Candace Kruttschnitt

Patterns of Intimate Partner Violence and Their Associations with Physical Health, Psychological Distress, and Substance Use

Objectives. The purpose of this work is to formally model patterns of intimate partner violence (IPV) separately for males and females and to assess the unique contributions of different types of violence exposure to health related outcomes. Methods. Using data from the National Violence Against Women Survey—a national probability sample of U.S. men and women—latent class analyses produced a map of the underlying structure of IPV for both males and females that is defined by specific types of violent acts. Multivariable logistic regression analyses assessed the differential physical health, mental health, and substance use consequences of exposure to IPV by gender. Results. Women and men experience similar types of IPV, although the prevalence of the different types of violence is much greater for women than men. Second, exposure to IPV for both women and men is associated with a range of negative health outcomes including increased odds of poor physical health and physical disability, psychological distress and mental illness, and heightened recreational and non-recreational substance use. Finally, there is some evidence that experiences with IPV have stronger and broader associations with negative health outcomes among women, likely reflecting differences in the severity of violence experienced by men and women. Conclusions. More attention to the ways in which interpersonal violence is conceptualized, measured, and screened for is crucial. Specifically, while women have greater exposure to IPV, and subsequently a greater range of health problems, the effects on men should not be ignored.

Psychological well-being of incarcerated women in the Netherlands: Importation or deprivation?

In light of the dramatic increase over the past decade in the number of women incarcerated in the Netherlands, we examined 251 female inmates’ psychological reactions to imprisonment with a survey that taps importation and deprivation factors and related life experiences. While depressive complaints, irritability and risk of self-harm were all predicted by both sets of factors, the evidence suggests that deprivation factors have a greater impact on these measures of well-being than importation factors. Previous treatment for psychological problems was the most important covariate for psychological complaints and post-traumatic stress. The most important deprivation factors were treatment by staff and other inmates, and environmental stress. Accordingly, we suggest that in order to further our understanding of women prisoners’ adaptations to incarceration greater attention should be directed to women’s conditions of confinement and less to their histories of victimization and drug abuse.

Are there still Contrasts in Tolerance? Imprisonment in the Netherlands and England 20 years later

Twenty years ago, David Downes in his classic study, Contrasts in Tolerance, interviewed Dutch prisoners held in England and English prisoners held in the Netherlands and concluded that the Dutch provided a more humane penal system. Since that time, there have been significant changes in penal policies in both England and the Netherlands, which call into question both his conclusions and many of the current comparative analyses of penal trends. We examine the conditions of confinement for both Dutch prisoners held in English prisons and English prisoners held in the Netherlands to determine whether and how these carceral environments have changed over time. We draw on recent organizational research on ‘inhabited institutions’ to help advance our understanding of both transformations and continuities in penal trends across different political contexts.

The well-being of children of incarcerated mothers: An exploratory study for the Netherlands

Little empirical research exists on children whose mothers are incarcerated. We examined Dutch children’s experiences regarding their mother’s incarceration, using a mixed methods approach. We found that, although children stay in various care-giving situations, a large proportion of them were already living apart from their mothers when maternal incarceration started. The children report elevated levels of problem behaviour and decreased well-being. There is evidence that these may also be due to the negative life events they experienced before their mother’s incarceration. Recommendations for future research are discussed.

Female desistance: A review of the literature

To examine whether, and if so how, male-based theories of desistance also apply to female offenders, this article reviews 44 studies on female desistance. Where available, gender differences in desistance are considered. Having children and supportive relationships is found to be important for females, in addition to economic independence, the absence of drugs and individual agency. Gender differences are found for the influence of children, supportive relationships, employment and the absence of criminal peers. This review shows that male-based theories of desistance seem applicable to females as well. Furthermore, results underscore the importance of considering how individual and social factors interact during the process of desistance. Implications for future research and for strategies for promoting desistance are discussed.

Risky Relationships? Assortative Mating and Women’s Experiences of Intimate Partner Violence

Research indicates that female offenders are far more likely to have experienced intimate partner violence than women in the general population. Despite extensive research on women’s pathways into offending, very little is known about why these women are at increased risk for partner violence. The authors use data from a sample of incarcerated women to explore various explanations for this association, paying particular attention to assortative mating patterns and the role of lifestyle. Findings indicate that, net of other risk factors, relationships with criminally involved partners increase women’s risks of victimization. Such findings have implications for assortative mating theory, the study of female offenders, and studies of the community-level impact of incarceration.

Estimating the Incidence of Rape and Sexual Assault

1 Front Matter 2 Summary 3 1 Introduction 4 2 Legal Definitions and Context 5 3 Data from Law Enforcement Agencies 6 4 National Crime Victimization Survey 7 5 Selected Other Surveys on Rape and Sexual Assault 8 6 Comparison of Rape and Sexual Assault Across Data Sources 9 7 Potential Sources of Error in the NCVS: Sampling, Frame, and Processing 10 8 Potential Sources of Error: Nonresponse, Specification, and Measurement 11 9 Synopsis of Potential Errors in the National Crime Victimization Survey 12 10 New Directions for Measuring Rape and Sexual Assault 13 References 14 Appendix A: Need for the Study 15 Appendix B: Workshop and Public Meetings: Agendas and Participants 16 Appendix C: Links to Questionnaires of the National Crime Victimization Survey 17 Appendix D: Selected Surveys Measuring Rape: An Overview 18 Appendix E: Statistical Rationale Behind Some Initial Findings on the Relative Statistical Plausibility of a Multiple-Frame Approach to Estimating the Victimization Rate of Rape and Sexual Assault 19 Appendix F: Biographical Sketches of Panel Members and Staff 20 Committee on National Statistics

Ages of Chivalry, Places of Paternalism Gender and Criminal Sentencing in Finland

In this study, we argue that the traditional paradigm used to explain the leniency accorded to women offenders in US criminal courts ignores advances in feminist research which suggest how normative patterns that reinforce gender identities can and do change. Using data from Finland, a society generally characterized by more gender equality than is found in the USA, we examine whether an offenders sex has a significant impact on the decision to imprison. Controlling for relevant legal and social characteristics, and considering the conditional effects of labour force participation and parental responsibilities, the findings show that the often-noted preferential treatment given to female offenders, relative to their male counterparts in the USA, is not present in Finland.

THE POLITICS, AND PLACE, OF GENDER IN RESEARCH ON CRIME†

The study of gender and crime has grown exponentially over the past 40 years, but in some fundamental respects, it remains underdeveloped. Few scholars have considered both the similarities and the differences in the predictors of offending among males and females and the implication of this for middle-range theories. Victimization has been put forth as a major explanatory factor for female offending; yet the study of female victimization has been ghettoized because it has failed to address the ways in which it is related to the larger literature of victimization. Female inmates have always been characterized as having special needs, but the basic necessities (housing and employment) inmates require once they are released from prison are in fact gender neutral. These bodies of research all have suggested that the salience of gender varies in different contexts and is intermixed with other forms of stratification. As such, we would do well to attend to those situations and relational processes that foreground gender and focus our efforts on where gender-based paradigms are important and can have a real impact.

Bringing Women’s Carceral Experiences into the “New Punitiveness” Fray

The last decade produced a revival in comparative penal research, most of which focuses on explaining aggregate-level changes in imprisonment rates. In this paper, we highlight the absence of women in this research and we shift the focus from aggregate imprisonment rates to women’s prison experiences, arguing that these experiences are the best indicators of the post-modern penal era. Using both survey and interview data, we examine women’s perceptions of control over their carceral lives in California, England, and the Netherlands. We find similar prison experiences explain perceptions of control across all three regimes, but regime differences ultimately produce very different outcomes for these women.