The Path Less Traveled: Gendered Pathways and Prison Misconduct
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Extant feminist literature argues that unique and gendered pathways lead to incarceration outcomes that vary by gender identity. Despite the large number of women involved with the prison system, both criminology and sociology of health research focus primarily on the impact of incarceration on male populations. The predominant focus of prison research on male populations influences the current body of literature examining misconduct and rule violations while incarcerated. The majority of research focuses on male-centered predictors of prison misconduct, such as mental health disorders, childhood adversity, and age. These findings advise prison programming but lack focus on gender-specific influences of prison behaviors. This hinders prison officials and policymakers from addressing the unique needs of the non-male incarcerated population. This analysis aims to investigate whether gendered pathways to incarceration have more influence on the type and severity of prison misconduct for individuals who identify as male, female, transgender, or non-binary compared to traditional, gender-neutral pathways. A secondary dataset from a nationally representative sample of people housed in state and federal prisons in 2016 was used to assess the research question. Findings indicated that female and transgender/non-binary populations have different predictors of violent and non-violent prison misconduct compared to male populations.