Examining the Connections Between Women's Education and Employment Achievement and Their Arrest Experiences

Background and Purpose: There is well-established evidence that women in the criminal justice system are disproportionately affected by a variety of emotional and economic struggles. Even though men continue to make up a higher percentage of arrests in the United States and account for the majority of individuals under criminal justice supervision, the total number of men arrested over the past ten years has decreased by 6.8% while the total number of women arrested has increased by 10.5%. This growth of women’s entrance into the criminal justice system is cause for investigation. The aim of my study was to use general strain theory to test for associations between arrest and women’s strains within an outpatient substance abuse treatment program. I hypothesized that there would be positive relationships between the severity of strains and the likelihood of arrest across the course of the study.  

Methods: This secondary analysis used data from the National Institute on Drug Abuse’s  Clinical Trials Network, Protocol #15 titled “Women’s treatment for trauma and substance use disorders: A randomized clinical trial.” I used the dichotomous variable of arrest (yes/no) as my dependent variable. Independent variables included proxies for the following strain variables: drug use, alcohol use, depression, posttraumatic stress disorder, lack of education, limited employment achievement, and low levels of social support. The variables were collected over multiple time points (baseline and one-week and 3-, 6-, and 12-months post treatment) using the Addiction Severity Index, Basic Symptom Inventory, and Clinician Assisted PTSD Scale. I conducted a cross-sectional analysis using a multi-level model, nesting time within individual, to test for associations between arrest and severity of strain at corresponding study time points (N=329).

Results: Most of the variables of interest provided null results, except for the education and employment achievement variables. In this sample, women with higher educational (OR  = 1.3, 95% CI = 1.3 – 1.4, p < 0.001) and employment achievement (OR = 8.6, 95% CI  = 3.1 – 24, p < 0.001) were more likely to be arrested at corresponding time points.

Conclusions and Implications: According to these sample results, increased education and employment achievement is associated with an increased likelihood of arrest. There are several implications for these associations. The results from this sample illustrate that even once women begin their journeys through substance use recovery, they may still need additional supports in the areas of education and employment to protect them from coping with these possible strains through crime. Some implications from this study include: providing formal procedures and training for supervisors regarding how to best support women with histories of substance use who are attempting to increase their education and employment levels; developing psycho-education and therapy groups to support women who may not only be newly living without substances but may also be attempting to transition between classes and understand possible new unspoken expectations; and increasing the amount of research around women’s strains, how to best measure them, and the mechanisms connecting women’s education and employment strains to criminal activity and arrest.