Studies of criminology over the last few decades has often left little room for research and theory on how female offenders are perceived and handled in the criminal justice system. Co-authored by Meda Chesney-Lind, one of the pioneers in the development of the feminist theoretical perspective in criminology, this 2nd edition redresses the balance by providing critical insight into these issues. In an engaging style, authors Meda Chesney-Lind and Lisa Pasko explore gender and cultural factors in women's lives that often precede criminal behavior and address the question of whether female offenders are more violent today than in the past. The authors provide a revealing look at how public discomfort with the idea of women as criminals significantly impacts the treatment received by this offender population. The result is a book that will be an enlightening and thought-provoking read for academics, researchers and students not just in the areas of criminology and criminal justice but in more general sociology and women's studies as well.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments Chapter 1. Introduction Chapter 2. Girls' Troubles and "Female Delinquency Trends in Girls' Arrests Boys' Theories and Girls' Lives Criminalizing Girls' Survival: Abuse, Victimization, and Girls' Official Delinquency Delinquency Theory and Gender: Beyond Status Offenses Chapter 3. Girls, Gangs, and Violence: Rediscovering the "Liberated Female Crook" The Media, Girls of Color, and Gangs Trends in Girls' Violence and Aggression Girl Gang Membership Girls and Gangs: Qualitative Studies Labeling Girls Violent? Girls, Gangs, and Media Hype: A Final Note 4. The Juvenile Justice System and Girls "The Best Place to Conquer Girls" Girls and Juvenile Justice Reform Deinstitutionalization and Judicial Paternalism: Challenges to the Double Standard of Juvenile Justice Rising Detentions and Racialized Justice Offense Patterns of Girls in Custody--Bootstrapping Deinstitutionalization or Transinstitutionalization? Girls and the Mental Health System Small Numbers Don't Mean Small Problems: Girls in Institutions Instead of Incarceration: What Could Be Done to Meet the Needs of Girls? Chapter 5. Trends in Women's Crime Unruly Women: A Brief History of Women's Offenses Trends in Women's Arrests How Could She? The Nature and Causes of Women's Crime Big Time/Small Time Pathways to Women's Crime Beyond the Street Woman: Resurrecting the Liberated Female Crook? The Revival of the "Violent Female Offender" Chapter 6. Drugs, Violence, and Women's Crime - with Karen Joe Laidler Drug Use in a Multiethnic Community A Profile of the Women The Family: Conflict and Comfort Dealing With Family Turmoil Pathway to Drugs Demystifying Women of Color Gender, Culture, and Drug Use "Crack Pipe as Pimp": Drugs, Ethnicity, and Gender in African American Communities Prostitution and Drug Use Victimization, Prostitution, and Women's Crime Conclusion Chapter 7. Sentencing Women to Prison: Equality Without Justice Trends in Women's Crime: A Reprise Women, Violent Crimes, and the War on Drugs Getting Tough on Women's Crime Building More Women's Prisons Profile of Women in U.S. Prisons Reducing Women's Imprisonment Through Effective Community-Based Strategies and Programs Detention Versus Prevention Chapter 8. Conclusion References Index About the Authors

Author Biography

Lisa Pasko, Assistant Professor, received her PhD from the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Lisa's primary research and teaching interests include criminology, punishment, sexualities/gender studies, as well as methodological issues in conducting studies of crime and deviance. Her dissertation examined juvenile delinquency and justice in Hawaii, with particular attention on the differential effects institutional policies and behaviors have on boys and girls. She is co-author of "The Female Offender" and other articles that explore issues of gender and delinquency. Dr. Pasko teaches courses on criminology, the female offender, men and masculinities, and crime and punishment. For the past ten years, she has been involved in criminal justice research. As project coordinator for the University of Hawaii Youth Gang Project, she evaluated numerous prevention and intervention programs for at-risk youth. Dr. Pasko has published in a variety of areas, including an ethnography of stripping, pathways predictors of juvenile justice involvement, a feminist analysis of restorative justice initiatives, and evaluations of two girl offender programs. Her current research is funded by the Colorado Division of Criminal Justice and examines the treatment of sexual minority girls in youth corrections. Meda Chesney-Lind is Professor of Women's Studies at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. She holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Hawaii, and a B.A. Summa Cum Laude from Whitman College. She has served as Vice President of the American Society of Criminology and president of the Western Society of Criminology. Nationally recognized for her work on women and crime, her books include Girls, Delinquency and Juvenile Justice, The Female Offender: Girls, Women and Crime, Female Gangs in America, Invisible Punishment, Girls, Women and Crime, and Beyond Bad Girls: Gender Violence and Hype. She has just finished an edited collection on trends in girls' violence, entitled Fighting for Girls: Critical Perspectives on Gender and Violence, published by SUNY Press. Dr. Chesney-Lind is a Fellow of the American Society of Criminology and the Western Society of Criminology. She has been on the Women's Studies faculty at the University of Hawaii since 1986, and also serves on the graduate faculty in the Department of Sociology. She received the Bruce Smith, Sr. Award "for outstanding contributions to Criminal Justice" from the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences in April, 2001. She was named a fellow of the American Society of Criminology in 1996 and has also received the Herbert Block Award for service to the society and the profession from the American Society of Criminology. She has also received the Donald Cressey Award from the National Council on Crime and Delinquency for "outstanding contributions to the field of criminology," the Founders award of the Western Society of Criminology for "significant improvement of the quality of justice," and the University of Hawaii Board of Regent's Medal for "Excellence in Research." Chesney-Lind is an outspoken advocate for girls and women, particularly those who find their way into the criminal justice system. Her work on the problem of sexism in the treatment of girls in the juvenile justice system was partially responsible for the recent national attention devoted to services to girls in that system. More recently, she has worked hard to call attention to the soaring rate of women's imprisonment and the need to vigorously seek alternatives to women's incarceration. In Hawaii, Chesney-Lind has served as Principal Investigator of a long standing project on Hawaii's youth gang problem funded by the State of Hawaii Office of Youth Services. She has more recently also received funding to conduct research on the unique problems of girl's at risk of becoming delinquent from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. Finally, she has also recently been tapped by the Hawaii Department of Public Safety to serve on an advisory panel on the problems of women in prison in Hawaii.