Feminist Theory: Gender, Race and Recidivism
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UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations 1-1-1997 Feminist theory: Gender, race and recidivism Amie M Shuck University of Nevada, Las Vegas Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/rtds Repository Citation Shuck, Amie M, "Feminist theory: Gender, race and recidivism" (1997). UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations. 3298. http://dx.doi.org/10.25669/jv7q-eimm processed, response: 201 This Thesis is protected by copyright and/or related rights. It has been brought to you by Digital Scholarship@UNLV with permission from the rights-holder(s). You are free to use this Thesis in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s) directly, unless additional rights are indicated by a Creative Commons license in the record and/ or on the work itself. 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Schuck A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Criminal Justice Department of Criminal Justice University of Nevada, Las Vegas May 1997 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. UMI Number: 1385196 Copyright 1997 by Shuck, Amie M. All rights reserved. UMI Microform 1385196 Copyright 1997, by UMI Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. UMI 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, MI 48103 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ©1997 Amie M. Schuck Ali Rights Reserved Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. The Thesis of Amie M. Schuck for the degree of Master of Arts in Criminal Justice is approved. Chairrcrson, Kriss A. Drass, Ph.D Examining (Committee Member, Ronald A. Farrell, Ph.D. Examining Committee Member, Terance D. Miethe, Ph.D Graduate faculty Representative, Djeto D. Assane, Ph.D. Dean of meGraduate CoUegeJRonald W. Smith, Ph.D. University of Nevada, Las Vegas May 1997 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ABSTRACT Feminist and women of color have criticized criminological theories for being developed by white middle-class men to explain white male delinquency, and thus, are limited in their understanding of crime and deviance within a gender or racial context. The purpose of this study is to use a series of logistic regression models to evaluate this assertion regarding criminological ‘theories’ of recidivism. The results indicate that there are substantive differences in statistically significant coefficients, models explanatory power, and percent improvement in models ability to correctly classify recidivists between gender, race and gender/race models. These findings suggest that further research should be conducted in this area. Ill Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT........................................................................................................................üi LIST OF TABLES..............................................................................................................vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS............................................................................................. vii CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION.........................................................................................1 CHAPTER 2 FEMINISM AND CRIMINOLOGY............................................................6 What is Feminism? .................................................................................................6 Feminist Critique of Criminological Theories........................................................9 Classical Criminological Thought............................................................ 10 Modem Sociological and Criminological Theories...................................15 Sex-Role Theories.....................................................................................19 Essentialism, Race and Fem inism........................................................................22 CHAPTER 3 RECIDIVISM ............................................................................................ 25 CHAPTER 4 RESEARCH METHODS AND PROCEDURES...................................... 29 Data Source and Study Population........................................................................29 Research Hypotheses............................................................................................ 30 The Sample ...........................................................................................................31 Variables ...............................................................................................................32 Dependent Variables................................................................................ 32 Independent Variables.............................................................................. 33 Multivariate Analysis: The Logit Model..............................................................36 CHAPTER 5 RESULTS ...................................................................................................41 Full Models ...........................................................................................................41 Gender Models.......................................................................................................46 Race Models...........................................................................................................48 Gender/Race M odels.............................................................................................50 CHAPTER 6 DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS ......................................................54 Discussion .............................................................................................................54 Logistic Regression M odels......................................................................54 Research Hypotheses................................................................................ 56 IV Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Feminist Critique.......................................................................................59 Recidivism Classification and Model Proportion Sensitivity.................. 61 Conclusions...........................................................................................................64 REFERENCES .................................................................................................................67 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES Table 1 : Summary of Gendreau, Little and Groggin’s Findings..............................27 Table 2: Coding and Descriptive Statistics For Dependent and Independent Variables (N=1050)............................................................... 37 Table 3: Descriptive Statistics For Dependent and Independent Variables in Gender and Race Models (N=510)...................................... 38 Table 4: Descriptive Statistics For Dependent and Independent Variables in Gender/Race Models (N=255)..............................................39 Table 5: Logistic Regression Coefficients and Odds Ratio For Predictors of Recidivism, Full Models ....................................................42