Sex/gender‐based decision‐making in the criminal justice system as a possible (additional) explanation for the underrepresentation of women in official criminal statistics — a review of international literature

This article represents an analysis of the literature on sex‐based selection processes in the criminal justice system. It is only since the feminist wave of the sixties that sexual discrimination has been considered as an issue of importance in the study of the criminal justice system and that female criminality has been looked at more thoroughly. The article deals with the different assumptions and hypotheses which have come forward in the debate on the possible discrimination of men and women in the criminal justice process. In the first part of the article the various theoretical models are outlined: the chivalry and evil women hypotheses, the legal or etiological model, the social control theory, the family‐based justice model, and a multifactoral model. In the second part of the article, the results of empirical research relevant to these hypotheses are presented. American, British, Belgian, Dutch and some German literature has been taken into account. The review of the literature shows that the chivalry hypothesis cannot offer an all‐embracing explanation for the possibly perceived preferential treatment of women. Similar conclusions can be drawn for the explanatory value of the legal model. Although a more lenient treatment of women can sometimes be explained by legal factors, these factors can offer no more than a partial explanation for observed sex differences in the criminal justice system. Especially in the case of pre‐trial release and sentencing, more particularly when deciding whether or not to send a defendant to prison, a noticeable sex‐effect can still be found. In the literature we find strong suggestions — although not always confirmed — that an (initially observed) more lenient treatment of women at these stages can be explained by stereotypes and expectations about the personality of women as less dangerous and the specific role which women fulfill in western society.     

新自由主义对美英国家刑事法制的影响及反思

从一国或地区的政治经济体制来理解其刑事法制,可以以相对宏观的视角把握其刑事法制脉络。美国刑事法制自20世纪70年代以来发生了深刻变化,从刑事法制基本观念到具体实践都渗透强烈的报应主义色彩,而隐藏其后则是新自由主义思潮。美国刑事法制的转变也影响着英国等国家。对这一思潮进行研究,一方面可以对这些国家刑事法制过去半个世纪发展脉络进行整体把握,另一方面也为分析研究这些国家刑事法制提供了一个更具批判性的视角。     

Women in Crime and Justice

ABSTRACT

Drawing upon feminist research on women in crime and justice, this study examines patterns of female crime in Israel over four decades and the criminal justice response to female offenders over two decades. The data show that crime patterns of Israeli women and the criminal justice response to their transgressions show remarkable resemblance to those discerned in other western countries. The article concludes that feminist insights and explanatory mechanisms suggested in other western countries are congruent with findings about women in crime and justice in Israel.     

Delinquency and Crime Among Youths in the Philippines: A Test of Legal Cynicism

The construct of legal cynicism is gaining currency in the United States and other western developed countries in explaining why people break the law. This construct is viable in societies with strong economies and mature political and criminal justice institutions. This paper asks whether the construct of legal cynicism is applicable in societies with differing economic, political and social conditions. Specifically, the paper investigates whether legal cynicism can explain the delinquent behaviors of youths in the Philippines. Despite diligent efforts to duplicate the measures of legal cynicism, the paper finds that this construct is a weak predictor of youth delinquent behaviors. This contradictory finding is explained by looking at the historical and sociopolitical conditions of the country.     

Human Trafficking for Criminal Exploitation: The Failure to Identify Victims

Human trafficking for criminal exploitation is one of the lesser-known forms of human trafficking. The failure of the criminal justice system to identify the victims of this type of trafficking can lead to a failure to take the victim-centred approach to trafficking espoused in the international legal instruments that regulate the matter, an approach that emphasises the protection of victims and respect for their rights. In light of earlier findings of the existence of unidentified victims of human trafficking for criminal exploitation in several European countries — the UK, Ireland, Spain, the Czech Republic and the Netherlands — a qualitative study was conducted, consisting of 37 in-depth interviews with practising criminal justice professionals and victim service providers in Spain. Because undetected victims of human trafficking for criminal exploitation are usually treated as offenders, the main aim of this research with professionals was to determine the causes of the criminal justice system’s failure to identify the victims of this specific form of trafficking in order to prevent them from remaining hidden victims.     

The Politics of Racial Disparity Reform: Racial Inequality and Criminal Justice Policymaking in the States

Racial inequalities in criminal justice are pressing problems for policymakers. Prior literature suggests elected officials promulgate punitive, racially disparate criminal justice policies due to partisanship and racial fears, but scholarship has yet to explain how and why elected officials address racial problems in criminal processing. This article introduces the framework of racial disparity reform policymaking. A racial disparity reform is a policy that seeks to reduce distinctions in criminal justice institutions’ treatment of racial groups. Elected officials pursue these policies due to ideological beliefs in civil rights ideals and political interests in appearing to solve social problems. Using an original database of policy enactments, this article first presents the distribution and types of reform measures adopted by elected officials in all 50 states between 1998 and 2011. It then examines social and political explanations for when state legislatures and executives adopt racial disparity reforms. Policy enactment is predicted by worsening problems of racial disproportion in criminal processing, Democratic control of elected branches, and the absence of judicial efforts to improve racial fairness within a state’s criminal justice system. Similar dynamics encourage the development of different measures types within policies. Such ideological and problem-solving explanations for racial disparity reform show a potential for elected officials to forge more racially just criminal justice practices.     

Theoretical consideration of female sexual predator serial killers in the United States

Sexual predators represent the embodiment of the cultural definition of serial killing. In considering the female sexual predator serial killer, a review of the limited literature found a clear distinction between women acting alone versus in partnership. Several theories offered to explain the behavior of women in teams include shared psychotic disorder, Stockholm syndrome, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), battered woman syndrome, and gender role socialization. Analysis of each with specific case examples found that gender role socialization appeared to be the most inclusive, explaining the participation of women in teams, as well as providing insight into both the criminal justice system and overall societal responses to female serial killers, as well as violent women more generally. The analysis concludes by describing the implications of the above speculations within the realms of prevention, treatment, and research, specifically concluding that women can commit willful violence and that low base rates should not impede attempts to understand and prevent such violence.     

In Her Own Voice: Presentations on Women,Crime, and Criminal Justice at American Society of Criminology Meetings From 1999–2008

We conducted a content analysis of presentations on women, crime, and criminal justice at the annual meetings of the American Society of Criminology from 1999 through 2008 to determine not only the range of topics that were presented on women and crime but also who made the presentations. By focusing on presentations of research on women, crime, and criminal justice, we attempt to determine whether these areas are more or less likely to be recognized, explored, and discussed. Findings suggest that (a) the issues of women, crime, and criminal justice were included in 16.13 percent of American Society of Criminology conference presentations during the period of study, and the annual percentage of presentations on these topic areas has remained constant; (b) although there is a wide array of topics in the presentations on women and crime, the most frequently addressed topics and rarely addressed topics are constant over the years; and (c) presentations on and about gender issues have been conducted primarily by female scholars.     

Assessing Criminal Justice Practice Using Social Justice Theory

In this article, I introduce two of the leading theories of social justice put forth by John Rawls and David Miller. Then, I assess criminal justice practice, from law-making to corrections, in terms of ways in which it is consistent and inconsistent with these theories of social justice. Throughout the article, I also identify ways in which criminal justice practice is inconsistent with social justice. Finally, I make recommendations for reforming criminal justice to make it more consistent with social justice.     

Racial Minority Women and Criminal Justice Responses to Domestic Violence

Racialized minority women’s experiences with Canadian specialized criminal justice responses to domestic violence have seldom been documented. Informed by an intersectionality framework, this qualitative study presents the struggles of 14 racial minority women from three Canadian cities and their experiences with the police and criminal court’s response to their partner’s acts of domestic violence. The results focus on how well specialized criminal justice responses address the needs of these women and protect them from further violence. Factors that facilitate or deter these women from approaching the criminal justice system for help are highlighted. The implications of these women’s narratives for criminal justice responses to domestic violence are discussed.     

Liberation/Emancipation, Economic Marginalization, or Less Chivalry

The alleged criminogenic nature of female liberation/emancipation has been tested recently by numerous North American researchers. Not only did the results lead them to different conclusions, but they did not test simultaneously for the effects on female conviction rates of increasing economic marginalization or less chivalrous treatment by the public, police, or courts toward female suspects. Data relating to England and Wales for 1951-1980 are used to test these competing explanations for changes in female criminality. The results give little support to the emancipation/liberation causes female crime hypothesis, but do provide limited support for the marginalization thesis. However, changes in social labelling appear to have a significant impact on female conviction rates, suggesting that previous researches omitting this possibility were seriously deficient. The authors suggest further research on actual women's lives and behavioral responses as a means of testing the effects of liberation/emancipation and marginalization on female criminal behavior.     

论刑法的大趋同在当代中国之形成基础

刑法的大趋同是指不同国家的刑法文化、刑事立法或刑事司法趋于相似或一致的现象。通过引入外国刑法理论、移植外国刑法制度、缔结或参加国际条约等方式,刑法的大趋同现象在当代中国已经形成。这一现象的形成具有两方面的基础,其一是国际基础,包括西方法系的开放性、人权事务的国际化、刑法的国际法化、刑法的区域化;其二是国内基础,包括改革开放的基本国策和中国其他法律部门中趋同现象的多米诺骨牌效应。进一步对国际国内基础的关系进行探讨可以得出结论:刑法的大趋同在当代中国形成之根本基础是自主的刑法趋同化。     

Designing Programming and Interventions for Women in the Criminal Justice System

Women are the fastest growing segment of the criminal justice population, yet the majority of research on criminal justice populations has been focused on men. Programming and interventions that reduce women’s involvement in the criminal justice system and ameliorate the negative consequences associated with criminal justice involvement are urgently needed. The overall aim of this paper is to provide a comprehensive framework for developing evidence-based, gender-specific programming and interventions to reduce criminal justice involvement and its associated consequences among women in the criminal justice system. The first section of the paper offers a conceptually guided review of the three primary factors that facilitate and complicate women’s involvement in the criminal justice system: victimization; mental disorders; and substance use. In the second section of the paper, findings from focus groups conducted with women on probation or parole identify strategies to engage this population in psychosocial interventions. The third and final section of the paper provides comprehensive recommendations for designing programming and interventions for women in the criminal justice system.     

Criminal justice and the voluntary sector: a policy that does not compute

The profile of the women who tend to get caught up in the criminal justice system has changed little over the past 30 years. Compared to the general population, they are socially and economically disadvantaged, poorly educated and have high incidence of mental health and substance misuse problems. Experience of physical violence and sexual abuse is depressingly prevalent in their biographies (see for example, Gelsthorpe et al., 2007). In addition, the steep rise, compared to men, in the imprisonment of women throughout the 1990s, most commonly for short sentences of six months or less, exacerbated their marginalisation and failed to reduce reoffending.     

CUMULATIVE DISADVANTAGE: EXAMINING RACIAL AND ETHNIC DISPARITY IN PROSECUTION AND SENTENCING

Current research on criminal case processing typically examines a single decision‐making point, so drawing reliable conclusions about the impact that factors such as defendants’ race or ethnicity exert across successive stages of the justice system is difficult. Using data from the New York County District Attorney's Office that tracks 185,275 diverse criminal cases, this study assesses racial and ethnic disparity for multiple discretionary points of prosecution and sentencing. Findings from multivariate logistic regression analyses demonstrate that the effects of race and ethnicity vary by discretionary point and offense category. Black and Latino defendants were more likely than White defendants to be detained, to receive a custodial plea offer, and to be incarcerated—and they received especially punitive outcomes for person offenses—but were more likely to benefit from case dismissals. The findings for Asian defendants were less consistent but suggest they were the least likely to be detained, to receive custodial offers, and to be incarcerated. These findings are discussed in the context of contemporary theoretical perspectives on racial bias and cumulative disadvantage in the justice system.     

The Role of Vicarious and Anticipated Strain on the Overlap of Violent Perpetration and Victimization: A Test of General Strain Theory

Numerous studies have documented a relationship between criminal offending and violent victimization. That is, people who commit criminal behavior are also more likely to be victimized. As such, criminological theories traditionally used to explain criminal behavior have now been applied to explain victimization. The current study examines whether Agnew’s general strain theory can explain the offender-victim overlap using a nationally representative sample of males. Results show that vicarious strain is positive and significant in predicting both victimization and perpetration. Anticipated strain was found only to be significant and positive in predicting victimization, but not perpetration. The study’s limitations and future research are discussed.     

Juvenile Delinquency in the Cross-Cultural Context: The Egyptian Experience

This essay is a theoretical analysis of the cultural and structural factors that define and explain the extent of juvenile delinquency in the Arab Republic of Egypt. While delinquency in the United States and other Western countries continues to increase in rates as well as in the degree of violence, juvenile delinquency in Egypt remains relatively stable and remarkably benign. This can be attributed to three main factors: (a) an orthodox religion-based value system in which Islamic institutions exert dominant influences on the day-to-day moral behavior of juveniles; (b) a closely-knit family structure that functions within a communitarian environment in which children are constantly disciplined whereas they are taught socially acceptable behavior and shamed when they succumb to criminal behavior; and (c) an extraordinarily progressive juvenile justice system, which treats delinquency as a social phenomenon rather than a criminal endeavor. The study presents statistical data, based on official statistics, which show the levels of predelinquent and delinquent activity in the different provinces based on their degree of urbanization. Furthermore, the study attempts to explain the reasons behind the present deviance in society by discussing the possible impact of Social Control Theory, Strain Theory, and the idea of Relative Deprivation. The more serious aspects of deviance, it appears, emerged during the infitah era (economic opening) championed by president Sadat in the mid-seventies as an attempt to modernize—and westernize—the traditionally conservative nation.     

Blended Sentencing Laws and the Punitive Turn in Juvenile Justice

In many states, young people today can receive a “blended” combination of both a juvenile sanction and an adult criminal sentence. We ask what accounts for the rise of blended sentencing in juvenile justice and whether this trend parallels crime control developments in the adult criminal justice system. We use event history analysis to model state adoption of blended sentencing laws from 1985 to 2008, examining the relative influence of social, political, administrative, and economic factors. We find that states with high unemployment, greater prosecutorial discretion, and disproportionate rates of African American incarceration are most likely to pass blended sentencing provisions. This suggests that the turn toward blended sentencing largely parallels the punitive turn in adult sentencing and corrections—and that theory and research on adult punishment productively extends to developments in juvenile justice.     

Violence against Women in Scandinavia: a Description and Evaluation of two new Laws Aiming to Protect Women

Violence against women by a present or former male partner has over the last decade been given a higher priority in the political discussion in all of the Scandinavian countries. Increasingly, violence in intimate relationships is viewed as a public rather than a private matter in these countries. With this change in attitudes and levels of political interest, higher expectations are placed on official authorities, including the criminal justice system, to deal actively with this social problem. In all of the Scandinavian countries it may, for example, be decided by a prosecutor that a woman should be protected from a man by issuing a restraining order. Moreover, a new offence called ‘gross violation of a woman's integrity’ was introduced into the Swedish penal code in 1998. With this offence, less serious but repeated violent acts committed by a man against a present or former female partner are to be judged as one serious offence. The stipulated sanction for this offence is imprisonment between 6 months and 6 years. The purpose of this article is to evaluate how the police, the prosecutors and the courts deal with this new offence. The article also present results from an evaluation of restraining orders in Sweden.     

Girls,Why Do You Want to Become Police Officers? Career Goals/Choices Among Criminal Justice Undergraduates

Three main research questions were examined in the present study. First, are there differences between male and female criminal justice undergraduates when it comes to selecting their future careers? Second, are male criminal justice students more likely than their female counterparts to pursue careers in law enforcement? Third, are men more likely than women to hold unfavorable attitudes toward women criminal justice practitioners? Data were collected from 256 undergraduates majoring in criminal justice at an urban university located in a metropolitan area in the midwestern United States during the early spring of 2006. Significant gender differences were found among the respondents in terms of their career goals/choices and motivations.