The Criminality of the Negro

Hentig, Hans von

doi:10.2307/1136933

Cited by 7 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The violent crime rates of African American women are higher than those of White women. This has been noted and discussed for many years (see, for instance, Laub & McDermott, 1985;Mann, 1990;Steffensmeier & Allen, 1988;Verona & Carbonell, 2000;Von Hentig, 1942). Violent crime rates tend to be highest in "underclass" communities, and women, especially women of color, who live in these communities, are the most likely group to be arrested and convicted of violent crimes.…”

mentioning

confidence: 90%

Violent Women

Pollock

Mullings

Crouch

2006

J Interpers Violence

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Prior research on violent crime by female offenders is reviewed. A Texas female prisoner sample is used to explore specific questions raised by the literature review. Violent and nonviolent offenders were compared, looking specifically at race, socioeconomic status, having been raised in single-parent homes, criminal history, gang membership, marital status, and childhood abuse. Findings indicated that women who are violent were more likely to be younger, African American, unemployed, and having extensive criminal histories. They were more likely to come from dysfunctional families with childhood abuse. Limitations of the study were noted.

show abstract

mentioning

confidence: 90%

Violent Women

Pollock

Mullings

Crouch

2006

J Interpers Violence

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The higher violent crime rates of African American women have been noted and discussed for many years (see, for instance, Laub & McDermott, 1985;Mann, 1990aMann, , 1990b; tice Statistics, 1988tice Statistics, , 1991tice Statistics, , 1994tice Statistics, , 1997tice Statistics, , and 2000 and census/population data used to compute rates, retrieved from http://devdata.worldbank.org/dataonline/SMResult.asp. Steffensmeier & Allen, 1988;von Hentig, 1942). In a recent study that categorized a female prisoner sample into nonviolent, one-time violent, and repeatedly violent, African American women were overrepresented in the repeatedly violent category (Verona & Carbonell, 2000, p. 179).…”

Section: Demographic Correlates Of Violencementioning

confidence: 99%

The Continuing Myth of the Violent Female Offender

Pollock¹,

Davis²

2005

Criminal Justice Review

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

There have been periodic "discoveries" of the violent female offender as well as dire predictions of an increase in violence committed by women. The authors examine the pattern of violent crime by women over a long period of time to determine whether or not the "problem" of increasing violence is a myth. The authors conclude that women's contribution to violent crime has been and continues to make up a small percentage, except for crime categories that are highly vulnerable to changes in system responses.T wenty years ago, the senior author of this article had numerous conversations with law enforcement officers concerning their observation that female offenders were becoming more dangerous. These male officers (and they were all men at the time) believed, without a doubt, that female offenders in the early 1980s were much more violent than they had encountered "in all their years of law enforcement." Today, those same conversations can be had with law enforcement officers who also believe that women today are more violent than ever before. Does this mean that in the early 2000s, women are more violent than they were 20 years ago, and those women were more violent than female offenders 20 years before, and so on? The evidence does not support such a proposition. Why, then, is there such a persistent desire, seemingly present in every generation, to portray women as more violent?In Table 1, we have identified the ways in which researchers can make women appear to be more aggressive. We do not mean to say that researchers and writers intentionally do so. However, we do emphasize that by promulgating the message that women are just as violent as men or are becoming more violent, these researchers possibly contribute to policy makers' decisions to treat women more harshly by incarcerating them in prisons and juvenile institutions. By ignoring the fact that girls and women are more likely to be victims than aggressors in domestic violence, by assuming that they are violent simply because they call themselves gang members, and by believing that women are equally violent as men and then punishing them as such, we may create the very phenomenon we fear-more violent women.To illustrate the first point, we give examples of the rare and sensational images of violent women touted by the media and researchers as proof that women are becoming more violent. For the second point, we critique the existing literature that promotes the notion that women are becoming more violent by interchanging violence with aggression. We discuss why such research is dangerous in terms of providing an accurate account of the actual criminality of 5

show abstract

“…In part, it was a product of the apparently higher rates of serious crime among black than white women: so far as I have been able to determine, from the earliest days of this country into the present, black women have in fact been more prone than white women to commit felonies. 6 (Indeed, it would be surprising to find anything else, given the circumstances under which black women came to the United States, their lesser chances for stable marriage, their migration northward after the Civil War, and their enormous economic disadvantages; [see von Hentig, 1942].) But the bifurcation was also an effect of screening: in all sections of the country except the West (whose only stable "reformatory" was established in the 1930s and held felons exclusively), judges, social workers, and administrators screened black women out of reformatories.…”

Section: Differences In the Treatment Of Black And White Womenmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gender, Prisons, and Prison History

Rafter¹

1985

Social Science History

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Since the publication in 1936 of Blake McKelvey’s American Prisons (1972), social historians have developed a sizeable body of work that traces, and in some cases tries to explain, the evolution of U.S. penal institutions. These studies are important for what they tell us about perceptions of social problems in the past. They also have policy implications, indicating the historical roots of current dilemmas and alternative approaches to penal problems. Nearly all of these studies are limited, however, by their blindness to gender differences between prisons for men and women. Written mainly by men, prison histories have focused nearly exclusively on male prisoners. Perhaps their authors would argue that this bias is natural and insignificant since over time the vast majority of prisoners have been male. But by overlooking the variable of gender, prison historians have ignored an important influence on the nature and development of penal institutions.

show abstract

The Criminality of the Negro

Cited by 7 publications

References 0 publications

Violent Women

Violent Women

The Continuing Myth of the Violent Female Offender

Gender, Prisons, and Prison History

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About