NCJ Number
153869
Journal
Criminology Volume: 33 Issue: 1 Dated: (February 1995) Pages: 17-46
Date Published
1995
Length
30 pages
Annotation
This study of women incarcerated for felonies in Georgia between 1870 and 1940 examines the extent to which the formal social control of women changed in the past two centuries and the extent to which changes in the presence of women in the criminal justice system can be traced to the same factors that account for the changing presence of men.
Abstract
Two sources were used for the data. First, the Principal Keeper of the Penitentiary issued reports every 1 or 2 years between 1870 and 1897. Included in each report was a descriptive roster of all inmates in the penitentiary. The second source was the Central Register of Convicts, a microfilmed series of manuscript inventories obtained from the Georgia Department of Archives and History. From each source, data were coded on all women admitted to the penitentiary (n=1,876) and all men admitted for a violent offense or for a property crime together with violence (n=19,718). The rate at which women were admitted to Georgia's penitentiary tracked comparable rates for men. Both genders had increased prison admission rates in the early 20th Century. Thus, the general similarity in social control patterns noted in more industrialized regions had its counterpart in the southern agrarian economy. Within the constraints set by race, the social control of women was based in the same general context as the social control of men. Among the challenges posed by these findings is a determination of the extent to which expanded social control reflected growing levels of female criminality or growing intolerance of movement outside their "proper sphere." 4 figures and 87 references