Race and Women’s Imprisonment: Poverty, African American Presence, and Social Welfare

Abstract

Female imprisonment rates have increased proportionately more than male imprisonment rates over recent decades. There are substantial race differences in women's rates, as is the case for men. Yet, there has been little quantitative research on the correlates of women's imprisonment using data over time, or on potential race differences in those correlates. The present research analyzes data on black and nonblack female imprisonment rates in the 50 states for the period 1981-2003. The analyses are guided substantively by existing research on race, social threat and criminal punishment, and theory and research on the penal-welfare hypothesis. The study uses bivariate-response multilevel modeling to simultaneously examine the factors associated with black and nonblack women's imprisonment rates. The results show that black female imprisonment rates increase when the concentration of African Americans in metropolitan areas and poverty rates grow, whereas nonblack female imprisonment rates are unaffected by poverty rates and actually decrease when African American populations become more concentrated in metro areas. Both black An earlier version of this paper was presented at the and nonblack women's imprisonment rates increase when welfare spending declines. The results are consistent with social threat perspectives and the penal-welfare hypotheses.

Leaving Prison

“…Two of these studies specifically examined length of confinement as well but find no evidence that major policy reforms increased time served in prison Zhang et al, 2009). But none found significant effects of determinate sentencing on Black imprisonment rates or on the ratio of Black to White imprisonment rates (Bridges & Crutchfield;1988;Carroll & Cornell, 1985;Heimer, Johnson, Lang, Rengifo, & Stemen, 2012;Yates & Fording, 2005). But none found significant effects of determinate sentencing on Black imprisonment rates or on the ratio of Black to White imprisonment rates (Bridges & Crutchfield;1988;Carroll & Cornell, 1985;Heimer, Johnson, Lang, Rengifo, & Stemen, 2012;Yates & Fording, 2005).…”

Does the Gender Gap in Delinquency Vary by Level of Patriarchy? A Cross‐national Comparative Analysis

“…On the surface, it seems that women's offending has increased. In the United States, women's imprisonment has almost doubled since 1970 (Heimer et al., ), although their level of incarceration remains low compared with that of men. Although some scholars argue that these trends reflect changes in women's behavior, others suggest that the changes are merely an artifact of a wider net being cast by police officers as cultural views on women have shifted (Curran, ; Schwartz et al, ; Steffensmeier et al., , ).…”

The political economy of imprisonment

“…Further, much of the existing research as examined the effects of minority group presence on overall (rather than race-disaggregated) imprisonment rates (e.g., Jacobs and Helms 1996;Beckett and Western 2001;Greenberg and West 2001;Jacobs and Carmichael 2001;Stucky et al 2005; for exceptions, see Bridges and Crutchfield 1988;Hawkins and Hardy 1989;Yates 1997;Yates and Fording 2005;Percival 2010;Heimer, Johnson, Lang, Rengifo and Stemen 2012). However, as Bridges and Crutchfield (1988) argue, analyses of race-disaggregated rates are important, as examining overall rates cannot capture whether the effects of covariates apply to both groups.…”

“…However, as Bridges and Crutchfield (1988) argue, analyses of race-disaggregated rates are important, as examining overall rates cannot capture whether the effects of covariates apply to both groups. Arguably, analyses of race-disaggregated prison admission rates better capture sources of imprisonment disparity (e.g., Bridges et al 1987;Bridges and Crutchfield 1988;Hawkins and Hardy 1989;Yates and Fording 2005;Heimer et al 2012).…”

“…Scholars further argue that it is important to examine African American imprisonment rates vis-à-vis White imprisonment rates (e.g., Bridges and Crutchfield 1988;Heimer et al 2012). Specifically, as Heimer and her colleagues (2012) argue, imprisonment rates for African Americans and Whites may associated with the same social and economic processes within a given geographical area.…”