Women facing crime

factors associated with female criminal recidivism

Abstract

The purpose of the present investigation was to reflect on the various factors associated with the criminal behavior of women, especially those related to recidivism. The study was carried out in the context of a women's detention center in the city of La Paz, Bolivia, with a convenient sample of 90 inmates who agreed to be part of it, with heterogeneous ages and personal and criminal histories dissimilar. An important part of the participants had a history of consumption of psychotropic substances and approximately a quarter of them had reoccurred in crimes related to the Coca and Regime Regime Law. The results indicated the existence of multiple significant relationships between demographic, social and antisocial variables with recidivism, although only two of them, cocaine use and child possession showed signs of being good predictors of the tendency to reoffend.