Understanding the Gendered Experiences of White-Collar Inmates

• In Event: Is It “White-Collar” or “Pink-Collar” Crime?: Comparing Female White-Collar Offenders to Male White-Collar Offenders on Offense Patterns and Individual Characteristics

Abstract

Research shows that the people who commit federal white-collar crimes come from a different social background than the people who commit other sorts of federal crimes. White-collar offenders are typically older and from a higher social class than other offenders. Officials in the federal criminal justice system think that because of these differences white-collar offenders have a difficult time adjusting to incarceration, and they are thought to experience a “fall from grace” that complicates their reentry into society afterward. Drawing on a mixed method approach, the current study investigates these expectations and includes gender as another facet of this. The study is based on a quantitative and qualitative analysis of a sample of offenders convicted of both white-collar type offenses and non-white collar type offenses who are under federal supervision. The unique contribution of this project is that it explores the experiences of an understudied population of incarcerated women – those convicted of white-collar crimes. Although there are reasons to think that the subjective experiences of these women as they go through the criminal justice process may differ from those of men and from other types of female offenders, this issue has not yet been investigated.

Authors

• Diana Sun, University of Cincinnati

• Michael L. Benson, University of Cincinnati

• Valerie Anderson, University of Cincinnati