The classification systems of offender have played an integral role for so many years in decision making throughout the process of criminal justice. While determining the causes of crime, there is a need to examine the criminogenic needs of an offender. The needs which drove the offender to commit such act have to be examined. Criminogenic needs are the traits, characteristics, issues or problems that directly relate to the likelihood of an individual to commit another crime. These break into two categories; static and dynamic. Static factors can’t be addressed or changed by any kind of program or therapy for the prevention of future crimes such as criminal history, residing in a single-parent home and also known as structural elements of a person’s life.
On the contrary, dynamic factors include lack of respect for authority illiteracy, anti-social behaviours, non-conformist attitude, behaviour and values which are expressed and correlated with the criminal activities. These are the ones which can be addressed by therapy, education, training and/or programming which is targeted which can be altered to be resulted in law-abiding behaviour of a citizen. .
Risk factors
Until now, systematic studies of female offenders were less in number. In the past decade, attention has been paid to the segment of offending population. The importance of this issue can’t be ignored because risk and need has its valid implications for
• Female offenders were assigned the least restrictive correctional option
• Criminogenic needs were appropriately targeted when it was reduced reoffending is a primary objective
• There was an assignment to appropriate intervention dosage
• To understand the nature of female offending.
General personality and cognitive social learning (GPCSL)
To understand the criminal behaviour of females, this study explores variable validities which can be understood by two alternate perspectives; a gender neutral and a gender specific perspective. First, gender neutral perspective is grounded in an approach which is general personality and cognitive social learning (GPCSL). The theory has guided the development of risk, need and responsivity (RNR model), it provides a framework for the correct assessment and treatment of individuals.
The perspective advocates that within the action’s immediate situation, there may be temptations for crime like easy access, events with emotional significance such as being mistreated, barriers to crime like presence of authority, differential access to noncriminal routes to obtain the rewards as it would be provided by crime like having a job.
Basically, risk factors are any situational or personal characteristics which increase a person’s chance of criminal activity. Whereas, criminogenic factors are dynamic factors which when changed are associated with shifts in the likelihood of criminal activity.
In this approach, there are interpretations of self-regulation efforts and events which are influenced by the four variables of antisocial.
Antisocial behaviour
Talking about antisocial behaviour, it owes to the influence of self-efficacy, beliefs, habit of strength and the probability of regulation which is automated.
Antisocial cognition
It influences the direction of the efforts which are self-managed. Basically, the values, attitudes and beliefs which are supportive of crime or the identities whose nature is pro criminal.
Antisocial associates
Association with criminal others and isolation from anti-criminal others suggest the criminal versus anti-criminal direction of modelling and the actual or anticipated evaluative reactions of others.
Antisocial personality pattern
Factors like egocentricity, poor impulse control and initial rule violations constitute the pattern for antisocial personality.
Both men and women experience disparate challenges of life which contribute differently to criminal offending. Also, there are differences in the prevalence of mental health disturbances and experiences of victimization both in degree and rate of the education, financial disadvantage and employment which contribute towards the criminal nature and activities.
Criminogenic needs
There are 10 criminogenic needs assessed by LSI-R which provides an effective way by a complete body of empirical evidence, to start to organize the evidence. Every domain consists of a mixture of static and dynamic items, all the assessed ones can change from time to time.
• Criminal History
An extensive criminal history consists of a high profile need among few male offenders. However, it is assumed that women are less likely than men to commit crime, to be associated or involved with the justice system and to serve a custodial sentence. It is not a general characteristic of women offenders on the criteria that it might be expected with the male offenders.
• Education/Employment
Women offenders have experienced important problems with respect to education and employment. Inadequate access to education and employment makes them dependent and they take a shorter route due to their limited understanding.
• Family/Martial
There are three critical issues for a better understanding of the criminogenic needs of women offenders;
– As a child, experiencing adverse and family abuse
– In the adolescence and adulthood encountering abusive relationships
– Parenthood and being a single parent.
• Childhood abuse and adversity
There are extensive materials which establish the association or relationship between adverse family relationships in early life and in later life, the offending including the violent one essentially for both males and females. Instances such as child maltreatment including physical and sexual abuse and delinquency in adolescence are the causes for adversity. For the understanding of offending in women, physical and sexual abuse has been given significant importance.
• Abuse in adolescence and adulthood
Continuing the abuse after childhood is also a reason for the offending in both males and females. Most of the times, events of physical and sexual abuse are not even reported. Cycles of abuse in the assaulted women in childhood are more likely to report similar victimization in adulthood.
• Financial Difficulties
Due to women being dependent for financial considerations, women are forced to quit menial jobs and in the pursuit to earn better money, they are associated with certain illegal activities such as drug trade. Many struggle with outstanding debts, fines which are not paid and necessary utility costs. Mothers in prison have found it the most common reason for offending. Financial difficulties have been proved as one of the criminogenic need.
• Parenthood
Some of the women offenders are parents, even some of them serving prison sentences having children dependent on them. Unless, the woman is in a mother and baby unit within prison, mother and child will be separated which will lead the child having to be placed either in state care or with relatives. Separation of mother and child is not conducive to the development of a strong and effective parent-child relationship. To conclude, family factors and relationships are effectively associated with offending.
• Accommodation
Most women receiving a custodial sentence were, at that time, living in a rented accommodation. A minority were living in temporary or they were homeless before the sentence. A substantial proportion struggles to find accommodation and expected to be homeless on the release. The vulnerability of women who were homeless is a criminogenic need.
• Emotional problems
One of the major problems which includes cognitive problems, impulsivity, self-concept, empathy, behaviourial problems, mental ability and health. Women offenders display a range of needs with respect to both mental and physical health. Mental health includes psychosis, personality disorders, and neurotic disorders and self-harm especially in women prisoners. Most frequently found conditions were personality and mood disorders, anxiety disorders. It is evident that these specific concerns translate into criminogenic needs.
• Alcohol/Drug problems
Substance use and crime have been thoroughly documented which includes the women offenders and these treatment programmes have been aimed at women offenders. Also, there is a strong agreement across the literature that substance abuse, particularly drug is a robust predictor of offending in the example of women offenders. Women prisoners in treatment have more patterns of drug use, they were more likely to grown up in homes where drug use was prevalent, more likely to have experienced abuse as children and certain health problems.
• Mutual criminogenic needs
There are high levels of multiples need in offender populations , some of them overlapping between male and female offenders, that doesn’t mean needs are of equal magnitude. Reviews of need and risk classification systems raise the concern that these systems based on male offenders may overestimate the need in women offenders.
FEMALE OFFENDERS
Since, men and women go through different life challenges; hence there are slightly different factors which are responsible for the female offenders. There are five categories of female offenders each with a distinct trajectory into the criminal justice system. The identities of these gendered pathways are;
• Street women, who run away from home as youth, have histories of substance abuse and engage in prostitution and drug dealing;
• harmed and harming women, who are characterized by childhood abuse, violent acting out, and continued victimization into adulthood;
• drug connected women, who use, manufacture, and/or traffic drugs as a result of involvement with intimate partners or family members;
• battered women, who experience domestic violence;
• Economically advantaged women who did not have histories of victimization and were less likely to have substance abuse problems.
The last one has been referred to as ‘economically motivated’ group. Certain implications of female following gendered pathways towards crime and having different risk factors than those of males is that these assessment of risk instruments fail to include an assessment of gendered experiences that are not valid with women. One of the specific concerns is that these instruments over classify females and hence subject them to more than necessary measures. Also, it doesn’t include the scope of those female-specific needs which should be addressed in such kind of programs.
One final type of status variable that has been explored in relation to criminogenic cognitions is mental health status. Among general-population inmates, those who reported they were not currently receiving mental health services endorsed higher levels of criminogenic cognitions than inmates who reported receiving mental health services.
A CRITIQUE OF CRIMINOGENIC STUDY
The case of Phoolan Devi
India is well versed with the case of Phoolan Devi, who resorted to crime and violence as a form of retaliating for seeking justice due to the violence inflicted on her. A product of an extremely poor background and a child of poverty and illiteracy, lack of security for women, they have been raped on a regular basis. A violent and poor background groomed her understanding of the environment. As a child, she had been raped and in her adolescent years, she had been sexually abused by multiple men as they abducted her and attacked on her modesty multiple times.
An environment with emancipation of women at a greater pace, she decided to take law and order in her hands. Physical and sexual abuse proved to be a criminogenic need in her criminal career. She had been denied of justice in the criminal justice system which turned her into notorious bandit queen who later became politician. These compelling factors such as want of economic independence, recognition in society and to earn a respectable position in the society is what probably forces women like Phoolan Devi to resort to extreme steps of taking law in their hands.
The criminal scenario in India owes much of its existence and prevalence to the patriarchal society. Economic dependence of women on men, social conditioning of women to be a weaker sex or an element of a passive voice in the society is such factors which lead them to resort to any kind of means to gain respect and recognition in the society. In this fight for rights, either to obtain or defend them, clash can’t be avoided which results in the incidence of crime. Hence, their work is an endeavour to recognize the psychology and sociology of the circumstances in which females commit crimes either intentionally or negligently.
Psychological vulnerability should be look down critically to analyse where are we going wrong as a society, what are we teaching our daughters, sisters, what are we making out of them and in this process of emancipation how are we losing them. As a society, we can’t just blame the situation of law and order in our country, it is the psychological framework which needs a revolution to change its pace and notions about the women. The standards of expectation should be reduced, economic independence should be inceased and we have to understand as a society in a whole that they are humans to ensure equality in the society.