Pathways to Persistence: Female Offending from 14 to 25

Abstract

Purpose While violent crime among females has nearly doubled, research on crime still tends to focus on male offending. To better understand the developmental patterns of female crime, this study identifies the trajectories of female offending from ages 14-25 years and examines the risk factors for persistent offending. Female trajectories and risk factors for offending are compared to those from a matched sample of males. Methods Participants include 172 serious (largely felony level) offending females and a matched sample of 172 males from the Pathways to Desistance study. Group-based trajectory modeling was used to identify patterns of female and male offending behavior (assessed via self-report) across 7 years. Results Findings indicate that there is great heterogeneity in criminal behavior among serious female offenders with roughly 7 % of females' criminal careers persisting into adulthood. Notable differences in the risk factors for male and female offending trajectories were found. Females who persist in their criminal careers tend to be exposed to more violence in their lives, have more mental health problems, and experience more adversarial interpersonal relationships compared to those who desist. Conclusion Although the pathways of male and female offending may follow remarkably similar patterns, the underlying factors that distinguish among these trajectories are often different for females than for males. As such, there is great need for a more nuanced understanding of the most common precursors to persistent female offending.Keywords Female . Antisocial behavior . DesistanceThe age-crime curve indicates that criminal behavior typically increases during adolescence, peaks in late adolescence to young adulthood, and is followed by desistance from crime J Dev Life Course Criminology (2015) 1:236-268

Desistance from Offending in the Twenty-First Century

“…Whereas men and women exhibit a similar unimodal pattern of offending and age of decline in offending, female involvement in crime is less frequent than that of their male counterparts , Cauffman et al 2015, D'Unger et al 2002, Fergusson & Horwood 2002, Moffitt 2001. Also, although women tend to have shorter criminal careers, the difference in duration may be driven by the later age of onset rather than an earlier age of termination.…”

Trauma-informed juvenile justice systems: A systematic review of definitions and core components.

“…Accumulating evidence suggests that childhood trauma exposure is likely a key risk factor for subsequent juvenile justice involvement (Kerig & Becker, 2010). Juvenile offenders are a particularly vulnerable population but those with histories of trauma exposure and/or symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) have higher rates of recidivism, co-occurring disorders, school drop-out, and suicide attempts (Cauffman, Monahan, & Thomas, 2015; Haynie, Petts, Maimon, & Piquero, 2009; Wasserman & McReynolds, 2011; Wolff, Baglivio, & Piquero, 2015). Multiple investigators have argued persuasively that youth may cope with traumatic stress in ways that increase their risk of arrest, including using drugs to avoid distressing memories, running away from an abusive home, and carrying a weapon or joining a gang to prevent re-victimization (DeHart & Moran, 2015; Ford, Chapman, Mack, & Pearson, 2006; Kerig & Becker, 2010).…”

The Effects of Age at Prison Release on Women’s Desistance Trajectories: a Mixed-Method Analysis

“…Some researchers have made inroads into the phenomenon of women's desistance as well as shed some light on the risk factors that begin to explain persistent offending patterns among female samples [9,10,21,32,51,52,118]. For example, Cauffman et al [28] compared self-reported offending trajectories for nearly 200 serious female offenders to a matched sample of male offenders and found that among persisters represented in the dataset, women were more likely to have been exposed to violence, trauma, and unhealthy interpersonal relationships. Their analyses made use of data from the Pathways to Desistance study [85,107], which focused on juvenile delinquency and captured the experiences of men and women up to 25 years old.…”

“…Not only are the processes that shape the age-crime curve necessarily gendered, but they are rather consistently timed where processes and their significance unfold at regularly anticipated intervals [28,76]. In other words, the timing of a given life course event suggests that an event's salience is linked to a given subject's age and that age effects matter a great deal [39].…”