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Week 12 Discussion

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Instructor’s Name

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Over the past decade, African American women have constituted the fastest

growing percentage of the prison population. Why? What criminological theory or theories

can be used to account for this increase?

Over the past decade, African American women have constituted the fastest growing

percentage of the prison population. In some states, women incarceration rates have increased to

the point that they have offset male population declines (Sealy-Jefferson, et al., 2020). States'

commitment to reforming the criminal justice system is undermined all too often when the

imprisonment of women is overlooked. Despite recent attention to the disturbing national trend,

few people are aware of the situation in their home states, where women make up the fastest-

growing segment of the jailed population.

The reason for fast growing percentage of African American Women is due to drug

offenses that can be as a result of poverty and abuse in the society. The rapid rise in female

incarceration rates can be traced back to drug-related crimes (Sealy-Jefferson, et al., 2020).

Women often resort to these kinds of criminal behavior because they are unable to provide for

themselves financially. In addition, the increase in state prison populations over the past four

decades has been driven mostly by incarceration for violent offenses, despite the fact that

incarceration for drug offenses was a significant contributor in the increase in women's

incarceration. Poverty and mental health problems are also contributing factors in these violent

crimes.

Labeling theory can be used to account for the rapid imprisonment of African American

women. African women have been unfairly stereotyped as minorities, unequal compared to their

white counterparts. With these labels, many women situated at the edges of social and economic

structures encounter difficulties in sustaining their livelihoods by lawful means, hence leading to
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their engagement with the criminal justice system (Barmaki, 2019). The prevailing routes to

criminal behavior frequently stem from circumstances related to survival, such as experiences of

abuse and poverty, as well as substance misuse. Most women resort to drug usage as a means of

self-medication in reaction to victimization and trauma, resulting in getting involved with the

justice system. The utilization of substances among women entangled in the justice system may

be driven by a need to manage or conceal distressing emotions arising from traumatic encounters

and subsequent mental health challenges.

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References

Barmaki, R. (2019). On the origin of “labeling” theory in criminology: Frank Tannenbaum and

the Chicago School of Sociology. Deviant Behavior, 40(2), 256-271.

Sealy-Jefferson, S., Butler, B., Price-Spratlen, T., Dailey, R. K., & Misra, D. P. (2020).

Neighborhood-level mass incarceration and future preterm birth risk among African

American women. Journal of Urban Health, 97, 271-278.