencing rapid increases and many more offenders are dying in prison. This article draws on research that was conducted by the authors in the US and in England and Wales. The study interrogates the meanings older prisoners give to the prospect of dying in prison. The themes identified during data analysis included general thoughts about death and dying, accounts of other prisoners' deaths, availability of end‐of‐life services, contact with social relations, and wishes to die outside of prison.
Introduction -- The Impact of Gendered Stereotypes and perceptions of violence: Perceptions of female perpetrators of domestic and sexual violence -- Gender Matters: Using an Ecological Lens to Understand Female Crime and Disruptive Behavior -- Bullying and Sexual Harassment in Middle and High School Students -- Female Sexual Aggression on College Campuses: Prevalence, Correlates and Perceptions by -- Predictors of female sexual aggression among a U.S. sample -- Female Sexual Offenders by James Anderson.-Older Female Offenders -- Perceptions of Female Perpetrators.
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Intro -- AGING, GENDER AND CRIME -- AGING, GENDER AND CRIME -- Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data -- Contents -- Preface -- Chapter 1 Problematizing Old Age, Victimization and Crime -- Background -- Mapping out Terrain: Theory, Research and Policy -- Thinking Critically About (missing text?) -- Reflection -- Summary and Conclusions -- Chapter 2 Aging, Crime and Prisons -- Introduction -- Aging and Imprisonment: Comparative Trends - America, UK, Germany and Japan -- The Greying of the American Prison Population -- An Empirical Example of Older Offenders and Imprisonment: The Case of the UK and US -- 'Out of Sight - Out of Mind': The Invisible Minority -- Conclusion -- Chapter 3 Gender, Aging and the Power of Special Hospitals -- Abstract -- Introduction -- Treatments in Special Hospitals -- Admission to a Special Hospital -- Questioning Current Structures -- Confinement -- General Literature Review of Women in Prisons -- Literature Review of Women in Special Hospitals -- Special Women in Special Hospitals: Experiences -- Discussion and Implications of the Review -- Dangerousness: Implications -- Masculinity and Special Hospitals -- Conclusion: Masculinities and Special Hospitals -- Chapter 4 Re-thinking Aging, Gender and Crime -- Theorizing Aging Studies - Age, Gender, Identity and Surveillance -- Critical Gerontology -- Gender and Aging -- Aging in Postmodernity -- Aging and Surveillance State -- Conclusion -- Bibliography -- References -- Index.
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LAY SUMMARY Incarcerated Veterans represent 2.5% of the federal offender population and are a unique subset of the general Canadian Veteran population. This study provides the first in-depth examination of Veteran offenders in federal custody. During the study period, 374 federal offenders self-reported as Veterans. Federal Veteran offenders were older and more likely to have committed a violent offence and to have mental health concerns. Although they were more likely to report mental health concerns, Veteran offenders have more stable institutional behaviour and greater post-release success than non-Veterans. Understanding the unique characteristics and correctional experiences of federal Veteran offenders aids in identifying needs related to intervention and support to promote successful community reintegration after release. Future qualitative research should enhance knowledge of the lived experiences of Veterans involved in the federal criminal justice system in Canada.
We explore the possibility that disgust sensitivity predicts attitudes toward a stigmatized, yet vulnerable population: juvenile sex offenders. Participants were 125 undergraduates (66% women, M age = 19) who read a case depicting a 17‐year‐old boy convicted of aggravated child molestation for receiving oral sex from an intoxicated 15‐year‐old girl. Participants subsequently indicated the degree to which they supported registering the juvenile offender as a sex offender and completed a series of case judgments (i.e., belief the defendant is a threat, the dehumanizing belief the defendant is a superpredator, and defendant empathy). Finally, participants provided demographic information and completed the Disgust Sensitivity Scale. In line with our hypotheses, as disgust sensitivity increased, support for juvenile sex offender registration also increased. Yet, this relationship was explained by various mediating factors. Specifically, a series of models tested via path analysis showed that as disgust sensitivity increased, participants' were more likely to dehumanize the offender as a "superpredator" and experience diminished empathy. In turn, dehumanization and diminished empathy predicted the belief the defendant is a threat to society, which predicted greater registration support.
This study addresses the longstanding and contentious debate on the merits of transferring cases from juvenile to adult court with the expectation of more certain, severe, or effective punishment. It compares the severity, certainty and celerity of sanctions for N=800 15‐ and 16‐year‐old adolescents charged with robbery and burglary in juvenile court in New Jersey with identical offenders in matched communities in New York State whose cases are adjudicated in criminal court, and determines the effectiveness of these sanctions in reducing recidivism and reincarceration. Results showed that incarceration rates were higher for adolescents sentenced in the criminal court, but sentence lengths were comparable. However, recidivism rates were significantly lower for adolescents sentenced in the juvenile court, regardless of sentence type or severity. The results suggest that efforts to criminalize adolescent offending may not produce the desired results and may in fact be counterproductive. There is no support for legislative efforts to eliminate the special jurisprudence for adolescent crimes or the separate jurisdiction for juvenile offenders.
AbstractHealth criminology explores the connection between crime and health factors. Less is understood about longitudinal health risks and adolescents entering the juvenile justice system. This study used a sample of n = 388 males involved in the juvenile justice system to examined longitudinal associations of a latent health risk factor, comprised of depression, marijuana use, and sexually transmitted infections (STIs), with post‐juvenile assessment center (JAC) intake placement. Results using Bayesian estimation indicated the health risk factor was relatively stable over three time points of JAC entry and associated with present and, indirectly, future justice system placement. Youths who were Hispanic, Black, older, or living with a family member struggling with alcohol use had higher health risk. These findings underscore the need for juvenile justice system services that address health risks among persistent juvenile offenders, with consideration of cultural and family dynamics.
This paper reports on a benefit-cost analysis of a targeted intervention program, the YouthBuild USA Offender Project (YBOP), aimed at low-income, criminal offenders who are 16–24 years old. Using data on 388 participants, we find: (1) evidence of reduced recidivism and improved educational outcomes that exceed our expectations based on similar cohorts and (2) evidence consistent with a positive benefit-cost ratio, indicating that every dollar spent on the YBOP is estimated to produce a return on investment between $7.20 and $21.60, with benefits to society ranging between $174,000 and $281,000 per participant at a cost to society between $13,000 and $24,000.
Three groups of subjects (N = 95) consisting or rapists, child molesters, and a comparison group of violent offenders were examined with reference to history of alcohol abuse, history of drug abuse, intimacy deficits, and emotionally based coping strategies. No differences were found between the two groups of sex offenders on any of the measures examined. Sex offenders were found to be significantly older than the comparison group. When age was entered as a covariate sex offenders were found to have significantly more difficulties with alcohol use as measured by the Michigan Alcohol Screening Test (MAST) and were significantly more likely to use emotionally based coping strategies as measured by the Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations (CISS). No differences were found between any of the groups with reference to drug abuse as measured by the Drug Abuse Screening Test (DAST). Results are discussed in terms of Marshall's theory of intimacy deficits in sexual offenders.
The purpose of this study was to create a profile of the sentenced older adult male offender incarcerated in South African prisons. The findings of this investigation are based on face-to-face surveys with 88 older adult male inmates. In order to develop a comprehensive profile, the study explored offenders' backgrounds, previous and current offenses, lifestyle patterns, physical and mental health, institutional living conditions, release, reintegration, and mortality in prison. These domains are discussed in detail, and recommendations are offered for the treatment and care of this offender group. The recommendations may be applicable to other developing countries in the Global South.
This paper explores the extent to which the social background of judges affects their sentencing behavior. An analysis of data on felons convicted in Georgia suggests that background has little direct bearing on sentencing outcomes. Instead, it conditions the weight judges attach to legally relevant and social background factors. Expectations about the role of the judge's age, religion, prior prosecutorial experience, and local background received mixed support. Older judges were selectively more punitive than their younger colleagues, but they did not direct this punitiveness toward disadvantaged offenders. Nor was there evidence that male judges were paternalistic toward female offenders. Baptist and Fundamentalist judges also sentenced more punitively, but they were not more likely than other judges to discriminate against black or disadvantaged offenders. Rather, they appeared to hold white and older offenders to a higher standard of behavior. Former prosecutors were selectively punitive and applied the law more uniformly than nonprosecutors. Local judges appeared to be more responsive to public demands for incarceration and sentenced more particularistically. These results illustrate the importance of considering judicial background in conjunction with case attributes, and they underscore the need for research that increases our understanding of judicial background as a conditioner of differential treatment during sentencing.
In the context of state-society relations in the US, the establishment, development, organization, & activities of the Women's Bureau (WB) are reviewed. The WB, a permanent agency for women's policy issues housed in the Dept of Labor & established in the 1970s, influenced policy on equal rights for women (1966-1972), pregnancy discrimination (1970-1978), & job training (1975-1992). The WB has not been associated with any particular stream of feminism, but has focused on training for displaced homemakers & women offenders, child care, problems of minority women, & nontraditional jobs for women. Contrary to its mission, the WB has inadequate resources to function as a member of top government policy-making teams for social planning. Organized women's groups must still seek their own way into policy networks in education, welfare, crime, etc. M. Pflum
This article thinks about decline as part of the sociology of time, by exploring ways former politically dominant communities seek to negotiate their ritual traditions by forging newer relationships to modern time. It offers an ethnography of decline among the Shia community of Hyderabad old city, whose weakened political status by colonial modernity speaks in different ways of the experience of the contemporary as diachronic and not in succession with the past. These perceptions of decline describe the moral loss of the Shia community through the spatial decline of Hyderabad old city, as a fallen state that has been produced by Muslim actors in time. It reflects on the contradictory perceptions of decline that describes the deprivations produced by time as well as implicates community actors as offenders in time who persist with the performance of what appear to be meaningless rituals in the present context. What are the relations to time that make communities redefine culture in ways that are temporally meaningful to them is of interest here.