A Longitudinal Test of a Feminist Pathways Model Among Black Youth: Incorporating Racial Discrimination and School Difficulties
| DOI | 10.1177/1557085120923042 |
| Date | 01 January 2021 |
| Published date | 01 January 2021 |
| Author | Tara E. Sutton,Leslie Gordon Simons |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
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Article
Feminist Criminology
2021, Vol. 16(1) 26 –46
A Longitudinal Test of a
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DOI: 10.1177/1557085120923042
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Among Black Youth:
Incorporating Racial
Discrimination and School
Difficulties
Tara E. Sutton1 and Leslie Gordon Simons2
Abstract
This study addresses important gaps in previous quantitative tests of feminist
pathways theory by utilizing longitudinal data from Black men and women and by
incorporating racial discrimination and school difficulties. We examine early physical
abuse, sexual abuse, and racial discrimination as risks for criminal behavior and
psychological distress, school difficulties, and substance use as links between early
trauma and young adulthood crime. Consistent with previous studies, early abusive
experiences were more salient for Black women than men, but racial discrimination
was meaningful for both women and men. Moreover, the connections among
mediators differed. Policy implications are offered.
Keywords
child abuse, female criminality, race
For decades, feminist criminologists have critiqued traditional criminological theories
and related empirical work for ignoring causes of women’s offending, their criminal
justice experiences, and the need for gender-specific programming (Belknap, 2007;
Chesney-Lind, 1989; Covington & Bloom, 2007; Holsinger, 2000; Reisig et al., 2006;
1Mississippi State University, Mississippi State, USA
2University of Georgia, Athens, USA
Corresponding Author:
Tara E. Sutton, Mississippi State University, 204 Bowen Hall, 456 Hardy Road, Mississippi State, MS
39762, USA.
Email: tsutton@soc.msstate.edu
Sutton and Simons
27
Wattanaporn & Holtfreter, 2014). Relatedly, Black feminists and criminologists have
noted that even as there is increased attention, both scholarly and public, to structural
and societal influences of Black men’s experiences of oppression, there is no equal
growth in concern for the injustices that shape Black women’s lives and contribute to
their offending (Jones, 2010; Morris, 2016). Moreover, although men continue to
offend at greater rates, growth in women’s and girls’ criminal justice involvement has
significantly outpaced men’s as of late (The Sentencing Project, 2019). Thus, under-
standing risks for women’s offending is vital.
A central assertion of feminist criminology is that early victimization and trauma
are precursors to women’s offending, a perspective referred to as feminist or gendered
pathways theory (Covington & Bloom, 2007; Gehring, 2018). This perspective holds
that early experiences of physical child abuse, sexual abuse, and other forms of trauma,
as well as financial marginality and relational difficulties (e.g., familial drug use, inti-
mate partner violence), start women on a trajectory toward criminal offending (Arnold,
1990; Covington & Bloom, 2007). In response to these traumatic and abusive experi-
ences, some women develop mental health difficulties and attempt to cope and survive
by engaging in behaviors such as running away, sex work, misbehavior at school, and
substance use (Arnold, 1990; Belknap & Holsinger, 2006; Crenshaw et al., 2015;
Daly, 1992; Gehring, 2018). Rather than being viewed as survival strategies, these
actions are criminalized, and, in turn, these women are treated as offenders instead of
victims. As a result, women and girls make contact with the criminal justice system
and escalate their criminal behavior over time (Chesney-Lind, 1989; Covington &
Bloom, 2007; Daly, 1992; Gilfus, 1992). Although outside the scope of the current
study, this perspective has also been utilized to explain women’s victimization, consis-
tent with the idea of blurred boundaries between victim and offender (Wattanaporn &
Holtfreter, 2014, pp.198-200). Feminist criminologists recognize that the traumatic
experiences that girls and women encounter as well as their responses to this adversity
are rooted in patriarchal norms that justify the domination, abuse, sexualization, and
oppression of women (Belknap, 2007; Chesney-Lind, 1989; Covington & Bloom,
2007; Holsinger, 2000).
The goal of the current study is to test a feminist pathways model among Black
women and men. We posit that childhood/adolescent physical abuse, sexual abuse, and
racial discrimination will impact criminal involvement in adulthood and that this will
be partially explained by psychological distress, substance use, and school difficulties
in adolescence. We extend previous studies by utilizing longitudinal data from a com-
munity sample of Black youth and by incorporating racial discrimination and school
difficulties, two aspects of feminist pathways theory that have not been extensively
subjected to quantitative analysis.
Existing Work on Feminist Pathways Theory
Early work on feminist pathways theory was based on the notion that understanding the
background of women criminals was a necessary precursor to theorizing about their
criminal behavior. This research was qualitative, reflecting feminist criminologists’
28
Feminist Criminology 16(1)
focus on giving women a voice in explaining their own experiences. These early studies
highlighted the extreme amounts of abuse and trauma that criminally involved women
had experienced throughout their lives. For example, Arnold (1990) highlighted that the
Black women in her study faced “triple jeopardy” related to their class, gender, and race
(p. 163). Women detailed long histories of sexual and family violence based in male
dominance, experiences of racial discrimination, and lifelong struggles with economic
marginality linked to structural racism. Girls often ran away in attempts to resist and
survive and, thus, became dislocated from vital social institutions. The criminalization
of survival behaviors and social dislocation eventually lead to contact with the criminal
justice system. Gilfus (1992) similarly documented childhoods characterized by sexual
abuse, family instability, death of loved ones, educational neglect, and racial violence
among Black incarcerated women (p. 70–71). These experiences led to adolescent sur-
vival attempts such as running away, truancy, stealing, sex work, and drug use. In adult-
hood, women’s lives were characterized by revictimization and the growth of criminal
behavior and drug use.
In another foundational study, Daly (1992) utilized pre-sentence investigation
reports, which include information on social, mental health, and substance use histo-
ries, and transcripts from women’s sentencing to build biographical profiles of women
defendants. She found that five groups encapsulated women’s routes to crime.
Harmed-and-harming women were characterized by histories of childhood maltreat-
ment coupled with psychological and substance use issues as well as a tendency to
behave violently. Battered women engaged in crime and violence as a result of their
involvement with violent men. Street women had often run away from abusive homes,
leading to street crimes (i.e., sex work, theft, drug selling), drug abuse issues, mental
health problems, and extensive criminal records. Drug connected women were either
addicted to drugs or sold drugs as a result of having drug-involved family members or
partners. Finally, other women were those who engaged in crime due to economic
circumstances but did not fit into the other profiles. Altogether, Daly’s (1992) work
demonstrates that not all women follow the same pathways to criminal behavior but
that, across these profiles, histories of abuse, substance use, and psychological issues
are common.
Researchers have recently begun to utilize these early qualitative findings and other
work by feminist criminologists (Belknap, 2007; Covington & Bloom, 2007) to guide
quantitative tests of feminist pathways theory. Overall, these studies provide support
for many of the patterns described in early qualitative pieces and add to this work by
utilizing larger and more representative samples of women involved in crime (for an
excellent review of existing work, see Wattanaporn & Holtfreter, 2014). For example,
Salisbury & Van Voorhis (2009) found that childhood abuse was indirectly related to
incarceration among women on probation via substance abuse and ongoing depression
and anxiety. They also found evidence for pathways stemming from dysfunctional
relationships and from financial problems and poor academic achievement. In another
study, Lynch et al. (2012) demonstrated that incarcerated women with serious mental
illnesses had more extensive victimization and offending histories than other incarcer-
ated women and reported greater substance use and criminal involvement.
Sutton and Simons
29
Some research has also compared the salience of feminist pathways theory among
both women and men. These studies show that the risks delineated by feminist path-
ways theory and the proposed relations among them are more relevant for women
than men (e.g., Belknap & Holsinger, 2006; Gehring, 2018; Jones et al., 2014;
Walters, 2020). As an explanation for this pattern of findings, scholars note that
women are more likely to be exposed to certain traumas (i.e., sexual abuse) because
of the oppression and sexualization of women and because women sometimes
respond to adversity in gendered ways (Belknap &...
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