Title: Research on Women and Girls in the Justice System
Series: Research Forum
Author: Beth E. Richie, Kay Tsenin, and Cathy Spatz Widom
Published: National Institute of Justice, September 2000
Subject: Female offenders, pornography and prostitution, child abuse and
neglect
37 pages
85,000 bytes

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U.S. Department of Justice
Office of Justice Programs
National Institute of Justice

Research on Women and Girls in the Justice System

Research Forum

-------------------------------

U.S. Department of Justice
Office of Justice Programs
810 Seventh Street, N.W.
Washington, DC 20531

Janet Reno
Attorney General

Daniel Marcus
Acting Associate Attorney General

Mary Lou Leary
Acting Assistant Attorney General

Julie E. Samuels
Acting Director, National Institute of Justice

Office of Justice Programs
World Wide Web Site
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov

National Institute of Justice
World Wide Web Site
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/nij

-------------------------------
Research on Women and Girls in the Justice System: Plenary Papers of the
1999 Conference on Criminal Justice Research and Evaluation-Enhancing 
Policy and Practice Through 

Research, Volume 3

Beth E. Richie
Kay Tsenin
Cathy Spatz Widom

Sponsored by 

OFFICE OF JUSTICE PROGRAMS BUREAUS
National Institute of Justice
Bureau of Justice Assistance
Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention
Office for Victims of Crime

OFFICE OF JUSTICE PROGRAMS OFFICES
Corrections Program Office
Drug Courts Program Office
Executive Office for Weed and Seed
Violence Against Women Office

September 2000
NCJ 180973

-------------------------------

Julie E. Samuels
Acting Director

John Thomas
Program Monitor

The Professional Conference Series of the National Institute of Justice
supports a variety of live researcher-practitioner exchanges, such as
conferences, workshops, planning and development meetings, and similar
support to the criminal justice field. Foremost among these forums is the
Annual Conference on Criminal Justice Research and Evaluation. The
Research Forum publication series was designed to share information from
this and other forums with a larger audience.

Findings and conclusions of the research reported here are those of the
authors and do not necessarily reflect the official position or policies of the
U.S. Department of Justice.

The National Institute of Justice is a component of the Office of Justice
Programs, which also includes the Bureau of Justice Assistance, the
Bureau of Justice Statistics, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency
Prevention, and the Office for Victims of Crime.

-------------------------------

Foreword

There is a common perception that the criminal behavior of women and
the delinquent behavior of girls are not serious problems. Women are more
likely to commit minor offenses and have historically constituted a very
small proportion of the offender population. But these facts mask a trend
that is beginning to attract attention. The dramatic rise in the number of
prison and jail inmates is fairly well known; less so is that the ranks of
women inmates are increasing much faster than those of their male
counterparts. The pace at which women are being convicted of serious
offenses is picking up faster than the pace at which men are convicted.

These dynamics make the papers on women and girls in the justice 
system, presented here, especially timely. What animates the studies 
is not so much numbers of offenders but the particular circumstances of
the women and girls "behind" the numbers. The authors call for
"redefining justice," the theme of the plenary session at which their papers
were presented, to take these circumstances into account.

Whether justice should promote unalloyed equity, be blind to the
circumstances in which crime is committed, and consider only gravity 
of offense and prior record, is still a matter of debate. In the current
sentencing environment, the view of those who favor equity above all
other considerations has won the day. There is another perspective-the
belief that sanctions ought to be tailored to the specific characteristics and
circumstances of individual offenders. Implicit in the three papers is the
suggestion that gender is a special consideration warranting differential 
treatment. The writers amply demonstrate that women and girls who are
caught up in the justice system enter it as a result of circumstances
distinctly different from those of men, and so find themselves at a distinct
disadvantage.

Sociologist Beth Richie argues that a key to understanding and responding
to women as offenders is understanding their status as crime victims.
Moreover, race and socioeconomic status, which also intervene at the
intersection of criminality and victimization, need to be more fully
explored. Psychologist Cathy Spatz Widom also examines the
intersection--or cycle--of victimization and criminality, examining whether
abuse and neglect in childhood promote criminality later in life by
derailing young girls' normal development. She suggests that research
could uncover ways to intervene effectively by examining aspects of
juvenile offending that seem to be precursors of adult criminality. Judge
Kay Tsenin sees the women sex workers who appear daily before her
bench as "victims as well as defendants." For these women, she writes,
justice needs to be defined beyond mere enforcement if the sex trade is to
be dismantled altogether. She believes the judicial officer can play a role
in directing these women toward programs that break the cycle of
victimization and offending.

Research as a tool to enhance policy and practice was the theme of the
1999 Conference on Criminal Justice Research and Evaluation, from
which these papers were drawn. The papers reveal the real-life
implications of research for a situation of growing urgency. They show
that studies have uncovered a link between the victimization of women
and their criminal behavior and they propose that justice system practice
can be enhanced if policymakers and the practitioners who operationalize
their decisions redefine justice to take this special condition into account.

Those who wish to read more about the conference can find abstracts of
the 1999 sessions on the Web at http://nijpcs.org/pastconf.htm.

Julie E. Samuels
Acting Director
National Institute of Justice

-------------------------------

Contents

Foreword

Exploring the Link Between Violence Against Women and Women's
Involvement in Illegal Activity
Beth E. Richie

One Judicial Perspective on the Sex Trade
Kay Tsenin

Childhood Victimization and the Derailment of Girls and Women to the
Criminal Justice System
Cathy Spatz Widom

-------------------------------

Exploring the Link Between Violence Against Women and Women's
Involvement in Illegal Activity

Beth E. Richie, Ph.D., University of Illinois at Chicago

The understanding of violence against women can be broadened and
deepened by focusing on the link between gender abuse and women's
involvement in illegal activity--two of the most compelling problems
facing contemporary criminologists. The groups of women who are most
marginalized in society are vulnerable to both problems. A comprehensive
response through public policy and programming can make a difference in
reducing both violence against women and their growing involvement in
criminal activity.

Violence against women: Extent of the problem

Violence against women-including domestic or intimate violence, sexual
assault, and other crimes (for example, sexual harassment, stalking, and
sexual exploitation)--has finally been recognized as a significant and
persistent problem with severe consequences for the victims, their
families, and society and has attracted considerable attention from
researchers. The extent of the problem has been well documented.[1]

Domestic or intimate violence

An estimated 1 million women in the United States are the victims of
violence committed by an intimate (current or former spouse, girlfriend, or
boyfriend) each year, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics
(BJS).[2] Other studies estimate the rate of violence against women in
intimate relationships to be much higher. The National Violence Against
Women (NVAW) Survey, for example, revealed that more than 1.5
million women had been raped and/or physically assaulted in the year
before the survey.[3] Another study estimated that between 7 percent and
22 percent of all adult women have experienced a domestic assault; and a
recently conducted survey revealed that one in every three women
reported having been physically attacked by an intimate partner at some
time in her life.[4] Moreover, 56 percent of all Americans report that
someone close to them has been involved in an abusive relationship.[5]

Morbidity and mortality data on the most extreme physical consequences
of violence against women indicate that 37 percent of all women who
sought care in hospital emergency rooms in 1994 were victims of domestic
violence; of these, 28 percent required admission and another 13 percent
required major medical treatment.[6] According to the Federal Bureau of
Investigation (FBI), females are more likely to be killed by a spouse or
partner than are males: 28.3 percent of women died at the hands of a
spouse, boyfriend, or girlfriend compared with 3.6 percent of men.[7]

Previous studies suggested that women are abused by their intimate
partners irrespective of their races or ethnic backgrounds. Although the
overall rates may be similar, emerging research suggests that variables
such as socioeconomic status, cultural background, and age may influence
the impact of domestic violence.[8] Factors that include the limited
availability of crisis intervention programs, the extent to which weapons
are used differentially during an assault, and lack of trust in law
enforcement agencies may heighten some women's vulnerability to
intimate violence.[9]

There is also solid (although not as much) evidence suggesting that the
incidence and types of domestic violence in same-sex relationships are
comparable to those in heterosexual relationships.[10] Studies indicate that
from 25 percent to 30 percent of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered
people are abused by their intimate partners and that social discrimination
and marginalization may complicate their attempts to seek help, thus
increasing the risk of serious abuse.[11]

The consequences of domestic violence extend beyond the victims
themselves. A national survey revealed that half the men who frequently
battered their wives also frequently assaulted their children.[12] Other
research has corroborated this finding, pointing to persistent
intergenerational effects (for example, men who, as children, witnessed
violence against their mothers were twice as likely to exhibit violent
behavior as adults).[13]

While most of the research focuses on physical abuse, evidence suggests
that emotional abuse also has profound psychological consequences for
female victims of domestic violence.[14] Battered women are four to
five times more likely to require psychiatric treatment and five times more 
likely to attempt suicide than nonbattered women.[15]

Sexual assault

Research on sexual assault reveals a problem of similar proportions.
Between 1995 and 1996, more than 670,000 women were raped or
sexually assaulted.[16] A report of the NVAW Survey revealed that 18
percent of all surveyed women age 18 years and older had been the
victims of rape or attempted rape.[17] Younger women seem to be at
heightened risk: Adolescents ages 16 to 19 were 3.5 times more likely than
the general population to be victims of rape, attempted rape, or sexual
assault.[18]

As with other forms of violence against women, rape is highly
underreported. With the police notified in only about one in six such cases,
rape is among the country's most underreported violent crimes. Fully 84
percent of rape victims, according to one study, had not reported the rape
to the police.[19]

The psychological consequences of this form of sexual assault can be as
serious as those resulting from domestic violence. Thirty-one percent of all
rape victims develop rape-related posttraumatic stress disorder,[20] and
rape victims are three times more likely than nonvictims to experience a
major depressive episode in their lives. The rate of suicide attempts by
rape victims is 13 times higher than among nonvictims, and women who
have been raped are 10 times more likely to use illegal substances or
alcohol.[21]

While even less well documented, sexual harassment, stalking, and
exploitative involvement in the sex industry are also understood to be
serious, common, and threatening problems that have significant physical,
emotional, and social consequences for women.[22]

Patterns of violence

While the various forms of violence against women are often studied
separately, evidence suggests a strong relationship among them. For
example, 78 percent of rapes are committed by someone known to the
victim.[23] The extent to which being in an intimate relationship affects
the nature of abuse was confirmed in a study that indicated 82 percent of
women raped or sexually assaulted by a lone offender were victimized by
a spouse, ex-spouse, partner, friend, acquaintance, or relative, and 26
percent of all rapes and sexual assaults against women were committed by
an intimate partner.[24] Several studies have shown that marital rape is
often more violent and repetitive than other forms of this crime and is less
commonly reported.[25] Taken together, the aggregate picture of violence
against women presents a compelling call to action for researchers,
policymakers, and practitioners.[26]

Data limitations

Many researchers concur that because violence against women is seriously
underreported and because most quantitative studies focus on only one
dimension of the issue, new research is needed.[27] First, few studies have
explored the aggregate picture or intersection of the various forms of
abuse, even though evidence shows there may be "overlap." Second,
because most quantitative research is bound by predetermined or
researcher-driven categories, it cannot capture the nuanced pattern of
experiences or the types of violence to which different groups of women
are subjected.[28] Finally, the need for empirical research on violence
against women is particularly acute with regard to women whose
experiences with violence fall outside the dominant paradigms that have
framed the studies cited here.[29] While ample evidence suggests that
violence against women is a problem for all segments of society, the
experiences of certain groups of women are virtually unrepresented in the
current body of research.

Women involved in illegal activity: An understudied group

One group that has not been adequately studied consists of women
involved in illegal activity. When they have been victimized by violence,
they may be reluctant to call the police, report abuse to other agencies, or
use mainstream social services because of their marginalized social
position and precarious legal status.[30] Research on workplace violence,
for example, does not include such places of illegal employment as the
sites of drug trafficking. Similarly, women involved in prostitution or
otherwise working in the sex industry are less likely to report having been
raped by a customer or stalked by a pimp. Young women who are truant
do not appear in data on victimization gathered in schools, and if a woman
is hurt by her partner in crime during a robbery or is sexually harassed in a
place where stolen goods are taken, there is little likelihood that her
experience with violence will appear in official reports or research
findings.

The need documented

Until recently, very little research had been conducted on violence against
this group of women. What data had been collected, largely by advocacy
groups, suggested that violence is a major factor in the lives of women
who are currently in correctional facilities. For example, a 1996 survey of
incarcerated women found that at least half of all female prisoners had 
experienced some form of sexual abuse before their imprisonment.[31]

Recently, BJS studied violence committed against women involved in
illegal activity.[32] The study, which confirmed the need for further
research, indicates a similar figure--almost half of all women in jails and
prisons had been physically or sexually abused before their
imprisonment--a much higher rate than reported for the overall population.
Also, the study reports significant rates of drug and alcohol use among
abused women in State prisons. Nearly 70 percent of the abused women
serving time in correctional facilities said they used illegal drugs during
the month before their current offense compared with 54 percent of the
women who had not been abused. The National Clearinghouse for the
Defense of Battered Women, one of the few national organizations that
collect data on the relationship between violence against women and
women's involvement in illegal activity, reports that more than half of all
women in detention had been battered or raped before being
incarcerated.[33]

Previously, the most comprehensive documentation of violence against
women involved in illegal activity was reports of hearings conducted in
1985 at the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility in New York State. The
Bedford Hills study established that many incarcerated women shared the
experience of previous domestic and sexual violence and that the abuse
they suffered was serious.[34] Findings of a comprehensive followup
study indicate that more than 80 percent of the women incarcerated in that
same facility 10 years later had a much higher rate of past abuse and that
the abuse was much more significant and traumatic.[35]

A study that served as the empirical basis for this paper reported that 40
percent of women in a large urban jail had experienced violence at the
hands of an intimate partner, and 35 percent reported sexual abuse.[36]
The researcher followed up the study with a qualitative research project
that revealed a complex relationship between previous intimate
victimization, women's involvement in illegal activity, and the experiences
of violence within this understudied group.[37]

In and of itself, documentation of the higher rates of physical and sexual
abuse of incarcerated women is important. However, this discussion
attempts to transcend the well-known rate differentials to focus on the
nature, impact, and relationships among various forms of violence in the
lives of women in precarious legal circumstances. Furthermore, it argues
that violence in some women's lives may actually contribute to their
involvement in illegal activity and that domestic violence or sexual
victimization may be related to women's abuse while in custody. Although
research has found a relatively high rate of previous domestic or sexual
violence in the histories of women involved in illegal activity, only a few
discussions have explored a possible causal relationship or covariance
between abuse in the private sphere, victimization in the criminal arena,
and illegal activity. Perhaps this is more than simply a gap in the research;
it is a significant theoretical and conceptual oversight that may seriously
limit the understanding of and response to the problem of violence against
women in this country, especially against women who are most
marginalized and most at risk.

The context: Women in the criminal justice system

The overall context of this broader understanding of the problem of
violence against women is established through data on women in the
criminal justice system. Currently, about 138,000 women are in jails or
prisons in the United States. This figure represents a tripling of the number
of incarcerated women between 1985 and 1997.[38] While their absolute
numbers are much smaller than those of their male counterparts, the
annual rate of increase is significantly higher for women: On average, the
female prison population grew more than 11 percent annually since 1985,
while the male prison population grew 8 percent at the same time.[39]
This precipitous increase is tentatively attributed to a change in both arrest
policies and crime patterns.[40] Most criminologists take these changes
seriously and are interested in exploring their underlying causes.[41]

Gender and race

Related issues for criminologists include the patterns of women's illegal
behavior. Overwhelmingly, women are incarcerated for nonviolent
offenses, primarily for violating laws that prohibit the sale and possession
of specific drugs.[42] Some investigators have argued that this pattern of
illegal behavior is decidedly gender related-that drug sales and other
nonviolent crimes are "survival crimes" that women commit to earn
money, feed a drug-dependent habit, or escape terrifying intimate
relationships and brutal social conditions.[43] Incarcerated women
typically have a history of unmet social, educational, health, and economic
needs, in addition to a history of victimization.[44] Taken together, these
factors indicate the population of incarcerated women to be of heightened
significance to family and sexual violence researchers interested in
expanding knowledge about violence against women.

Incarcerated women are disproportionately women of color (particularly
black and Hispanic/Latina) from low-income communities who have been
subjected to a disproportionately high rate of violence.[45] This
overrepresentation creates an additional opportunity for researchers. Until
now, violence against women of color and against women in low-income
communities and their involvement in illegal activity have been
considered independently, and few researchers have attempted a more
focused exploration of the covariance of these variables. Further, as
previously noted, studies that use quantitative methods to determine rates
of violence against women have not included illegal behavior as one of the
items explored.[46] While violence against women has been established as
a serious problem, and although the rapidly increasing rate of incarceration
of women in this country is a grave concern, virtually no scholarly work
has attempted to link the two. The following public policy and
programmatic recommendations seek to respond to this gap.

Public policy and programmatic recommendations

Criminologists and others who study violence against women have been
calling for analyses of difficult-to-reach populations and studies of the
relationships between various forms of violence against women.[47] An
example of such a population is the women who are most marginalized
(such as women involved in crime, who are typically women of color from
low-income communities, many of whom have substance abuse problems)
who are vulnerable to both abuse and crime.

Important considerations challenge the work of several communities of
practitioners. Domestic violence advocates and sexual assault service
providers need new information about the effects of abuse against women
and the ways in which abuse influences women's participation in illegal
activity. Practitioners also need a revised analytical framework upon
which to base a new set of intervention strategies for reducing violence
against women.

Those who design programs to address the needs of incarcerated women
or women at risk of arrest would do well to consider the correlation
between violence against women and their involvement in crime.
Prison-based programming, which is in dire need of gender-specific
approaches, would benefit in particular. Such emphasis is consistent with
the current interest in addressing the concrete needs of women while they
are incarcerated, preparing them to make life changes once they are
released.[48]

The National Institute of Justice, other Federal agencies, criminologists,
and advocates for incarcerated women and female ex-prisoners are looking
for ways to improve the reentry process and decrease recidivism.[49]
Considerable attention is being paid to minimizing the factors that
contribute to rearrest and to strengthening opportunities for women's
empowerment and reintegration into society upon release from prison.[50]
The development of policy would benefit from the wider, deeper
understanding called for in this paper.

Conceptual and methodological advances in violence research would
benefit from avoiding dichotomous categorization and turning instead to
undertaking research that is free of predetermined categories. Research on
previously understudied groups that uses qualitative methods should
enhance policy development and intervention strategies by building the
knowledge base. Applying the results of this new research may possibly
reduce both the rates of violence against women and women's
participation in crime.

Notes

1. Dobash, R.E., and R.P. Dobash, Women, Violence and Social Change,
New York: Routledge, 1992; and National Research Council,
Understanding Violence Against Women, ed. N.A. Crowell and A.W.
Burgess, Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 1996.

2. Greenfeld, Lawrence A., et al., Violence by Intimates: Analysis of Data
on Crimes by Current or Former Spouses, Boyfriends, and Girlfriends,
Factbook, Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice
Statistics, March 1998 (revised May 1998): 3, NCJ 167237. This figure,
which reflects data on women age 12 or older, is based on an average for
the period 1992 to 1996. The violent victimizations included murder as
well as rape, sexual assault, robbery, and aggravated and simple assault.

3. Tjaden, P., and N. Thoennes, Prevalence, Incidence, and Consequences
of Violence Against Women: Findings From the National Violence
Against Women Survey, Research in Brief, Washington, DC: U.S.
Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice, and Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention, November 1998: 7, NCJ 172837. The
survey, conducted between 1995 and 1996, includes women age 18 and
older.

4. Commonwealth Fund, The Commonwealth Fund Commission on
Women's Health: Addressing Domestic Violence and Its Consequences,
New York: Commonwealth Fund, 1998; and Wilt, S., and S. Olson,
"Prevalence of Domestic Violence in the United States," Journal of the
American Medical Women's Association 53 (2) (1996).

5. Straus, M., Physical Violence in American Families: Risk Factors and 
Adaptations to Violence in 8,145 Families, New Brunswick, NJ:
Transaction Publishers, 1990.

6. Browne, A., "Violence Against Women: Relevance for Medical
Practitioners," Journal of the American Medical Association 267 (23)
(1992): 3184-3189; and Rand, M.R., and K. Strom, Violence-Related
Injuries Treated in Hospital Emergency Departments, Washington, DC:
U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, 1997.

7. Federal Bureau of Investigation, Crime in the United States,
Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of
Investigation, 1995.

8. Tjaden, P., and N. Thoennes, Stalking in America: Findings From the
National Violence Against Women Survey, Research in Brief,
Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice,
and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, April 1998: 4-5, NCJ
169592; Hampton, R.L., and R.J. Gelles, "Violence Towards Black
Women in a Nationally Representative Sample of Black Families," Journal
of Comparative Family Studies 25 (1) (1994): 105-119; and Salomon, A.,
"Patterns of Welfare Use Among Poor and Homeless Women," American
Journal of Orthopsychiatry 66 (1996): 510-525. 

9. Hutchinson, I.W., J.D. Hirschel, and D.E. Pesackis, "Family Violence
and Police Utilization," Violence and Victims 9 (4) (1994): 299-313;
Richie, B., Compelled to Crime: The Gender Entrapment of Black
Battered Women, New York: Routledge, 1996; and Sullivan, C.M., and
M.H. Rumptz, "Adjustment and Needs of African American Women Who
Utilized a Domestic Violence Shelter," Violence and Victims 9 (3) (1994):
275-286. 

10. Anti-Violence Project/National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs, 
Report on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered Domestic Violence, 
New York: Anti-Violence Project/National Coalition of Anti-Violence 
Programs, 1998.

11. Renzetti, C., and C. Miley, Violence in Gay and Lesbian Domestic 
Partnerships, New York: Hayworth Press, 1996.

12. Straus, Physical Violence in American Families.

13. Doumas, D., G. Margolin, and R.S. John, "The Intergenerational
Transmission of Aggression Across Three Generations," Journal of Family
Violence 9 (1994):157-175. 

14. Gelles, R.J., and J.W. Harrop, "Violence, Battering and Psychological 
Distress Among Women," Journal of Interpersonal Violence 4 (4) (1989):
400-420.

15. Stark, E., and A. Flitcraft, Women at Risk: Domestic Violence and 
Women's Health, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 1996. 

16. Ringel, Cheryl, Criminal Victimization 1996: Changes 1995-96 With
Trends 1993-96, Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of 
Justice Statistics, November 1997: 3, NCJ 165812. 

17. Tjaden and Thoennes, Prevalence, Incidence, and Consequences of 
Violence Against Women, 3.

18. Ringel, Criminal Victimization 1996: Changes 1995-96 With Trends 
1993-96, 4.

19. Medical University of South Carolina, Rape in America: Report to the 
Nation, Arlington, VA: National Center for Victims of Crime, 1992. 

20. Ibid.

21. Ibid.

22. Miller, J.L., "Prostitution in Contemporary American Society," in
Sexual Coercion: A Sourcebook on Its Nature, Causes, and Prevention, ed.
E. Grauerholz and M.A. Koralewski, New York: Lexington Books, 1991; 
and Tjaden and Thoennes, Stalking in America. 

23. Medical University of South Carolina, Rape in America.

24. Bachman, R., and L.E. Saltzman, Violence Against Women: Estimates
From the Redesigned Survey, Washington, DC: U.S. Department of
Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, 1995, NCJ 154348. 

25. Bergen, R.K., "Surviving Wife Rape: How Women Define and Cope
With Violence," Violence Against Women 1 (2) (1995): 117-138; and
Hampton and Gelles, "Violence Towards Black Women," 105-119.

26. Graham, D.L.R., E.I. Rawlings, and R.K. Rigsby, Loving to Survive:
Sexual Terror, Men's Violence, and Women's Lives, New York: New
York University Press, 1994. 

27. Hall, P., I. Tessero, and J. Earp, "Women's Experiences With
Battering: A Conceptualization From Qualitative Research, Women's
Health Issues 5 (4) (1995): 173-192; and Reid, P.T., and R. Kelly,
"Research on Women of Color: From Ignorance to Awareness,"
Psychology of Women Quarterly 18 (1994): 477-486. 

28. Crenshaw, K.W., "Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity
Politics and Violence Against Women of Color," in The Public Nature of
Private Violence, ed. M.A. Fineman and B. Mykiturk, New York:
Routledge, 1994; and Rasche, C.E., "Minority Women and Domestic
Violence: The Unique Dilemmas of Battered Women of Color," in The
Criminal Justice System and Women: Offenders, Victims and Workers,
ed. N. Sokoloff and B. Rafel Price, New York: McGraw-Hill, 1995.

29. Kanuha, V., "Domestic Violence, Racism and the Battered Women's
Movement in the U.S.," in Future Interventions With Battered Women and
Their Families, ed. J. Edelson and Z. Eisikovitz, Thousand Oaks, CA:
Sage Publications, 1997.

30. Richie, Compelled to Crime.

31. Human Rights Watch, All Too Familiar: Sexual Abuse of Women in
U.S. State Prisons, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1996.

32. Harlow, C.W., Prior Abuse Reported by Inmates and Probationers,
Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics,
1999, NCJ 172879.

33. Osthoff, S., National Clearinghouse for the Defense of Battered
Women, personal communication with author, 1999. 

34. New York State Coalition Against Domestic Violence, "Domestic
Violence Hearings Held at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility," New York
State Coalition Against Domestic Violence Newsletter, April 1985. 

35. Browne, A., Harvard University, personal communication with author,
1999.

36. Richie, B., and C. Johnson, "Gender Violence, Incarceration and
Women's Health: The Prevalence of Abuse History Among Newly
Incarcerated Women in a New York City Jail," Journal of the American
Medical Women's Association 53 (2) (1996): 89-93.

37. Richie, Compelled to Crime.

38. Correctional Populations in the United States, 1995, Washington, DC:
U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, June 1996: 7, NCJ
163916; and Gilliard, Darrel K., and Allen J. Beck, Prison and Jail Inmates
at Midyear 1997, Bulletin, Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice,
Bureau of Justice Statistics, January 1998: 4, NCJ 167247.

39. Mumola, C.J., and Beck, A.J., Prisoners in 1996, Washington, DC: 
U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, June 1997: 5, NCJ
164619. In Prison and Jail Inmates at Midyear 1997, Gilliard and Beck
note the average annual increase in the jail population was 10 percent for
women and 6 percent for men (page 6). 

40. Bush-Baskette, S., "The War on Drugs as a War Against Black
Women," in Crime Control and Women: Feminist Implications of
Criminal Justice Policy, ed. S.L. Miller, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage
Publications, 1998. 

41. Belknap, J., The Invisible Women: Gender, Crime and Justice,
Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 1996; and Chesney-Lind, M., The Female
Offender, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 1997.

42. Mumola and Beck, Prisoners in 1996.

43. Richie, Compelled to Crime; and Owen, B., In the Mix: Struggle and 
Survival in a Women's Prison, Albany: SUNY Press, 1998.

44. Freudenberg, N., I. Wilets, and M. Greene, "Linking Women in Jail to 
Community Services: Factors Associated With Rearrest and Retention of
Drug-Using Women Following Release From Jail," Journal of the
American Medical Women's Association 53 (2) (1998): 89-93.

45. Mumola and Beck, Prisoners in 1996.

46. Frisch, L.A., "Research That Succeeds, Policies That Fail," Journal of
Criminal Law and Criminology 83 (1992): 209-216.

47. National Research Council, Understanding Violence Against Women.

48. Morash, M., T.S. Bynum, and B.A. Koons, Women Offenders:
Programming Needs and Promising Approaches, Research in Brief,
Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice,
1998, NCJ 171668; and Illinois Department of Corrections, Five Year
Plan for Female Inmates, Springfield, IL: Illinois Department of
Corrections, Planning and Research Unit, 1995.

49. U.S. Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice, Re-entry
Courts: Managing the Transition From Prisons to Community, Call for
Concept Papers, Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, National
Institute of Justice, 1999. 

50. Richie, Compelled to Crime.

-------------------------------

One Judicial Perspective on the Sex Trade

Kay Tsenin, Judge, Superior Court of San Francisco

A woman appears before me on her eighth bench warrant for failure to
appear. She has worn orange jail uniforms for all her court appearances. I
greet her by name, and she flashes a grin from ear to ear. I say, "Sunny!
You're in custody again--after you promised me last time you would
voluntarily come back to court if I released you." She leans forward on the
podium and, with a wide grin, says, "I know, Judge. I'm sorry. I lied." I
say to her, "Well, you know, Sunny, this time I will have to keep you in
custody." She replies, "Sure, Judge, I know." I hope she will remain in
custody long enough to agree to participate in a program offering an
alternative to incarceration[1]--but not too long, or she will be able to plea,
receive credit for time served, and thereby avoid intervention by the justice
system to deal with her needs and the causes of her behavior.

Another woman appears, dressed in street clothes. She had been referred to
an alternative program but did not show up for the initial interview. The
district attorney is arguing vehemently against further such referrals. After
all, she has pending cases. I feel she deserves one more chance and, to
support my position, point out that at least in the past 6 months she has not
picked up any new charges. I tell the defendant we are referring her to
pretrial diversion, one of the alternative programs, and she must arrive by
8:30 a.m. In front of the district attorney, and with the court reporter
taking down every word, she replies that it will be difficult to wake up so
early because she works on the street all night. But, still, she assures me,
she will make it there next week.

Another woman appears, dressed in orange; wounds on her face are still
crusted with blood. Yet another woman seems to be emaciated and has
dark circles under her eyes. Another convulses in front of my bench, and
the bailiff looks at me and says, "It's OK, Judge, she's just detoxing." An
inmate far more attractive than anyone who has appeared earlier exits the
men's holding tank. I look up the prisoner's name in the calendar: Steve
Smith. Steve, a transsexual sex worker, beams when I refer to him as
"she." Then a non-English-speaking "john" (or prostitute's customer)
stands before me. According to his financial declaration, he has a
minimum-wage job. He appears to be dazed and confused about why he is
even in court.

My assignment is the misdemeanor criminal calendar, and the women and
men I see are charged with violation of section 647(b) of the California
Penal Code: "solicitation." Sometimes the women are charged with being
public nuisances. Almost always, a charge in their history is related to
drug use, often petty theft. It is a virtual certainty that, without
intervention, there soon will be a felony charge involving drugs.

The sex workers who stand before me every day are victims as well as
defendants. The johns simply do not understand why they are in a criminal
court when, in their eyes, they are merely exercising their male prerogative
of sex on demand. These men seem to be unaware of their role in
promoting the sex industry.

Judicial officers are sworn to uphold and enforce the law. Most also feel a
moral obligation to somehow make the city a better place. We would like
to believe that we are agents of change for the better, not simply
automatons applying rules and laws to the case patterns that appear before
us. This area of the law--dealing with the sex trade--affords a great
opportunity to bring about change and to be creative in dealing with
people whose conduct is defined by the legislature as criminal but who are
victims themselves--and often victimized over and over again.

Judicial approaches

Two judicial approaches are used to handle issues of the so-called oldest
profession--that is, solicitation, prostitution, and sex trade street workers,
or "B" cases.[2] The first, and more traditional, approach is simply to
enforce the law and sentence offenders to county jail or the sheriff's work
program. That is easy and simple--virtually a "no-brainer." The message is
clear: You commit the crime, you do the time. This approach, however,
fails to address the core issues, virtually guarantees recidivism, and does
little to change or eliminate prostitution. In addition, a conviction is often
difficult, if not impossible, to obtain because juries think such cases waste
time and society's judicial resources.

The second approach is for the court to become involved in devising
solutions on a case-by-case basis. To accomplish this, one must
understand the dynamics. The victim-perpetrator status of the defendant is
only one of numerous contradictions. Everyone touched by the problem--
homeowners, merchants, law enforcement officers, judicial staff, and even
the sex worker--operates in an environment of conflicting attitudes.
Consider the homeowner who wants the street worker off his or her block
but will rarely vote to convict when serving on a jury. Or the street worker,
both victim and defendant, who wants to "get out of the life" and, at the
same time, finds that she not only is lured back by the promise of love,
security, and happiness but also is dependent on it for survival. All too
often, she returns to the street because it is simply the only means of
survival available to her.

The sex worker: Victim and survivor

Sex trade workers come in all ages, sizes, and races. One can only wonder
why people "choose" this life. What did they look like in their first-grade
school pictures? What happened to their dreams and hopes? Most women
enter the sex trade as a survival strategy. At some point in their lives, most
sex workers have faced a crisis, either social or economic, that compelled
them to leave their "conventional" lives behind.

Sex workers are victims and also survivors, often of childhood sexual
abuse or abuse by husbands, boyfriends, or pimps. Numerous studies have
shown that approximately 90 percent of women in the sex trade have been
battered by a member of their family, and more than 70 percent have been
sexually abused between the ages of 3 and 14.[3] A young woman running
away from abuse will market the one commodity she knows sells: sex. On
average, a woman is 14 years of age when she turns to prostitution.

In San Francisco, a recent study by Melissa Farley of 130 prostitutes
showed that 68 percent had been repeatedly raped.[4] These individuals
are survivors of a society that teaches women from the time they are very
young that their sexuality is a commodity--and they may use it to convince
someone to do them a favor, avoid a speeding ticket, or get a date to the
junior prom. The media and popular culture continually display images of
women as sexual commodities and use sex to sell products from shoe
polish to CDs, cars, and cigarettes. Then why not sell sex, these women
conclude, if that is all you have to support yourself, your children, your
boyfriend, and, all too often, your drug habit.

Many women in the sex trade are also survivors of poverty, which affects
men and women differently. More than one-third of all households in the
United States are headed by women. Even today, women often lack access
to the training, jobs, and pay men receive.[5] Even more important, girls
who are sexually abused--and 75 percent to 95 percent of 14- to
18-year-old girls in the justice system have been victims of abuse--suffer
from a traumatic and profound lack of self-esteem. These girls engage in
disempowering and self-defeating behaviors, which propel them into a
cycle of prostitution, addiction, drug dealing, and violence. Typically
having never received the valuable life-skills training that a healthful
family environment provides, these girls see violence and sexual
exploitation as the norm. They have never known responsible, respectful,
and caring adults and peers; they have never learned how to form durable
relationships based on mutual support and affection. Without trust and
healthy self-esteem, neither the girls nor the women they become can even
use the support systems that are available. That is where the courts come
in--and that is where judicial officers can provide the impetus and
monitoring necessary for interventions to take place.

More than "quality of life"

In decades past, solicitation was considered a victimless crime. In the
1990s, it was transformed into a quality-of-life crime (that is, a crime that
is not wrong in itself but that interferes with the quality of life of other
people--merchants, tourists, and neighbors). In reality, no matter how
supportive people may be of sex workers, they do not want to witness
solicitation in front of their homes, on their street corners, or in front of
their neighborhood restaurants.

Prostitution is not a victimless crime--the primary victim is the prostitute.
And prostitution is much more serious than quality-of-life crimes. Bench
officers have the choice of revictimizing the victim or providing that
individual with the motivation, incentive, and, sometimes, the courage to
change.

Alternative programs, such as Standing Against Global Exploitation
(SAGE), a counseling and outreach organization launched in San
Francisco in 1995; and Promise, a peer counseling group (described at the
conclusion of this paper), offer some first steps in the right direction. The
special value of these programs is that survivors of the sex trade run them.
It is a well-documented fact that the priorities economically disadvantaged
people set for themselves often are not the same priorities set by
policymakers, and the same is true for sex workers. Therefore, alternative
programs run by peer counselors who know and understand prostitutes'
priorities are most effective. These programs offer the experiential
perspective, support, and tools needed for participants to succeed, and
court officials can provide the impetus. It must be understood, however,
that women do not become prostitutes in a few days, weeks, or months.
Therefore, getting out of prostitution--like quitting drugs or alcohol--does
not happen in a single session, week, or month, and often does not occur
without relapse.

Courts and the communities they serve: Contradictions and ambivalence

Courts do not and cannot function in a vacuum. Whether or not they want
to, they often mirror community values. Laws prohibiting solicitation--the
exchange of money for sex--are enacted and enforced in a sea of
contradictions and ambivalence. Judicial officers, whose role is not only to
enforce the law but also to ensure that justice is served and to reduce or
prevent the likelihood of recidivism, need to be aware of these contextual
issues.

Solicitation versus "charity" sex

On one hand, laws on the books proscribe the exchange of sex for money;
on the other hand, every day some women have sex because men are nice
to them, take them out to dinner, give them gifts, or provide shelter or
status. Sex after receipt of a benefit is not a crime as long as it is given
without a prior bargain. The key is to not solicit the sex, at least overtly.
So charity sex, as it is sometimes called, is very much part of our society.
However, to solicit sex for a reward before the reward is given is a crime.

The sex trade is glamorized in songs: "Fancy" escapes poverty and death
and attains riches because she follows her mother's advice to be "nice to
the men" and, as her mother predicted, the men are "nice to her." Is Fancy
a whore or is she participating in charity sex? Is it that women can be
grateful but cannot be demanding? Does legality depend on whether the
bargain is struck before sex, or does it depend on whether the woman
pretends she is doing it for free? Irma La Douce, Sweet Charity, Pretty
Woman--we romanticize the sweet, vulnerable, poignant sex worker who
finds the right man and moves to the house with the white picket fence.
These stories are no truer than Jack and the Beanstalk or Hansel and
Gretel, and no more likely than Ed McMahon sending you $1 million in
the mail.

Two classes of sex workers, two classes of customers

The enforcement of prostitution laws is also ambivalent. There are two
classes of sex workers: the street worker and the call girl. There are also
two classes of customers: the street john and the john who can afford
high-priced call girls. And, of course, there is the pimp or the trader.
Although street workers appear on my calendar every day, not one call girl
or one high-priced john has ever stood before me during all my years on
the bench. Nor could any of the colleagues I asked at the Hall of Justice
recall when a pimp actually appeared before them, charged with a crime.
Arrests are directed toward those who can solicit only $20 to $40 for a
"half-and-half" (half oral and half more conventional sex) and toward
those who can afford to pay no more than that.

Public pressure

The rise and fall of arrests for solicitation depend largely on public
pressure. The same people who tell the courts, when they are on a jury,
that we should not be spending time on solicitation turn around and join
their neighbors in cries to get sex workers off street corners. When a
neighborhood pressures the police or elected officials to clean up the street
corners, the number of cases increases. Neighborhood residents say they
don't want prostitution on their blocks, and they also don't think
solicitation laws should be criminally enforced; yet, they want the police
and the district attorney to do something. Mandated intervention programs
are a major part of the solution. In enforcing laws against solicitation, we
are protecting the communities from the nuisance of solicitation and, at the
same time--acting in loco parentis--protecting the street worker from
herself, her pimp, and the ravages of her work. Melissa Farley's study of
prostitutes revealed that 82 percent of them said they had been assaulted
by customers, 88 percent had been physically threatened, and 83 percent
had been threatened with a weapon.[6]

The issue of jury nullification also comes into play. It is extremely
difficult to obtain a conviction in solicitation cases because the jurors feel
that consensual conduct between two adults should not be legislated or
enforced and that their tax dollars should not be spent trying these cases--
unless, of course, the conduct occurs on their street corners. And even
then, jurors are looking for a noncriminal resolution.

Feminist issues

Some women make a rational decision to enter this profession without
shame and are demanding the right to be recognized without shame. These
women rarely are seen in court.

Some feminists argue for decriminalization and unionization of sex
workers. Others claim prostitution is a continuation of sexual abuse of
women by men. Survivors of prostitution are also divided on the subject.
Some argue that it is a crime by men against women--nothing less than the
commercialization of sexual abuse and perpetuation of the inequality that
women suffer in all other forums, and part of a global traffic in sexual
slavery of women. Others demand lawful recognition of prostitution and
raising its status to that of a valid, protected occupation.

There are also arguments that prostitution demonstrates a woman's right to
control her body; that selling it is free enterprise--in effect, a career choice;
and that pimps are, in fact, entrepreneurs.

Conflicting roles

Add to this milieu of contradictions the opposing roles of the district
attorney, often reluctantly prosecuting; public defenders, who sometimes
take the myopic view that their role is only to free their clients from
custody and not to consider what may be in their clients' best interest in
the long run; and the courts, with overburdened calendars. All of these
players pull in different directions; alternative programs help bring them
together toward a solution.

Interventions

If the goal is to dismantle the sex trade industry, we cannot escape the fact
that society creates prostitution and the customer fuels the need for it. If
we want to take on this lofty task, we would do well to confront these
issues and address them. But on the road to achieving that goal, certain
interventions would be helpful. These include providing a way out for the
prostitutes and educating the johns about their role in perpetuating
prostitution and the sex trade industry.

Alternative programs are a great step. Although their effect is currently
limited to the participants, they are initiating a discourse that may have
long-term and broad-based preventive effects. SAGE, the First Offender
Prostitution Program (FOPP), and other effective programs in San
Francisco were started and are run by ex-street workers.

Meeting the needs of sex workers

One broad-based and enterprising effort is the SAGE counseling and
outreach organization in San Francisco. The SAGE Trauma and Recovery
(STAR) Center addresses the multiple needs of sex workers recovering
from drug addiction, prostitution, and trauma through peer counseling and
individual therapy, holistic healing, and vocational services. Women enter
the program via two routes: court referrals and an extensive outreach
program on the street that involves volunteers and police. Court referrals
usually are for eight sessions and may be made for either first-time or
repeat offenders. Usually, the incentive is that charges will be dismissed
upon program completion.

Not all women complete the program on their first, second, or even third
attempt. Many are also trying to get off drugs and are dealing with
numerous other psychological and survival issues. SAGE offers the
services of peer counselors as well as acupuncture, trauma recovery
groups, relapse prevention, self-defense training, and yoga.

The SAGE program for teenage girls targets 14- to 18-year-olds, who are
usually referred by the court or the probation department. The 15-week
program emphasizes education, psychological needs, life skills, and
self-esteem issues. Intake assessment is conducted for problems related to
depression, posttraumatic stress, and self-esteem, with followup after 6
weeks. SAGE addresses the girls' need to learn to trust responsible,
respectful, and caring adults and peers and to learn how to form durable
relationships based on mutual support and affection. SAGE also provides
assistance and training in life and personal growth skills, including
housing assistance, job training and development, financial counseling,
and problem solving.

Educating the customers

FOPP is a program based in the San Francisco district attorney's office that
offers counseling to prostitutes' customers in an effort to reduce arrests,
recidivism, and exploitation of the women.[7] It is designed for first-time
johns and facilitated by former prostitutes. Since 1995, approximately
2,700 solicitors of prostitutes have been diverted from the court system
and received an educational (and hopefully rehabilitative) experience in
lieu of criminal prosecution. After first-time offenders are arrested, usually
through undercover decoy operations, they are cited and offered the
opportunity to participate in the program instead of being charged and
jailed. Men pay a fee (based on a sliding scale up to $500) and attend one
8-hour class that covers the penal risks and practical consequences of
continued criminal conduct and educates them about HIV and other
sexually transmitted diseases. In addition, prostitution survivors speak
about childhood risk factors, violence, drug use, rehabilitation, and
reintegration. Other topics include pimping, recruitment, and trafficking
tactics used against women and girls; sexual addiction; and domestic
violence education that examines power and equality in relationships.

Other programs

Other alternative programs include Sister/Power, Promise, and Safe
House. The 12- to 18-week Sister/Power programs feature ongoing groups
that use peer counselors and the resources of the adult probation
department. These programs address sexual trauma, drug abuse, and life
skills. The Sister program serves women in custody, and the Power
program is a postrelease group for the women after they leave prison or
jail.

The Promise program is operated and staffed by peer counselors who
provide transitional housing using vouchers for local hotels. Their
approach focuses on the women's financial needs because women often
engage in prostitution for financial reasons. Promise emphasizes life skills,
job skills, and transitioning.

Safe House, a "clean and sober" residential community for women leaving
prostitution, provides 24-hour staffing, clothing, food, and vocational
and training assessments. Women can stay for as long as 18 months. If a
woman is not clean and sober for at least 6 months before entering, she
must participate in a day treatment program. Safe House offers individual
and group counseling, referrals to drug treatment, vocational training,
domestic violence counseling, and counseling for sexual assault trauma.

These programs are not exclusive; they often work in conjunction with
each other. For example, a woman in Safe House may also participate in
the SAGE, Promise, or Power program.

Future needs: Resources and self-worth

Needed resources include bilingual education, geared toward both
English-speaking and non-English-speaking communities, to inform
residents that it is a crime to solicit sex, that johns will be arrested, and
that johns' acts have broad consequences and implications. Also needed
are interventions for and intensive assistance to victims of child abuse;
mobile units providing health care, legal assistance, and other resources to
street workers; drop-in or short-term shelters open 24 hours per day
offering medical, legal, and other resources; shelters for runaway youths
where no questions will be asked and where they will not fear being sent
back to their abusers; mental health care facilities; long-term shelters for
women and children; access to drug treatment on demand; education for
judicial officers; and financial training and places for women to make the
transition from the sex trade to a viable alternative career. Although
women cannot be expected to shift from working in the sex trade to
working in sweatshops or fast-food restaurants, there are industries and
training that would be appropriate, plausible, and attractive. Before a
woman can participate in these programs, however, she needs to have time
and space to heal and regroup.

If we really want to dismantle the sex worker industry, we need to address
core issues. Just as we might try to imagine prostitutes when they were in
the first grade, we might also wonder about their abusers. Are they
enjoying baseball games while, 20 years later, their victims are struggling
to live from day to day on the street, suffering from debilitating
posttraumatic stress, or self-medicating with illegal drugs? Is the abuser
barbecuing this weekend while his victim is confined to a jail cell
suffering from suicidal urges and engaging in life-threatening behaviors?

As long as there is sexual abuse of girls, women will continue to grapple
with profound and traumatic low self-worth and self-esteem issues. And as
long as women's sexuality is treated as a commodity in the media and
women lack access to adequate employment, prostitution will exist. As
long as men continue to believe that sex on demand is their male
prerogative, it will not matter how many street sweeps are conducted or
how many arrests are made. The only chance to make things better is to
instill a sense of self-worth in all girls at a very early age and to educate
young people on many fronts.

We need to stop the sexual abuse of children and provide women in
poverty with adequate resources so they will not have to trade sex for
survival. We also need to provide meaningful and concrete assistance and
resources to sex workers who want to quit. Although we cannot dismantle
this system overnight, we can begin.

Notes

1. In San Francisco, numerous programs offer alternatives to incarceration
for sex trade workers. Among them are FOPP (First Offender Prostitution
Program, for both "johns" and sex workers), SAGE (Standing Against
Global Exploitation), and pretrial diversion. Except for the first offender
programs, each usually involves a counseling component, frequently
substance abuse treatment, and often a needs assessment with an attempt
to address the needs. 

2. These cases are so called because they involve prostitution charged
under section 647(b) of the California Penal Code.

3. Women Hurt in Systems of Prostitution Engaged in Revolt
(WHISPER), Oral History Project, Minneapolis, 1988. The Mary
Magdalene Project in Reseda, California, reported that 80 percent of the
women they worked with were sexually abused as children. Genesis
House in Chicago reported that 94 percent of the women they worked with
were abused as children. These reports were made at the First National
Workshop for Those Working with Female Prostitutes, Wayzata,
Minnesota, 1985. 

4. Farley, Melissa, and Howard Barkan, "Prostitution, Violence Against
Women, and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder," Women & Health 27 (3)
(1998): 37-49. Dr. Farley works with Prostitution Research & Education, a
project sponsored by San Francisco Women's Centers. 

5. Although men and women engage in this work for many of the same
reasons, male sex workers have even fewer resources. However, male sex
workers and the international sex trade are beyond the scope of this paper. 

6. Farley and Barkan, "Prostitution, Violence Against Women, and
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder." 

7. The First Offender Prostitution Program was among the winners of the
prestigious Innovations in American Government awards competition in 
1998.

-------------------------------

Childhood Victimization and the Derailment of Girls and Women to the
Criminal Justice System

Cathy Spatz Widom, Ph.D., University of Medicine and Dentistry of New
Jersey

There has been a general perception that we do not need to understand, or
intervene to prevent, female delinquent or criminal behavior because small
numbers of women are involved, such offenses are primarily sexual in
nature, and the female offender is the exception--a manifestation of
extreme forms of psychological deviance. Early researchers have referred
to female offenders as "themselves on the whole a sorry lot,"[1] focused
on their "precocious sexual development" as the root cause of their
delinquency,[2] and described the criminal woman as "a monster . . .
whose wickedness must have been enormous before it could triumph over
so many obstacles."[3] Others have described the female offender as
relatively nonthreatening to society: "The girls and women who make up
the bulk of the criminal justice workload involving the female offender
(and are the grist of the female offender programs) commit ordinary
crimes-mostly minor thefts and frauds, low level drug dealing,
prostitution, and simple assaults involving their mates or children. . . .
They are not career criminals" (emphasis added).[4]

In reality, the problem of female criminality is substantially more complex
than presented in the literature--and girls and women may be the victims
as well as the offenders. It is tempting to conclude from reports describing
the extent of childhood sexual and physical abuse and neglect in the
backgrounds of incarcerated women that their childhood victimization
experiences have somehow played a role in their offending.[5] A better
way to answer questions about the role of childhood victimization in the
development of criminal behavior, however, is through prospective
longitudinal studies that follow a group of abused and neglected girls into
adulthood. These studies allow researchers to identify the proportion of
girls who go on to become offenders as adults, learn about their criminal
careers, and determine what happens to other abused and neglected girls
who might not have experienced such negative outcomes. Previously,
most large longitudinal studies providing information for criminologists
have involved males, usually white males. Fortunately, some current
studies that include young girls will be able to redress some of the earlier
study limitations when their subjects grow into adulthood.

The research described in this paper involves a large group of physically
and sexually abused and neglected girls and boys (ages 0 to 11) and a
matched control group (ages 0 to 11) who were followed and studied into
young adulthood. Their criminal histories were gathered when the subjects
were approximately 26 years old and again when their average age was
about 33.[6] Thus, the subjects had ample opportunity to engage in
behavior resulting in arrest.

The study sample represents documented court cases of abuse and neglect.
It is important to note that these cases are generally skewed toward the
lower end of the socioeconomic spectrum. Therefore, the study findings
cannot be generalized to middle- or upper-class cases of abuse and neglect
or to cases that do not come to the attention of the authorities--and the
consequences may be different for these girls. This paper addresses
questions about the role of childhood victimization in the development of
female criminal behavior, suggests potential mechanisms in the derailment
of girls and women to the criminal justice system, and describes
opportunities for intervention.

Role of childhood victimization in the development of criminal behavior

Considering whether childhood victimization derails the normal 
developmental processes of girls and young women and whether this
derailment affects their ability to cope with the demands of life and
adulthood involves four key questions:

--Is criminal behavior among abused and neglected girls and women rare?

--Is criminal behavior among abused and neglected girls and women
predominantly sexual?

--Do abused and neglected status offenders escalate to criminal offending?

--Do abused and neglected girls develop antisocial or delinquent lifestyles
that persist into adulthood as serious criminal careers?

Is criminal behavior among abused and neglected girls and women rare?

When compared with girls who have not been abused and neglected
during childhood, abused and neglected girls are nearly twice as likely to
be arrested as juveniles (20.0 percent versus 11.4 percent), twice as likely
to be arrested as adults (28.5 percent versus 15.9 percent), and 2.4 times
more likely to be arrested for violent crimes (8.2 percent versus 3.6
percent). Data also indicate that physical and sexual abuse and neglect lead
to increased risk of arrest for violence among women, a pattern dissimilar
to that identified for abused and neglected males.[7] Although abused and
neglected females are at increased risk, however, these relationships are
not inevitable or deterministic; about 70 percent do not become
offenders.[8]

Is criminal behavior among abused and neglected girls and women
predominantly sexual?

While arrests and self-reports indicate that abused and neglected females
are at increased risk for prostitution,[9] they also engage in a variety of
other criminal behaviors. Of the females in the study sample, 248 were
arrested as juveniles or adults, and only 40 (16.1 percent) of these were
arrested for prostitution or other sex-related crimes. The remainder were
arrested for a variety of other crimes. Interestingly, the majority of the 40
females arrested for sex crimes had been abused or neglected (that is, not
the control females).

Do abused and neglected status offenders escalate to criminal offending?

Despite the belief that status offenders do not escalate in their criminal
behavior and we should not intervene in their lives,[10] results of this
study indicate that they do escalate. About half (49 percent) of the abused
and neglected girls who committed status offenses (were arrested as
juveniles for an offense that would not be considered criminal if
committed by an adult) were arrested as adults as well as 36 percent of the
control females. Thus, in both groups, a substantial portion of the girls
with status offenses as juveniles were arrested as adults.

Do abused and neglected girls develop antisocial or delinquent lifestyles
that persist into adulthood as serious criminal careers?

Peter Lambert, Daniel Nagin, and I have examined developmental
trajectories of offending among this sample of individuals. The results of
our work challenge the prevailing assumption that female offenders are not
career criminals. We found a subset of abused and neglected females who
develop antisocial and delinquent lifestyles that persist into adulthood and
who become "high-rate chronic" or "persistent" offenders with serious
criminal careers. This group (about 8 percent of the abused and neglected
females in our sample) does not appear among the control females;
showed peaks of offending at about ages 26 to 27; and averaged slightly
more than one arrest every 2 years (0.6 per year) through age 35. About 38
percent had been picked up for status offenses as girls, but about 54
percent were arrested for property crimes, 76 percent for order offenses, 46
percent for violence, and 32 percent for drug offenses. The overall
criminal histories of this group were similar to those of "mid-rate chronic"
male offenders.[11]

Mechanisms in derailment

Potential mechanisms in the derailment of girls and women include
running away, deficits in cognitive ability and achievement, growing up
without traditional social controls, engaging in relationships with deviant
or delinquent individuals, and failing to learn the social and psychological
skills necessary for successful adult development. Such mechanisms may
also offer opportunities for intervention.

Runaways

Researchers have argued that victimization triggers girls' entry into
delinquency as they try to escape abusive environments.[12] Adolescent
females who are unable to end abuse through legal channels often run
away and end up on the streets with few legitimate survival options:

[They are] unable to enroll in school or take a job to support themselves
because they fear detection. . . . [T]hey engage in panhandling, petty theft,
and occasional prostitution in order to survive. Young women in conflict
with parents (often for very legitimate reasons) may actually be forced by
present laws into petty criminal activity, prostitution, and drug use.[13]

While abused and neglected children are at increased risk for running
away, and running away is associated with increased risk of arrest among
juveniles and adults, the effect of running away is also seen in nonabused
and nonneglected children. Indeed, the increased risk of arrest among
control runaways was higher than that observed among abused and
neglected children, even though the abused and neglected children were
already at high risk for criminal behavior.[14]

Neglected young children, alone on the streets, are at risk of being
victimized or enticed into prostitution. Runaways may fall under the
control of pornographers and pimps and experience subsequent physical
and sexual victimization by pimps and customers. Given their lack of
adequate medical care and high prevalence of risky lifestyles (which may
include prostitution, alcohol, drugs, and smoking), children who run away
also may be at risk for multiple problems, including serious public health
concerns.

Deficits in IQ or cognitive ability

Abused and neglected women earn lower average scores on IQ tests and
tests of reading ability than nonabused and nonneglected women.[15]
They are also low achievers scholastically (as evidenced by poor grades,
behavioral problems, and expulsion) and complete, on average, one year
fewer of school.

We do not know the origin of deficits in academic and intellectual
performance among abused and neglected females. The deficits may be
caused by brain dysfunction that is a result of brain injury from physical
abuse or malnutrition from neglect. Physical abuse (such as battering) or
severe neglect (producing, for example, dehydration, diarrhea, or failure to
thrive) also may lead to developmental retardation that, in turn, may affect
school performance and behavior. Thus, deficits in IQ or cognitive ability
resulting from early childhood abuse or neglect may lead to impaired
academic performance in elementary or secondary school and decreased
cognitive functioning.

Decreased functioning also may result in lowered self-esteem or the lack
of a sense of control over one's life, either directly (the child perceives she
was somehow responsible for the abuse or neglect or was unable to
prevent the victimization) or indirectly (through diminished social and
interpersonal skills). Also, because expectations for early academic
success are often higher for girls than boys,[16] such deficits in girls may
elicit more negative responses from teachers and caregivers that, in turn,
may place girls at greater risk for behavioral problems.[17]

Lack of traditional social controls

Traditionally, females are closely supervised, especially during their
formative years, and antisocial behavior is discouraged through sanctions.
Risk-taking behavior is often discouraged among girls but encouraged and
rewarded among boys.[18] Girls' friends are also more carefully
monitored, decreasing the likelihood of influence by delinquent peers.[19]

However, the lives of abused and neglected young girls do not necessarily
reflect these traditional patterns and social controls. They often grow up in
multiproblem homes with alcohol- or drug-abusing parents and other
social maladies, lacking the barriers described earlier as holding the
normal woman to the path of virtue.[20] Perhaps the "lucky" abused and
neglected girls are those who are placed into foster care and bond with
foster parents at an early age or those whose grandparents or other
relatives are able to rear them successfully.

Relationships with deviant or delinquent friends and relatives

Abused and neglected individuals are more likely to report that someone
in their family was arrested (a parent or sibling, for example) than are
nonabused and nonneglected individuals. High rates of psychopathology
are reported among the families of female delinquents and felons,[21] and
antisocial women and men often engage in "assortative" mating
(nonrandom mating resulting from the selection of similar partners).[22]

If behavioral preferences are a function of the networks in which a person
is embedded,[23] then it would not be surprising that abused and neglected
girls and women engaged in deviant or criminal behaviors because their
networks offered models or support for such behavior. Since many abused
and neglected girls are more likely to grow up in "criminogenic" homes
and in neighborhoods with high rates of crime and violence, there may be
numerous opportunities for them to learn and model aggressive and
antisocial behavior. This picture contrasts sharply with explanations
typically offered to explain the generally low rates of female crime. For
abused and neglected girls, we need to rethink these models.

Failure to learn social and psychological skills

Finally, childhood victimization may prevent girls from learning the social
and psychological skills needed for successful adult development. Abused
and neglected girls and women have multiple problems--including lower
academic and intellectual performance, more stressful life events,[24]
more suicide attempts,[25] increased likelihood of abusing alcohol,[26]
higher levels of hostility and sensation seeking, and lower levels of
self-esteem and sense of control[27]--than do nonabused and nonneglected
girls and women.

Some researchers suggest that the patterns of problems experienced by
women lead to noncriminal forms of coping that are not likely to trigger
aggressive forms of criminal behavior.[28] Our findings, however, suggest
otherwise: Abused and neglected females are more likely to use alcohol
and other drugs and turn to criminal and violent behaviors when coping
with stressful life events.[29]

The female criminal: Opportunities for intervention

The common explanations for female crime and its nonthreatening nature
do not account for the derailment of abused and neglected girls and
women to criminal behavior. From a public health perspective, these
consequences are particularly important because of the risk of sexually
transmitted diseases and the potential of these consequences to facilitate
girls' transition into prostitution.

As indicated, about 8 percent of abused and neglected girls (roughly the
same proportion as among nonabused and nonneglected males identified
in other studies) become chronic, persistent offenders, engaging in
violence and other forms of troublesome behavior that persist into
adulthood. More research on female offenders in general, and on abused
and neglected females in particular, is needed because there is very little
knowledge about how best to intervene and treat them. Rather than
denying there are women who are serious offenders, we need to
understand and respond to the mechanisms that lead them to engage in
criminal behavior not traditionally associated with women.

Women play a unique role in society: They produce children (80 to 85
percent of the females in this study were mothers). The behavior and
health risks (alcohol consumption, for example) these young adult women
face are of particular concern-especially because the environments they
create will affect the physical and psychosocial development of their
children.

We need to pay more attention and intervene when children first come in
contact with the criminal justice system as runaways and status offenders,
particularly with those who do so at very young ages. We also need to
identify the aspects of status offenses that suggest they are precursors of
adult criminal activity and the least harmful ways to respond so that these
behaviors do not persist. These will be the first steps in preventing the
derailment of young abused and neglected girls to the criminal justice
system and in enhancing their opportunities to lead healthy and successful
lives.

Notes

1. Glueck, S., and E. Glueck, Five Hundred Delinquent Women, New
York: A.A. Knopf, 1934.

2. Smith, A.D., Women in Prison, London: Stevens and Sons, 1962.

3. Lombroso, C., and W. Ferrero, The Female Offender, London: Fisher
Unwin, 1895.

4. Steffensmeier, D., and L. Broidy, "Explaining Female Offending," in
Women, Crime, and Criminal Justice: Contemporary Perspectives, ed.
C.M. Renzetti and L. Goodstein, Los Angeles, CA: Roxbury Publishing
Company, in press.

5. Browne, A., B. Miller, and E. Maguin, "Prevalence and Severity of
Lifetime Physical and Sexual Victimization Among Incarcerated Women,"
International Journal of Law and Psychiatry 22 (3/4) (1999): 301-322; and
Harlow, C.W., Prior Abuse Reported by Inmates and Probationers, Special
Report, Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice
Statistics, April 1999, NCJ 172879.

6. Widom, C.S., "The Cycle of Violence," Science 244 (1989): 160-166;
and Maxfield, M.G., and C.S. Widom, "The Cycle of Violence: Revisited
Six Years Later," Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine 150
(1996): 390-395.

7. Maxfield and Widom, "The Cycle of Violence."

8. Ibid.

9. Abused and neglected males are also at increased risk for prostitution
(based on arrests and/or self-reports) compared with control males (14.2
percent versus 8.0 percent, respectively); see Widom, C.S., and J.B.
Kuhns, "Childhood Victimization and Subsequent Risk for Promiscuity,
Prostitution, and Teenage Pregnancy," American Journal of Public Health
86 (11) (November 1996): 1607-1612.

10. Chesney-Lind, M., "Girls' Crime and Woman's Place: Toward a
Feminist Model of Female Delinquency," Crime and Delinquency 35 (1)
(January 1989): 5-29.

11. Widom, C.S., D. Nagin, and P. Lambert, "Does Childhood
Victimization Alter Developmental Trajectories of Criminal Careers?"
Paper presented to American Society of Criminology, annual meeting,
Washington, DC, November 11-14, 1998.

12. Chesney-Lind, M., "Women and Crime: The Female Offender," Signs 

12 (1986): 78-96; Chesney-Lind, "Girls' Crime and Woman's Place"; and
Chesney-Lind, M., and R. Sheldon, Girls, Delinquency, and Juvenile
Justice, Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole, 1992.

13. Chesney-Lind, "Girls' Crime and Woman's Place," 24.

14. Kaufman, J., and C.S. Widom, "Childhood Victimization, Running
Away, and Delinquency," Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency
36 (4) (November 1999): 347-370.

15. Perez, C.M., and C.S. Widom, "Childhood Victimization and
Long-Term Intellectual and Academic Outcomes," Child Abuse and
Neglect 18 (8) (1994): 617-633.

16. Keenan, K., and D.S. Shaw, "Developmental and Social Influences on
Young Girls' Early Problem Behavior," Psychological Bulletin 121
(1997): 95-113.

17. Keenan, K., R. Loeber, and S. Green, "Conduct Disorder in Girls: A
Review of the Literature," Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review
2 (1999): 3-19.

18. Steffensmeier and Broidy, "Explaining Female Offending."

19. Giordano, P., S. Cernkovich, and M. Pugh, "Friendships and
Delinquency," American Journal of Sociology 91 (1986): 1170-1203.

20. Lombroso and Ferrero, The Female Offender.

21. Cloninger, C.R., and S.B. Guze, "Psychiatric Illness in the Families of
Female Criminals: A Study of 288 First-Degree Relatives," British Journal 
of Psychiatry 122 (1973): 697-703.

22. Robins, L.N., Deviant Children Grown Up, Baltimore: Williams and
Wilkins, 1966.

23. Smith-Lovin, L., and J.M. McPherson, "You Are Who You Know: A
Network Approach to Gender," in Theory on Gender/Feminism on
Theory, ed. P. England, New York: Aldine deGruyter, 1993: 223-254.

24. Chavez, J.M., and C.S. Widom, "Childhood Victimization and
Substance Abuse: The Role of Stressful Life Events and Coping
Strategies," in review, 1999.

25. Widom, C.S., "Childhood Victimization: Early Adversity and
Subsequent Psychopathology," in Adversity, Stress, and Psychopathology,
ed. B.P. Dohrenwend, New York: Oxford University Press, 1998: 81-95.

26. Widom, C.S., T.O. Ireland, and P.J. Glynn, "Alcohol Abuse in Abused
and Neglected Children Followed-Up: Are They at Increased Risk?"
Journal of Studies on Alcohol 56 (1995): 207-217.

27. Widom, C.S., "Motivation and Mechanisms in the 'Cycle of
Violence'," in Nebraska Symposium on Motivation, vol. 46, ed. D.
Hansen, Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, in press.

28. Broidy, L., and R. Agnew, "Gender and Crime: A General Strain
Theory Perspective," Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency 34
(3) (August 1997): 275-306.

29. Chavez and Widom, "Childhood Victimization and Substance Abuse."

-------------------------------

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NCJ 180973