A First Step in Understanding Influences on System-Involved Women’s Changes in Financial Need

• Published date: 01 July 2023
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/15570851231176856
• Author: Kaelyn Sanders,Kayla Hoskins,Merry Morash
• Date: 01 July 2023
• Subject Matter: Articles

Article

Feminist Criminology

2023, Vol. 18(3) 225–249

© The Author(s) 2023

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DOI: 10.1177/15570851231176856

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A First Step in Understanding

Inf‌luences on System-Involved

Women’s Changes in Financial

Need

Kaelyn Sanders

1

, Kayla Hoskins

1

, and Merry Morash

1



Abstract

Financial need strongly predicts women’s recidivism. However, little is known about

inf‌luences on change in system-involved women’sf‌inancial need. Qualitative data from

women with signif‌icant increases and decreases in f‌inancial need show the importance

of tailored assistance f‌inding jobs to improve f‌inancial status, and the relevance of

worsening physical health and limited access to safety-net benef‌its to increasing f‌i-

nancial need. Prior convictions act as a barrier to employment especially for Black

women, and younger women most often associated f‌inancial problems with lack of

mental health care. Gender, race, and age responsive assistance is needed to improve

system-involved women’sf‌inancial standing.

Keywords

probation, parole, women, justice, employment, welfare, f‌inancial

Introduction

It is well known that system-involved women have a unique set of challenges. They

have high prevalence of abuse as children and adults (Dewey et al., 2019;Messina

et al., 2006;Richie, 1996;2012;Tjaden & Theonnes, 2000;Whaley et al., 2007;

1

School of Criminal Justice, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA

Corresponding Author:

Merry Morash, School of Criminal Justice, Michigan State University, 560 Baker Hall, East Lansing, MI 48824,

USA.

Email: morashm@msu.edu

Winham et al., 2015) and high exposure to interpersonal and neighborhood violence

and loss of loved ones due to violence (Cobbina et al., 2014;Hoskins & Morash, 2021).

In jails and prisons, women have been sexually and physically assaulted and stressed by

separation from children and family members they previously cared for (Fedock et al.,

2021;Irwin & Owen, 2005;Owen et al., 2017). Research shows that poverty is often

intertwined with these other needs and that it inf‌luences lawbreaking (Bertram &

Sawyer, 2022;Lindquist et al., 2010;Van Voorhis et al., 2008;Wright et al., 2008).

Feminist theorists have emphasized that these adversities in system-involved women’s

lives contribute to their unique pathways into illegal activity, and thus they are relevant

to the process of desistance (Belknap, 2021;Leverentz, 2020).

Early feminist criminologists who raised awareness of women-specif‌ic pathways

into illegal activity highlighted poverty as motivation to break the law (Carlen, 1988;

Daly, 1992;Maher & Daly, 1996;Miller, 1986). The relationship between women’s

high f‌inancial need and lawbreaking continues to be well-documented in more recent

research (Heilbrun et al., 2008;Holsinger et al., 2003;Holtfreter et al., 2004), and

research shows that change in f‌inancial need predicts recidivism. Morash and Kashy

(2022) found that for women on probation and parole, net of the effects of their average

level of f‌inancial need and both average and changing levels of multiple attributes

known to predict women’s recidivism, increasing f‌inancial need is positively related to

recidivism, and decreasing f‌inancial need is negatively related to recidivism. Similarly,

a study of 500 Canadian women released from federal prison showed that becoming

unemployed was associated with a shortened time to recidivism (Greiner et al., 2015).

In another example, Opsal (2012) found that when women on parole lost their jobs,

despite their desire to avoid crime they turned to illegal activities to replace their

income. Studies with mixed-gender samples also discovered that increases in income

during a 6-month period were related to lower levels of recidivism (Wooditch et al.,

2014), and for individuals on federal probation, improvement on a combined measure

of employment and education was related to lower recidivism in the year after change

was measured (Cohen et al., 2016). These f‌indings establish change in f‌inancial need as

an important inf‌luence on not only initial lawbreaking but also recidivism and call

attention to the need for research to identify reasons for change in f‌inancial need for the

nearly one million women who are supervised in the community on probation or parole

at any one time (Kaeble, 2021) and the many more under supervision in their lifetimes.

Theories of women’s desistance from illegal activity highlight the importance of

opportunities to take on prosocial roles as a key inf‌luence on continued lawbreaking,

and employment, a key indicator of low f‌inancial need, provides one type of op-

portunity. The theory of cognitive transformation (Giordano et al., 2002) explains that

for women who want to stop breaking the law and who envision a prosocial identity,

desistance occurs when they have access to structurally available role identities that

provide guides for prosocial behavior. Using this theoretical framework, Opsal (2012)

found that employed women on parole saw themselves as active in the world of work

and, while they had jobs, they drew on employment to construct pro-social replacement

selves. Available roles, including the role of employee, provide what are referred to as

226 Feminist Criminology 18(3)