Although qualitative research in the area of gender-responsive offending pathways has grown extensively, little quantitative work has been conducted. This study utilizes interview and survey data to assess various gender-responsive needs with an intake cohort of 313 women probationers. Using a path analytic approach, the study statistically supported three gendered pathways to women offenders' incarceration: (a) a pathway beginning with childhood victimization that contributed to historical and current forms of mental illness and substance abuse; (b) a relational pathway in which women's dysfunctional intimate relationships facilitated adult victimization, reductions in self-efficacy, and current mental illness and substance abuse; and (c) a social and human capital pathway in which women's challenges in the areas of education, family support, and self-efficacy, as well as relationship dysfunction, contributed to employment/financial difficulties and subsequent imprisonment. Support for such gendered pathways has implications for both criminological explanations of female offending and correctional interventions for women.
Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 562 citations exist upstream.