Women in Constraints - Western Australia

• NCJ Number: 74213
• Author(s): J Hartz-Karp
• Date Published: 1979
• Length: 36 pages
• Corporate Author: Western Australia Dept of Corrections
• Publication Format: Document
• Publication Type: Statistics
• Language: English
• Country: Australia
• Note: Research and Information Series, no. 18. Derived from a paper presented to the Australian Institute of Criminology 'Women and Crime' Conference, Canberra, Australia, June, 1979.

Annotation

The use of sex role socialization theory in explaining forms of deviancy for men and women in Western Australia is discussed; statistical data focusing on incarceration rates in prisons and in mental hospitals are examined.

Abstract

In western societies it appears that men and women are affected differently by cultural rules and social mechanisms which interact in deterimining forms of deviancy. Recorded crime and mental illness rates show that while men are more likely to become involved in criminal careers, women are more likely to embark upon mental illness careers as a manifestation of deviancy. In an effort to test the sex role socialization theory, recent data reflecting incarceration rates were examined. From the available statistics it appears that rates of female incarceration in prisons and in mental hospitals compared to male rates have declined slightly over the last decade. It is apparent that the hypothesis that the Womens Liberation Movement has led to a rise in female crime rates is not supported. Similarly, the hypothesis that the emancipation of women has resulted in rising female imprisonment rates and declining female mental hospitalization rates is not supported. Although the theory of sex role socialization provides insight into male/female deviant outcomes, it cannot bridge the gap between behavior in the community, i.e., changing sex roles, and rates of incarceration. The making of a deviant, either prisoner or mental patient, is a dynamic process involving the actions of the individual as well as societal reaction. It is suggested that qualitative rather than quantitative research is necessary to examine changing deviant behavior and the reaction to it as a separate variable in the complex process which results in women who must be confined. Tables and 53 references are included in the paper. (Author abstract modified).