examination of psycho-social conditions under which provincially sentenced women offend.
Published: 2004
Language: eng
Number of pages: 189
Subjects: Females offenders -- Ontario -- Social conditions.; Females offenders -- Ontario -- Psychology.; Females offenders -- Rehabilitation -- Ontario.; Recidivism -- Ontario.
Description: Findings from this study support previous research that emphasizes the need for a gender responsive framework in understanding women's offending as well as the importance of examining 'dynamic' factors in women's offending. Results point to the role of victimization, substance abuse, poverty, marginalization and its long-term impact on mental health and women's capacity for survival. Implications for women's abilities to overcome these barriers in their successful re-integration into the community are discussed as well as the need for addressing these issues in designing correctional programs and policy.This study investigated psychological and social conditions under which provincially sentenced women offend. It examined women's present day life circumstances (i.e. economic disadvantage, current addictions, adult victimization, employment, and unstable housing and social support), psychological functioning (i.e. coping styles, self-efficacy, attributional style, mental distress), attitude to crime, historical factors (criminal history, childhood victimization) and their influence on women's offending.Findings demonstrated that women offenders were doing significantly worse on various aspects of psychological functioning and mental health compared to women in the general population and recidivists were experiencing significantly greater problems in areas of social support, adult victimization, addictions and poverty than first time offenders. Overall, women offenders did not appear to demonstrate procriminal attitudes, however, significantly more recidivists had histories of juvenile offending, problem avoidance styles as well as slightly more procriminal attitudes than first time offenders. 'Higher rate' offenders demonstrated significantly more problems with current addictions, unemployment, poverty and histories of juvenile offending.Psychological functioning, difficult life circumstances and experiences of historical disadvantage were factors that explained higher rates of offending in the group of 'higher rate' offenders. Experiences of historical disadvantage and difficult life circumstances explained diverse aspects of psychological functioning including low self-efficacy, use of problem avoidance as a coping style, mental distress and pessimistic attributional style. Results also demonstrated that for recidivists poverty was a salient factor in re-offending.
Notes: Adviser:  Mary Alice Guttman.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Toronto, 2004.

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 127-147)

Electronic version licensed for access by U. of T. users.

Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 65-10, Section: A, page: 3710.