NCJ Number
88349
Editor(s)
B R Price,
N J Sokoloff
Date Published
1982
Length
485 pages
Annotation
Criminal justice practitioners, sociologists, and others studied sex discrimination in criminal justice, revealing that sexism, racism, and the class structure negatively affect all women in the system.
Abstract
Several papers on female offenders address existing theories of female criminality and explore how the law has affected and been affected by women, trends in female crime, and the female status offender. Some authors refute the claim that the women's liberation movement has encouraged female crime and offer data demonstrating that female crime is not becoming similar to male crime. Papers on women and corrections include a history of reform in New York State's female correctional institutions, a survey of women's correctional institutions in the United States, the problems of inmate mothers, and female inmates' limited access to legal services. Following an overview of the victimization of women, individual papers focus on rape, battered women, prostitution, incest, pornography, and sexual harassment. Examinations of female criminal justice system professionals include the selection process keeping women from attaining judgeships, sexual discrimination within the legal profession, the physical performance of female patrol officers, the discriminatory effect of physical agility tests, and racism and sexism in an urban police agency. A radical criminologist's approach to feminism examines the contradictions of capitalism and its effects on women. Other papers look at historical trends in the women's movement and assess its potential for achieving future reforms. All articles include references. For individual papers, see NCJ 88350-58.