The Applicability of the Gendered Pathways Perspective to Understanding Black Women's Experiences: A Path Analysis

• In Event: Understanding Women's Offending and Victimization: Feminist Criminology and Advocacy

Abstract

Since the late 1980s, a significant amount of research has been devoted towards understanding women’s distinct pathways to involvement in the criminal justice system. However, the majority of this research has analyzed pathways using a general gendered framework that has not accounted for racial distinctions. More recently, feminist criminologists have called for attention towards understanding variation within gender, or experiences at the intersections between gender and race. As a few studies qualitatively examined the experiences of women of Color, we seek to expand upon this literature through a quantitative assessment of their pathways to justice-involvement. The current study uses a path analytic approach to examine how applicable the three gender-specific path models developed by Salisbury and Van Voorhis (2009) account for the experiences of Black women (n = 88). We found that while Black women had similar gender-responsive risk factors, the indirect effects varied from the findings of Salisbury and Van Voorhis (2009). Theoretical and policy implications are also discussed.

Authors

• Breanna Boppre, University of Nevada, Las Vegas

• Emily Salisbury, University of Nevada, Las Vegas

• Patricia Van Voorhis, University of Cincinnati