Arrests of Women Jumped in Last Decade, Study Says

WASHINGTON — A growing percentage of the adults on probation and parole across the country are women, according to the latest Justice Department report on the U.S. correctional population.

While men still commit many more crimes, there has been a “dramatic increase in the number of women arrested” over the past decade, said Allen J. Beck of the Bureau of Justice Statistics. As a result, women also are a rising percentage of the prison population.

In 1996, Beck said Sunday, there were more than 650,000 women on probation, 21% of all probationers, and 79,000 women on parole, 11% of that total. In 1990, women represented 18% of all probationers and 8% of all parolees.

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The report, compiled by Beck and agency statistician Jodi M. Brown, said there were almost 3.9 million adults on probation or parole at the end of 1996, an increase of 3.4% from the year before. Another 1.6 million were locked up in jail or prison, putting the total correctional population in the country at 5.5 million, a new high.

“There has been an increasing use of incarceration since 1985,” Beck said. In 1985, only 1 in 4 adults under correctional supervision was in jail or prison. Last year, 3 in 10 were.

Men still account for four of every five arrests, but Beck said there has been increasing involvement of women in crime. For instance, he said, from 1986 to 1995, “there was a 12% increase in the number of men arrested but a 38% increase in the number of females arrested.”

Arrests for driving while intoxicated, Beck said, show a striking change. Women accounted for 5.5% of those charged in 1986, but 14% in 1995.

Overall, women accounted for 17% of all arrests in 1986 and 20% in 1995, the most recent year for which those numbers are available. In terms of offenses for which parolees are being supervised, Beck said, fraud, larceny, theft and drug offenses are more prevalent among women than men.

The study also showed more probationers and parolees are being locked up for new offenses. In 1996, 18% of all probationers released from supervision were later incarcerated for a rule violation or a new crime, compared to 8% in 1985. Forty percent of those leaving parole were put behind bars again, compared to 35% in 1985.

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Parole is a conditional, supervised release following a prison term. Probation is a broad term covering supervision by a probation agency. Sometimes it is imposed in addition to incarceration, sometimes in place of it and sometimes in place of conviction.

By the end of 1996, slightly more than one-third (1.1 million) of all probationers and nearly one-half (320,000) of all parolees were black. Almost two-thirds of probationers (more than 2 million) and more than half of parolees (370,000) were white. Latinos were 15% of all probationers (475,000) and 20% of parolees (140,000).