Age Gradient in Women's Crime: The Role of Welfare Reform. (December 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Corman, Hope; Dave, Dhaval M.; Reichman, Nancy E.
• Is Part Of: Feminist criminology. Volume 16:Number 5(2021)
• Page Start: 631
• Page End: 657
• Publication Date: 2021-12
• Subjects: connections with welfare system -- economic marginality -- female criminality -- women and social policy -- women's desistance -- age gradient; Feminist criminology -- Periodicals; Female offenders -- Periodicals; 364.37405
• DOI: 10.1177/1557085121991670
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1557-0851

Abstract

We investigate how welfare reform in the U.S. in the 1990s shaped the age gradient in women's property crime arrests. Using Federal Bureau of Investigation data, we investigated the age-patterning of effects of welfare reform on women's arrests for property crime, the type of crime that welfare reform has been shown to affect. We found that welfare reform reduced women's property crime arrests by about 4%, with particularly strong effects for women ages 25 to 29, slightly stronger effects in states with stricter work incentives, and much stronger effects in states with high per capita criminal justice expenditures.