CRIMINAL INVOLVEMENT OF FEMALE OFFENDERS: Psychological Characteristics Among Four Groups

• Published in: Criminology (Beverly Hills) 1981-02, Vol.18 (4), p.471-481
• Main Authors: Townes, Brenda D, James, Jennifer, Martin, Donald C
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Criminal/Criminals/Criminality/Criminally (see also Crime); Female/Females (see also Woman); Offender/Offenders
• ISSN: 0011-1384; 1745-9125
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1745-9125.1981.tb01378.x

Two theoretical approaches tend to dominate the literature on the manner in which exoffenders reintegrate into society. These are the structural and subcultural models. The structural model (Merton, 1938; Cloward and Ohlin, 1960: Ohlin, 1970) posits that closing of the legitimate opportunity structure leads to secondary deviation and it also traces initial criminality to a discrepancy between means and ends for achieving success goals. The subcultural model (Cohen, 1955; Pownall, 1969) views the primary factors explaining the failure of the exoffender to adjust to society as influences exerted by the criminal subculture. These have traditionally been treated as competing theoretical models. The research reported here sought to evaluate these two approaches and to combine them in an applied framework called differential integration. Data on 874 exoffenders provided with job placements during 1976 show that structural variables tended to differentiate the employment outcomes of exoffenders much more than subcultural variables and that there is partial support for the differential integration concept .