Summary
While women frequently associate with criminal justice systems as victims of crime, current developments show that an increasing number of them appear as suspects, accused, and inmates. Women’s jail populations are expanding faster than male prison populations worldwide. While the worldwide jail population has increased, also has the number of imprisoned women, especially considering Gender shapes social relationships in dimensions that typically disfavor girls and women in various legal systems around the globe. Social norms towards Gender, attitudes, preconceptions, and prejudices, in particular, frequently impact women’s and girls’ first and recurring encounters with judicial authorities, in addition to their susceptibility and exploitation in legal contexts when the African American community is concerned.
According to Richie (2012), they influence how various women and girls perceive justice procedures and interventions, along with racial, socioeconomic, sexual, and other systemic disparities; they also define the specific consequences of their contact with legal and psychological healthcare personnel. In the United States, effective imprisonment rates have resulted in significant rises in the number of women serving incarceration sentences. According to Oser et al. (2016), African American women face a dramatic rise, with estimates of 115 per 100,000 population contrasted with 49 for White women and 64 for Hispanic women. Imprisoned African American women are classified as a “marginalized population” by Aday since they have a significantly increased risk of mental ill health than the entire populace due to unequal susceptibility to risk variables (Carson & Statistician, 2018).
The mental Health of Women and Girls in the Legal System
Over the last several years, the upsurge in prison populations has predominantly impacted low-income African American communities, creating further hurdles to work, accommodation, and income equality, potentially jeopardizing women’s health and well-being (Richie, 2012). According to research, African American girls, women, and non-binary persons are most susceptible to violence (Sankofa, 2019). Women who come into touch with the justice system are frequently taken from their homes and families, leading to distress in relatives and those imprisoned (Malcome et al., 2019). While institutionalized, vulnerability to violent and stressful situations generally escalates, potentially exacerbating stress and other mental health issues such as depressive symptomology (Kaeble et al., 2018). The preponderance of contemporary imprisonment and jail prisoners have a severe depressive illness, which is more common than any other mental health problem. In the previous month, more detention than prison convicts has been at or over the benchmark for significant psychological hardship, with imprisoned women being the plurality of those with mental stress.
Notwithstanding their disproportionate representation in the criminal justice system, African American women’s mental health at the delicate nexus of race, sexuality, and community-based institutional oversight has received little attention. Based on the socioeconomic challenges girls and women confront, this paper views the criminal justice connection as a social inequity detrimental to African American girls’ mental health. This research looks into the links between recent stresses, the judicial system, and Gender.
First, African America Women and girls’ contact with the legal system has unique necessities than males since they are more likely to be victims of maltreatment and have parental responsibilities (Kaeble et al., 2018). According to Simkins & Katz (2002), no single dominating mechanism drives women into the criminal justice system. Instead, their experiences influence their unlawful conduct in myriad aspects. Significant characteristics in studies on women’s criminal paths include abuse or trauma, hardship and discrimination, mental health issues, drug misuse, and toxic relationships. The paths to delinquency for young females are frequently distinct from those for boys (TUKEsays,2018). At-risk girls are significantly more inclined than boys to have a history of sexual violence and other stressful situations, to have suicidal ideation, to feel persistent unhappiness/mental illness, to abuse drugs and alcohol, and flee their homes.
According to studies, there is a resonance frequency of intimate partner violence against women in nations with high standards of gender equality, like the United States, a phenomenon known as the “Nordic paradox” (MacKinnon, 2007). The confluence of Gender and race identity generates hurdles that keep many women from reporting domestic violence charges. Domestic abuse culprits may foster a sense of apprehension in their victims by accentuating the significance of cultural norms and reminding them regularly that retribution, particularly antipathy from the criminal justice system, is harsher for African American women. Persons’ devotion to cultural norms and beliefs impedes obtaining legal and social assistance. Limitations may arise, for instance, from a worry that filing a lawsuit would support ingrained prejudices or from a general disdain for the courts and police (Peyush & Marvel-Burns, 2021). Women are frequently harmed due to the judicial system’s safeguards, being compelled to relive terrible experiences in hostile environments. African American women, for instance, may be apprehensive about getting associated with a system of criminal justice that has contributed to the perpetuation of prejudice and has struggled to safeguard black communities. Domestic violence victims who react to their perpetrator in retaliation to protracted and intense abuse suffer federal indictment for domestic abuse or murder. If they collaborate in criminal activity with their abusive spouse, they may also get involved in legal prosecutions as codefendants. Violence and trauma make it more likely that they may erroneously embrace guilt for a crime they were not involved in out of fear of reprisals or to conceal the offender.
Bruce (2018) states that those Women victims who commit crimes under the manipulative power of an abused husband become entangled in a “passionate codefendant” relationship that exposes them to both personal and legal penalties because they are “dually surveilled” by the perpetrator and law enforcement personnel (Peyush & Marvel-Burns, 2021). Their limited availability of financial resources and reliance on the offender are essential determinants in their continuous engagement in illegal activities such as drug crimes and prostitution. Most of the time, the victim’s abusive spouse exposes her to substances. It delivers her with stimulants that could nourish and preserve her addictive behavior and reliance on the abusive partner before forcing her into prostitution to sustain the drug consumption.
Bearing in mind the domestic violence, the disparity in the family court system has inflicted African American women years of distress and suffering; the framework of the custody cases has permitted them to become victims (Datchi & Ancis,2017). Once seized, the devastation escalates. The reactions of women to violence and abuse are frequently misconstrued and misrepresented. Notwithstanding the preceding results, the inclination to downplay abuse inside the judicial system encourages and facilitates the ex-spouse’s control and power methods (Bruce, 2018). Because of the specific personal attributes of violent and aggressive former spouses and partners and the implications of abusive behavior on women, the perpetrator is commonly portrayed as calm, collected, rational, logical, and credible. At the same time, the victim is deemed unfathomable, volatile, and overly dramatic (TJADEN & THOENNES, 2000). Distressing symptoms endured and embodied as a chronic stressor may be considered as substantiation by public defenders (– for example, judges, attorneys) that women are volatile and ineffective parents, culminating in custody being granted to abusive partners who are proficient at depicting themselves as righteous and, paradoxically, as victims. Likewise, disparaging methods usually feed into judges’ underlying gender prejudices (Watson Insight, 2020).
The emotional and mental consequences of custody cases, especially with an aggressive spouse, are significant (Bruce, 2018). Women’s psychosocial encounters scrutiny after and during separation custody battles leads to various psychological responses, including emotional emasculation. Despair, hopelessness, losing control, anger, and continual worry are all prevalent sentiments. Enhanced caution is also prevalent. It entails the feeling that one’s life is being scrutinized (Anthony-North & Shanahan, 2018). Women victims are always extremely cautious in their conduct, remarks, and contacts with others, notably their kids. This attitude remains prevalent among women who have experienced adultery and violence. According to Richie (2012), women frequently believe that individuals in positions of power hold them to a higher moral ideal. Advocates usually stress cleanliness in their actions, supported by their interactions with custody assessors and mental and courtroom encounters. The mental anguish of conceivably forfeiting custody of one’s kids frequently leaves women questioning themselves and in a world of permanent anxiousness. Self-blame is common, especially when dealing with a mechanism that refuses to acknowledge, doubts if the abuse occurred, and disregards the psychosocial relevance of such abusive behavior (Richie, 2012). The ones who lose guardianship experience emotional trauma.
Another contributory aspect is sex trafficking, which relates to sexual activities involving aggression, deception, kidnapping, manipulation, and compulsion. Whether an adult agrees to engage in a commercialized sexual practice, there is no actual autonomous consent if the decision is prompted by coercion, fraudulently, or compulsion. Sexual trafficking victims experience horrible mental and behavioral consequences. For instance, trafficked women and girls may find themselves in legal jeopardy if they are implicated in offenses that are: (1) specifically linked to their trafficking circumstances; (2) classified as offenses against public decency (— for example, prostitution); or (3) in violation of restrictions on immigration. 6 Destitution, involuntary migration, and actual or perceived gender identity and sexual orientation are different causes that put women into a confrontation with the legal system (Richie, 2012). Women and girls subjected to sex trafficking are treated as perpetrators instead of victims when they contact the criminal justice system, a disparity that compounds their pre-existing mental trauma.
According to Price and Sokoloff (2004), African American women and girls are more susceptible than white women and girls to be criminally prosecuted and jailed in a juvenile correctional institution when sex trafficking issues clash with the justice system. Furthermore, those who commit violence against them are less likely to be caught and sentenced, and if they are, they frequently serve less time than those who abuse white and socially privileged women and girls (Ellis, 2016). Women from African American communities may have a more challenging time disclosing criminal actions to them because of their individual and collective encounters with prejudice, racism, and stereotype (Rosenfield & Mouzon, 2012). Since racism and class discrimination are constructed on the worldview that individuals who are racially and fiscally disadvantaged are morally reprehensible, dishonest, and therefore less meriting of safety, judicial experts who advocate class and racial preconceptions are more inclined to perceive African American sex trafficking victims as lawbreakers (S and Clemens Bartollas, 2014). Victims of sex trafficking and imprisoned women frequently face persistent and different kinds of trauma across their lives, called complex trauma. It is a recurring trauma that occurs over time and within specific interactions. Family abuse, attachment trauma, facing death, suffering rape, human trafficking, exploitation, and child molestation are all included.
The juvenile justice system has become a “domain of social abandonment” or even a venue where vulnerable groups, such as African American girls, are further downtrodden. It is because the juvenile court can significantly boost the potential danger of girls to distress in a variety of ways. The juvenile justice system often criminalizes girls who are survivors of severe maltreatment (Nowacki, 2013). These young African American girls frequently act out in manners that result in detention. There appears to be a substantial correlation between their neglect and abuse and the absence of necessary interventions or assistance (Richie, 2012). The actions leading to the incarceration of these girls are also linked to that context. Courts concentrate on their violent behavior than the trauma experienced and how it may be linked to the offense. Since the juvenile court system lacks comprehension of why girls utilize force, it fails to respond to such young women/ girls satisfactorily, negatively affecting their mental state.
The fact is that there are numerous failures in the juvenile system, such as racial and Gender points of view, which have resulted in numerous hurdles (Bruce, 2018). These obstacles make it difficult for the juvenile justice system to achieve its original goal of rehabilitation, resulting in juveniles who are not rehabilitated but instead have the instruments to get to be adult perpetrators (“THE CAUSES of JUVENILE DELINQUENCY in DETENTION FACILITIES,” 2017). When adolescents are separated from their families and committed to a correctional facility, their conduct does not improve; instead, it worsens. Juveniles in correctional camps must become more violent than the next juvenile to survive. Rather than becoming more valuable citizens, the juvenile acquires new nefarious talents.
Consequently, the “tormented” individual is further isolated from broader social assistance by removing them from the external society and their social networks. The institution may be constructed on a culture of authority, regularity, and control, which may demand reinforcement for norm compliance and an overdependence on restrictions and medicine (Silvera, 2015). Lack of funding for state and city-run institutions may result in neglect and abuse for the customer. Elite narratives that propagate the notion that autonomous persons are entirely accountable for their fate tend to disguise structural inequities in dimensions that intensify the sensation of social desertion at a macro scale.
According to Bruce (2018), drug treatment tribunals (DTC), as a solution to the issue of substance abuse, emphasize an additional contribution of African American women and girls’ experiences with the legal system, Gender, and mental health. The drug treatment court system blends psychology and criminal justice techniques into a hybrid approach to manage mental health concerns and recidivism hazards; yet, the success of DTC seems equivocal as women recognize the importance of agency and freedom in their recovery and advancement in the DTC (Kendall, 2010). Women experience double discrimination since their drug misuse and criminal activity violate the law and gender standards (National Association of Drug Court Professionals, 2019). The fact that women are naturally more vulnerable to drugs than males is underscored as the relationship between trauma, and dependence is critical to comprehending this susceptibility (Arfken & Yen, 2014). Since African American women have the minimum scores of retention in treatment for substance abuse and thus are three times more inclined to serve prison time for drug crimes, their specific cultural misgivings merit additional regard and provide a chance to emphasize the crossroads of class, race, and Gender as it corresponds to addictive behavior and crime. Sexism and racism impose chronic impediments to social and economic opportunities, maintain African American women’s lousy reputation, and negatively impact their well-being, increasing their propensity to drug addiction (Aday & Farney, 2014).
Furthermore, correctional facilities offer minimal physical and mental healthcare, substance abuse and therapy services, and social assistance. These factors contribute to readmission and assist in elucidating what has been dubbed “the revolving door of incarceration.” Reincarceration is linked to the prevalence of alcohol and illegal drug consumption in rural areas and the consequences of remoteness on women’s capacity to meet reintegration demands. These systemic disparities distort mental health practitioners’ judgment, portraying women as reckless, helpless victims reliant on social support (Rosenfield & Mouzon, 2012).
Stereotypes, as well as the cynical and biased beliefs of professionals, met in prisons and healthcare systems and within communities, can compound these inequalities while perpetuating the perception that female convicts “prefer” to be incarcerated (Arfken & Yen, 2014). Such ideas oppress women by relying blindly on the gendered stereotypes stated above. Colonial experience harms Marginalized American women inmates in the shape of discriminatory and authoritarian notions of cultural “barbarism” and lack of individual agency. Women convicts are especially concerned by the systemic repercussions of these beliefs, which appear as disparities of chances and resources (Talbot, 2020). Many mental health practitioners may be unprepared to deal with these consequences. Girls and women are from low-income African-American backgrounds. Their communities are emblematic of low-income metropolitan regions in America, where state legislative initiatives have produced the conditions that result in women being convicted. These encompass the enactment of laws that resulted in a range of financial circumstances that incredibly restricted opportunity and effectively eliminated the prospect of persons ever becoming self-sufficient (Richie, 2012). Earnings, property ownership, and graduation rates are widely acknowledged social and economic well-being metrics that indicate continuous inequalities and chronic poverty, which substantially impact women’s history of abuse.
Finally, under the employment perspective, current statutory, administrative, and executive actions to provide equal career chances, women’s employment in all professional categories, including criminal justice, has not increased significantly (Ali & Adshead, 2022). The veterans’ favoritism structure, physical prerequisites, and sexual profiling of female officers by male coworkers and seniors are among the biggest impediments to equitable employment of women in policing. Women are proportionally underserved in the judicial system as prosecutors and prefer to specialize in marital and juvenile tribunals. As attorneys and prosecutors, women face tokenism and prejudice (Richie, 2012).
In conclusion, contact with the justice system is a significant kind of institutional racism and a prominent element of many African American women, girls, and families’ actual experiences in the United States. In the U. S., a considerable proportion of African American women are under community-based sentencing guidelines, and the psychological state and well-being of this specific demographic are underappreciated and undertheorized in the existing psychological field (Richie, 2012). From the standpoint of a gender perspective and justice interaction, African American women ‘s social placement represents systemic racial injustice. It is related to many stresses and hazards for depression and general poor mental health (Richie, 2012). This essay intended to change the conversation from trivializing African American women who come into touch with the system to a deeper comprehension of their mental health at this time and an exploration of mitigating variables to enhance mental health and wellness. Various types of social assistance, such as emotional/informational, tangible, and pleasant social engagement, may operate as buffers against the influence of stresses related to community monitoring on psychological distress. Researchers and practitioners interested in acknowledging the intersectional perspectives, cognitive science, and behavior patterns of African American women and girls in the United States could also take into account investigations and initiatives focusing on enhancing the mental health of an increasing number of African American women in contact with the justice system in various ways including correctional facilities and juvenile centers.
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