REASONS FOR WOMEN’S INCARCERATIONWhy are so many women behind bars, and why has the women’s incarceration rate increased so much faster than that of men? Despite the fact that media images have framed imprisoned women as violent and out of control [17], women’s high incarceration rates are not a result of rising crimes rates or a “more violent offender” [4].• At yearend 2010, about one-third of imprisoned women were sentenced for violent crimes. About 56% of imprisoned women were sentenced for drug or property crimes [14].• Drug offenses are the largest source of growth for the women’s prison population. About one-third of women (and one-fifth of men), serve time for drug offenses as compared to 1 in 10 imprisoned women in 1979 [10].• Mandatory minimum sentences and sentencing guidelines emerged largely from the war on drugs in the 1980s. These measures require judges to hand down lengthy sentences based on the amount of the drug and presence of a weapon, without taking into consideration extenuating circumstances, prior records, context of the crime, abuse that could have led to addiction, or the low-level role that the woman may have played. Although women tend to play minor roles in drug crimes (such as petty sales), women drug offenders are likelier to be arrested, convicted, and incarcerated than they were prior to the war on drugs. Mandatory sentencing and sentencing enhancements eliminated judicial considerations of women’s role as primary caretakers of children, so women are removed from their families even if they played a very minor role in the crime.• Many women became involved in drugs because of economic need or physical coercion by male partners [6].
• Mandatory minimum sentences and sentencing guidelines have been found to disproportionately target Black women [22].
• Other “get tough on crime” measures like Three Strikes have helped to increase the rates of women’s imprisonment. In states
like California, the third strike need not be a violent felony to get a woman 25 years to life in prison.
• A smaller number of women are incarcerated for killing their abusers in self-defense. Although detailed statistics on this type
of crime are unavailable, estimates suggest that between 2,000 and 4,000 women are imprisoned for killing their abusers [28].
• Laws such as the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) and the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigration
Responsibility Act (IIRAIRA) have served to criminalize migrant women. IRCA extended the war on drugs to the border,
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