A Theoretical Basis for Gender-Responsive Strategies in ...

1 A Theoretical Basis for Gender-Responsive Strategies in Criminal Justice Barbara Bloom Department of Criminal Justice Administration Sonoma State University Barbara Owen Department of Criminology California State University Fresno Stephanie Covington Center for Gender and Justice La Jolla, CA. Presented at the American Society of Criminology Annual Meeting, Chicago, Illinois, November 2002. This paper is drawn from the National Institute of Corrections Gender-Responsive Strategies : Research, Practice, and Guiding Principles for Women Offenders Report. Introduction The number of women under criminal justice supervision in the United States reached over one million in 2001.

2 In response, contemporary corrections has begun to consider the best way to effectively respond to women offenders. Female offenders are now a significant proportion of all offenders: they comprise 17 percent of the total number of offenders under correctional supervision, or one in every six offenders. These numbers have lead to a reexamination of the ways in which correctional policy and practice affect the female offender. This paper describes the Theoretical Basis for gender-responsiveness in the criminal justice system and the conceptual foundation for a set of Gender-Responsive Strategies designed to improve policy and practice regarding women (Bloom, Owen & Covington, 2002).

3 Current research has established that women offenders differ from their male counterparts regarding personal histories and pathways to crime (Belknap, 2001). For example, women offenders are more likely to have been the primary caretaker of young children at the time of arrest, they are more likely to have experienced physical and/or sexual abuse, and they have distinctive physical and mental health needs. Additionally, women are far less likely to be convicted of a violent offense, and they pose less of a danger to the community. Women offenders are disproportionately women of color, low income, undereducated, and unskilled with sporadic employment histories.

4 They are less likely to have committed violent offenses and more likely to have been convicted of crimes involving drugs or property. Often their property offenses are economically driven, motivated by poverty and/or the abuse of alcohol and other drugs. Women confront life circumstances that tend to be specific to their gender such as sexual abuse, sexual assault, domestic violence, and primary caregiver of dependent children. The characteristics of criminal justice-involved women thus reflect a population that is marginalized by race, class and gender (Bloom, 1996).

5 For example, African American women are over-represented in correctional populations. They comprise only 13. percent of women in the United States; however, nearly half of women in prison are African American and they are eight times more likely than white women to be incarcerated. Theoretical Perspectives on Women Offenders Women in the criminal justice system come into the system in ways different from those of men. This is due partly to differences in pathways into criminality and offense patterns, and partly to the gendered effect of the war on drugs. A fuller understanding of women in the criminal justice system involves a discussion of the context of their lives in several key dimensions.

6 These factors have been shown to affect women's lives quite differently than men's and to mediate the impact of the criminal justice system for women offenders. This paper summarizes that work in the following areas: race and ethnicity theories of women and crime relational theory and female development trauma theory addiction theory Race and Ethnicity In all cultures, the experiences and developmental contexts of women are different from those of their male peers. As such, all women, despite their racial, ethnic or social class backgrounds, have their life experiences molded by the variable of gender.

7 However, the culture or social class context of each woman will influence how she experiences the variable of gender. Culture may be seen as a framework of values and beliefs and a means of organizing experiences. Providing appropriate services and supervision for a woman calls for consideration of the particular circumstances of each woman of her reality as it has been informed by her individual history, including her class, racial, ethnic, and cultural context. No two women exist in exactly the same circumstances and context, although all exist in the same circumstance as women.

8 It is imperative to realize that just as women's lives are different from men's, women's lives are not all the same. Although there are common threads because of their gender, it is important to 2. acknowledge cultural and other differences. For example, there are differences between the lives of African American women, Latinas, and Asian women. There are differences between heterosexual women, bisexual women, lesbian women, and transgendered women. There are differences between older women and younger women. There are differences due to privilege and oppression.

9 Any discussion of ethnicity raises definitional and conceptual issues. Ethnicity, as discussed here, is defined by culture: a shared identity and a shared ideological, normative, and behavioral framework. Though this shared cultural frame may overlap with race or national origin, the fit is usually imperfect. The categories Asian, Latina, African American, and Native American do not denote homogeneous populations but are convenient census and survey categories. For example, the category Latina includes Cubans, Mexican-Americans, Puerto Ricans, and other groups.

10 The terms African American or black mask any variations that may exist, such as the differences between those whose families have been in the United States for many generations and those who have recently arrived from the Caribbean or from African nations (Gray & Littlefield, 2002; Mora, 2002; Kitano & Louie, 2002). There are a myriad of differences experienced by women from different ethnic and racial backgrounds, including patterns of alcohol and drug use, importance of family, and role of mothers. Because of the Anglo-Saxon focus of our society and its neglect of cultural variability, ethnic minorities are either excluded or their difference is understood as a deficit (Espin, 1997).