NCJ Number
190480
Journal
Crime & Delinquency Volume: 47 Issue: 4 Dated: October 2001 Pages: 513-536
Date Published
October 2001
Length
24 pages
Annotation
This article examines gender differences in predictors of prison violence.
Abstract
This study seeks to determine whether the same risk classification instrument can be used for both female and male prisoners. The study uses data for Federal prisoners by comparing female and male prison violence rates and by comparing the predictive validity of a risk classification instrument used to predict female and male violence. Women commit less violence and less serious violence than men. However, despite these gender differences, the same classification instrument predicts violent behavior equally well for women and men. Findings imply two key policy implications. First, a predictively valid male risk classification instrument is likely to predict equally well for female prisoners. Second, because the findings also show the seriousness of violence is much lower among women, gender-specific application of the classification instrument is required. Separate application allows classification staff to examine rates for more serious and less serious violent misconduct at each classification score for women and men when grouping scores into inmate security or custody categories. Doing this is likely to result, in so far as women admitted to Federal prisons are any guide, in the vast majority of women classified as minimal risk. Tables, figures, notes, references