Women and Crime: A Reference Handbook

(Hardback)

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Description

Drawing on government data and interdisciplinary expertise, this timely book seeks to explain why the changing economic and legal status of women has not reduced the gender gap in criminal offending. Women and Crime: A Reference Handbook examines how women's patterns of offending have changed over time in America, from the Colonial period to the present. The book sets the stage with a historical overview of women's criminal activity. Subsequent chapters cover such topics as changes in women's status and patterns of offending; the impact of childhood abuse on the development of criminality; and how changes in law, the War on Drugs, and other crime policy have, in fact, increased the frequency of women's imprisonment and arrests. International issues, such as legalization of prostitution, sex trafficking, and women's involvement in organized crime, including drug cartels, are also explored. Each chapter examines theory, research, law, policy, and key players in the evolving response to women's crime patterns. Throughout the work, the author links women's status, victimization, and offending patterns, and suggests how crime control policy, far from saving women, is increasingly making it impossible for female offenders to live on the outside.

Reviews

This most recent addition to ABC-CLIO's Contemporary World Issues series offers a broad survey of the terrain. The series itself is uniformly attractive in terms of an appealing and easy-to-use format. Although any student of 'women and crime' would find some useful information in this volume. . . . Altogether, this reference work is a useful resource on a topic of growing interest and significance. * ARBA *
This title will be a solid addition to academic libraries for use by students in criminal justice and women's studies programs. * Library Journal *

Author Bio

Judith A. Warner, PhD, is professor of sociology and criminal justice at Texas A&M International University, Laredo, TX.