Understanding the Female Offender

Project Summary for 2001-IJ-CX-0034 This study will clean, computerize, and apply a methodological framework to data collected by the Gluecks for their study of 500 New York Women's Reformatory inmates released between 1920 and 1924. The goals of the study are to develop a computerized version of the data collected for the study and (1) to identify the primary factors that are associated with early-onset offending among females, and compare them to those associated with late onset; (2) to isolate the central background factors and concurrent life-course dynamics correlated with recidivism and desistance among female offenders; and (3) to provide a historically sensitive account of the dynamics of female offenders during this period. The quantitative data will be supplemented by qualitative analysis of case studies and attention will be given to historical context.