Women Offenders and Entry into the Criminal Justice System by Being Victimized

Women Offenders and Entry into the Criminal Justice System by Being Victimized

The vast majority of women offenders enter the criminal justice system after being victimized. This is a fact that I learned as the former Co-Chair of the American Bar Association Criminal Justice Section’s Women in the Criminal Justice Community Committee and as the former Executive Director of the Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority.

When I was Executive Director of ICJIA, I instigated a study on the prior victimization of women prisoners, https://www.icjia.state.il.us/public/pdf/ResearchReports/PTSD_Female_Prisoners_Report_1110.pdf. Shortly beforehand, the agency co-sponsored a study on Sex Trafficking, https://www.icjia.state.il.us/public/pdf/ResearchReports/Sex%20Trafficking%20Report%20May%202008.pdf.

I see these issues as defense counsel, saw them as a prosecutor and hail the inception of the diversionary prostitution court within the Circuit Court of Cook County. But perhaps the most articulate, heart-breaking rendition of victimization of young girls who then enter the criminal justice system as defendants is outlined in a Vanity Fair article about a federal prosecution for Human Sex Trafficking, https://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2011/05/sex-trafficking-201105?currentPage=all.

That such crimes happen in this nation at this time in our history is horrendous. That women who have been victimized enter the criminal justice pipeline is an injustice.

I encourage each and every person who reads this blog to read the two ICJIA studies as well as the Vanity Fair article.

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