Essay On Pathways Theory

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For years most legal systems utilized the same assessment tools for both men and women in accordance to levels of criminality. Through observations and research conducted by criminologists, questions have challenged the approach that a conventional theory of crime can explain the association within criminal activity. The majority of the research and theory shows women to be represented in a negative light, but with the pathways theory utilized, genuine comprehension of the female offenders comes into fruition. As of today in American society, it is believed that the Pathways theory is the most relevant theory that helps to understand the girl’s and women’s leading factors of integration in the population of jails and prisons.
The Pathways theory is described to be a form of viewing the criminal environment through analysis of people’s everyday activities. Research on the Pathways theory has revealed that gender is of extreme relevance in shaping corruption. The subtle differences occurring in the lives of women offenders and men offenders outline the frequency of criminal offenses. Among women, the most common pathways to crime are based on survival from elements of abuse or poverty and substance abuse. The most common pathways to crime along women is are considerably based on survival in abuse, poor living conditions, and substance abuse. With women of different walks of life, the variations of criminal offenses are shown to be contrasting. Female offenders are genuinely recognized for a lack of a good home life. As a result, the female offenders are enamored into the world of crime. Experimental research has shown that female offenders with a past of sexual or physical abuse are more prone to have foundations of consecutive acts of delinquency, dependence on drugs, and corruption. Numerous women are reported to have the first encounter with the legal system as juveniles. The women are usually victims of violence along with sexual abuse, they run away from home to escape the dangers, and as a result are brought to the legal system. Many incarcerated women are reported to have a mental illness. Statistically speaking, every 8 in 10 female offenders with a mental illness are reported to have been sexually assaulted or abused before incarceration. It is reported that a significant amount of female offenders in state prisons were using alcohol or drugs during or prior to the offense. Research shows that property crime, prostitution, and drug use can possibly become a form of conduct for female offenders with history
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It is reported that sex crimes are reported more than any other criminal offenses. Sex crimes that are of major occurrence would be Sexual Trafficking and prostitution. By an analytical standpoint it is established that these women who become victims of sex crimes are in tandem with the pathways associated with leading to these crimes. Most victims are shown to be runaways, of poor living conditions, or victims of sexual abuse. In these crimes, research states that when these girls and women are in a vulnerable stage such as that of poor living conditions, they are lured in under false promises of a better life. Day after day, women and girls are victimized and reduced to nothing, but objects of sexual desire. The Pathways theory is what humanizes the victims of these sex crimes. With this theory, it is discovered by the legal system that it is not the women who are “guilty”, but it is their captors or

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