Female Offenders Research Paper

I have chosen to do my final project writing assignment on female offenders. Today, females are the fastest growing offenders of the prison population. Some of the attributing factors to this increase in female prison population is an increase in violent behavior by females, increased substance abuse and an increased awareness by law enforcement toward female offenders. Female offenders may have many differences from male offenders in their risks and needs while in the system however they share similar demographic characteristics as incarcerated males. Female and male offenders are both primarily from a lower social and economic status, they lack in education, have poor employment history and are comprised of mostly minorities. Some more important characteristics of female offenders are they were most likely involved in a previous relationship with their victims and or committed crimes with or at the demand of males. Females face many challenges in prison, deprivation of liberty, lack of autonomy, concerns for personal security and loss of heterosexual relationships. These are just the basic stressors that female inmates feel, but it has been
Over three-quarters of the 1,006 survey respondents supported drug and alcohol treatment (77%) and almost three quarters supported compulsory work in the community (72%) and counseling (74%). Over two in three (67%) said prison was not likely to reduce offending and three in four (73%) did not think mothers of young children should be sent to prison. Another great point made to support this issue is the fact that it is way cheaper to treat a woman for her underlying issues rather than to imprison her and have the government care for her children while she is in