Discounting Women: Context Matters in Risk and Need Assessment

Widely used risk/need assessment instruments assume that female offender risks for recidivism are essentially equivalent to those of male offenders. A look at the lives of female and male offenders reveals that there are important differences in the context of both offending and re-offending. This research draws on both quantitative and qualitative data to explore the effectiveness of a well known risk instrument to both predict recidivism and potentially direct intervention efforts. The results, particularly the in-depth interviews with offenders (both male and female) serving time on parole or felony probation reveal differences not detected by most contemporary risk and need assessment instruments. Ultimately, the gendered links among physical and sexual abuse, drugs, and crime are missed in risk and need assessments, thereby placing female offenders at risk for neglect and criminalization in an otherwise seemingly objective method of assessment.

[1]  C. Hollin,et al.  Criminogenic need and women offenders: A critique of the literature , 2006 .

[2]  B. Bloom,et al.  Gendered justice : addressing female offenders , 2003 .

[3]  Don M. Gottfredson,et al.  Prediction and Classification in Criminal Justice Decision Making , 1987, Crime and Justice.

[4]  C. Clements.  Offender Classification , 1996 .

[5]  Susan L. Miller.  Victims as Offenders: The Paradox of Women's Violence in Relationships , 2005 .

[6]  D. Gottfredson,et al.  The Mathematics of Risk Classification: Changing Data into Valid Instruments for Juvenile Courts. NCJ 209158. , 2005 .

[7]  J. Petersilia,et al.  When Prisoners Come Home: Parole and Prisoner Reentry , 2009 .

[8]  Grant E. Coulson,et al.  Predictive Utility of the LSI for Incarcerated Female Offenders , 1996 .

[9]  B. Owen,et al.  Gender-Responsive Strategies Research, Practice, and Guiding Principles for Women Offenders , 2003 .

[10]  Joanne Belknap,et al.  The Invisible Woman: Gender, Crime, and Justice , 1995 .

[11]  Colin Bateman,et al.  Cycle of Violence , 1995 .

[12]  Christopher T. Lowenkamp,et al.  Ethnicity, gender, and the Level of Service Inventory-Revised , 2003 .

[13]  C. Widom,et al.  Alcohol Abuse as a Risk Factor for and Consequence of Child Abuse , 2001, Alcohol research & health : the journal of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.

[14]  James Bonta,et al.  Risk-needs assessment and treatment. , 1996 .

[15]  K. Farr,et al.  Classification for Female Inmates: Moving Forward , 2000 .

[16]  J. Belknap,et al.  The Gendered Nature of Risk Factors for Delinquency , 2006 .

[17]  J. Flavin.  EMPLOYMENT COUNSELING, HOUSING ASSISTANCE… AND AUNT YOLANDA?: HOW STRENGTHENING FAMILIES’ SOCIAL CAPITAL CAN REDUCE RECIDIVISM , 2004 .

[18]  Mary Bosworth.  GENDER, RISK, AND RECIDIVISM , 2004 .

[19]  David E. Olson,et al.  Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus, but What Role Does Gender Play in Probation Recidivism? , 2003 .

[20]  G. Turkel,et al.  Making Crime Pay: Law and Order in Contemporary American Politics. , 1997 .

[21]  L. Motiuk,et al.  Implementing offender classification systems: Lessons learned. , 2001 .

[22]  Steven P. Lab.  LET'S PUT IT IN CONTEXT , 2003 .

[23]  Sarah J. Greenman,et al.  Prisoners in 2009 , 2010 .

[24]  J. Gray.  Men are from Mars, women are from Venus : the classic guide to understanding the opposite sex , 1992 .

[25]  Alan T. Harland.  Choosing correctional options that work. Defining the demand and evaluation the supply. (Weber) , 1999 .

[26]  Don A. Andrews,et al.  What Works for Female Offenders: A Meta-Analytic Review , 1999 .

[27]  Shelley L. Brown,et al.  The Assessment and Treatment of Women Offenders , 2006 .

[28]  Robert Reiner,et al.  The Oxford Handbook of Criminology , 2012 .

[29]  Neal P. Langan,et al.  Gender Differences in Predictors of Prison Violence: Assessing the Predictive Validity of a Risk Classification System , 2001 .

[30]  M. Morash.  Understanding Gender, Crime, and Justice , 2005 .

[31]  Dc Washington.  National Institute of Justice. , 2010 .

[32]  J. Sprague,et al.  Feminist Methodologies for Critical Researchers: Bridging Differences , 2005 .

[33]  B. Harcourt,et al.  Against Prediction: Profiling, Policing and Punishing in an Actuarial Age by B.E. Harcourt , 2008 .

[34]  Stephanie J. Funk,et al.  Risk Assessment for Juveniles on Probation , 1999 .

[35]  C. Kruttschnitt,et al.  Women's Imprisonment , 2003, Crime and Justice.

[36]  B. Richie.  Compelled to Crime: The Gender Entrapment of Battered, Black Women , 1995 .

[37]  Michael D. Reisig,et al.  POVERTY, STATE CAPITAL, AND RECIDIVISM AMONG WOMEN OFFENDERS* , 2004 .

[38]  Jonathan Simon,et al.  The New Penology: Notes on the Emerging Strategy of Corrections and Its Implications , 1992 .

[39]  Donald Braman.  Doing Time on the Outside: Incarceration and Family Life in Urban America , 2004 .

[40]  Kristy Holtfreter,et al.  Assessing Recidivism Risk Across Female Pathways to Crime , 2006 .

[41]  D. Gottfredson,et al.  Prediction and Classification: Criminal Justice Decision Making. , 1989 .

[42]  B. Benda.  Gender Differences in Life-Course Theory of Recidivism: A Survival Analysis , 2005, International journal of offender therapy and comparative criminology.

[43]  B. Richie,et al.  Challenges Incarcerated Women Face as They Return to Their Communities: Findings from Life History Interviews , 2001 .