Dawn Beichner

Is Preferential Treatment of Female Offenders a Thing of the Past? A Multisite Study of Gender, Race, and Imprisonment

Dramatic increases in the number of women incarcerated in state and federal prisons have led some researchers to conclude that differential sentencing of female offenders is a thing of the past. This study uses data on offenders convicted of felonies in Chicago, Miami, and Kansas City to address this issue. The authors find no evidence to support this “gender neutrality” hypothesis. In all three jurisdictions, women face significantly lower odds of incarceration than do men. The results also reveal that the effect of race is conditioned by gender but the effect of gender, with only one exception, is not conditioned by race; harsher treatment of racial minorities is confined to men but more lenient treatment of women is found for both racial minorities and Whites.

Prosecutorial Charging Decisions in Sexual Assault Cases: Examining the Impact of a Specialized Prosecution Unit

Although the criminal justice system has undergone reform to eliminate sexual assault case attrition and to improve the overall treatment of sexual assault victims, few studies have examined the effect of these reforms. In this study, the authors examine prosecutorial charging decisions across two unique jurisdictions: Kansas City, Missouri, which utilizes a specialized unit for sexual assault cases, and Miami, Florida, which does not use a specialized unit to determine the effect of prosecutorial specialization on case outcomes. The findings of the study reveal that, despite differences in departmental policies and rates of plea bargaining and trials, prosecutors’ charging decisions and the predictors of charging are similar in the two jurisdictions. The authors conclude that, regardless of whether decisions are made in a specialized unit or not, victim credibility is a real “focal concern” of the prosecutor in sexual assault cases.

Modeling the effects of victim behavior and moral character on prosecutors' charging decisions in sexual assault cases

Prior research, modeling the effects of the victim’s behavior and character on prosecutors’ charging decisions, has used either a dichotomous variable that reflects the presence of any risky behavior or moral character issues or an additive index that captures the number of related items in a case file. We suggest that these measures do not adequately identify the specific issues that prosecutors take into consideration when making charging decisions. Using data on 666 sexual assault cases that resulted in arrest in three urban jurisdictions and a multivariate modeling strategy, we examine specific risk-taking behaviors and issues related to the victim’s moral character in an effort to determine if certain behaviors and characteristics have a more substantial effect on charging decisions than others. We also examine the extent to which the effects of these blame and believability factors vary based on the nature of the cases. Our results reveal that although charging decisions in stranger cases are largely determined by legally relevant factors, these decisions in nonstranger cases are affected by several legally irrelevant victim characteristics: whether the victim had a prior criminal record, whether the victim had been drinking alcohol prior to the assault, and whether the victim invited the suspect to her residence. Further analysis, however, revealed that only the victim’s prior record had a differential effect on charging decisions in cases involving strangers and nonstrangers and in aggravated and simple rape cases. Our results suggest that the focal concerns that guide prosecutors’ charging decisions incorporate specific victim behaviors and background characteristics.

Examining Charging Agreement Between Police and Prosecutors in Rape Cases

Although prior research has contributed to understanding of the factors that influence sexual assault case processing, it has primarily been viewed through the prosecutorial lens. The authors assert that a prosecutor’s charging decision involves not only a decision to file or reject the charge but, assuming that the case is not rejected, also a decision regarding the charge that should be filed. Accordingly, they examined the congruence between the charge filed by police at arrest with the charge filed by the prosecutor. The results indicate that charging agreement between police and prosecutors in rape cases is governed by a legal sufficiency framework in Philadelphia, where a specialized charging unit receives cases after decisions to charge have been made, and a trial sufficiency framework in Kansas City, Missouri, where a specialized unit makes the decision to charge and uses vertical prosecution from screening through disposition.

A Comparison of Civil and Criminal Orders of Protection as Remedies for Domestic Violence Victims in a Midwestern County

Past research has identified many potential advantages of civil protection orders as a means of addressing domestic violence without invoking an official response of the criminal justice system. Using data from a Midwestern county, this exploratory study provides a comparison of civil protection orders with orders of protection that are filed in conjunction with a criminal battering arrest. We examine the demographic characteristics of the respondents/defendants and petitioners/victims, the nature of the abuse leading up to the filing of the protection order, the reasons for filing, the terms of the order, location of the offense, and violations of orders. Our findings reveal many similarities between types of orders, in terms of order stipulations, past abuse histories of petitioners/victims, and respondents/defendants’ likelihood of reoffending. The findings also reveal an important difference in the petitioners’ and victims’ reasons for filing; whereas petitioners in civil cases were more likely to identify emotional abuse as the factor leading up to issuance of the order, victims in criminal cases were more likely to document physical abuse. We discuss these findings in the context of victim preference.

An Analysis of Advertisements: A Lens for Viewing the Social Exclusion of Women in Police Imagery

The present study was designed to analyze gender stereotypes in U.S. print advertisements of police officers in a professional police magazine (n = 680). A decade (1996–2006) of advertisements was examined using E. Goffmans (1979) framework for content/frame analysis. The results suggest that women (n = 99) are numerically underrepresented and socially excluded from the imagery of crime-fighting; rather, they are portrayed as being in lower ranks, stereotypically as caretakers and nurturers. The implications for women police, the citizens they serve, and the administrators who hire them are critical, as advertisements function as a feedback loop whereby notions of what a female officer is are represented, digested, and recreated.

LGBT Issues and Criminal Justice Education

This chapter reviews the state of the literature regarding college students’ attitudes toward LGBT individuals, and then narrows that focus to discuss criminal justice majors in particular. The status of criminal justice education on LBGT issues is discussed, with particular attention to why such issues are important for undergraduate criminal justice education. The authors suggest a paradigm for inclusion of such issues in criminal justice curriculum globally, modeled after the decision to include race and gender issues in that same curriculum.

A Legal and Policy Argument for Bail Denial and Preventative Treatment for Batterers in the United States

Historically, battering has been a culturally and legally acceptable form of social control within the United States. This article provides an examination of how this legacy of social acceptance has influenced the development of laws and social policies related to battering. We provide a critique of our current approach to battering and our historical reliance on private or social helping agencies intended to hide and protect victims. We call for a transformation of our current policies that provides for the removal of the batterer—not the victim and her children—from the family home through a process of bail denial and preventative detention.

Incarcerated Women: Their Situation, Their Needs and Measures for Sustainable Reintegration

This contribution centers on incarcerated women offenders worldwide, their lived experiences, specific problems and needs, as well as correctional programming intended to help them reintegrate back into society. The chapter provides a theoretical understanding of the general marginalization of women in almost every modern society and an overview of theories that have been developed to explain why women commit offenses. Next, statistical information is provided concerning the prevalence of women prisoners in various parts of the world and the ways in which policy changes in the war on drugs and mandatory sentencing have impacted women’s incarceration rates. The chapter then explores the gender-specific differences in women’s pathways to prison and their distinct problems and needs, including the detrimental effects of mothers’ incarceration on children. It concludes with promising approaches from different countries.

Restorative Justice als Philosophie in Frauenhäusern

Dieser Beitrag geht von der Situation der durch ihre Partner misshandelter Frauen aus, die – ggf. mit ihren Kindern – in ein Frauenhaus gefluchtet sind. Viele Frauen aus allen Schichten sind von Partnergewalt (IPV)1 betroffen, haufig Angehorige von Minderheiten (vgl. Condon 2010: 488). Nach einem Bericht der Bundesregierung erfahrt jede vierte Frau in Deutschland korperliche oder sexuelle Gewalt durch einen Partner (vgl. BMFSFJ 2004: 8).