Essay On Pathways Theory

For years most legal systems utilized the same assessment tools for both men and women in accordance to levels of criminality. Through observations and research conducted by criminologists, questions have challenged the approach that a conventional theory of crime can explain the association within criminal activity. The majority of the research and theory shows women to be represented in a negative light, but with the pathways theory utilized, genuine comprehension of the female offenders comes into fruition. As of today in American society, it is believed that the Pathways theory is the most relevant theory that helps to understand the girl’s and women’s leading factors of integration in the population of jails and prisons.
The Pathways theory is described to be a form of viewing the criminal environment through analysis of people’s everyday activities. Research on the Pathways theory has revealed that gender is of extreme relevance in …show more content…
It is reported that sex crimes are reported more than any other criminal offenses. Sex crimes that are of major occurrence would be Sexual Trafficking and prostitution. By an analytical standpoint it is established that these women who become victims of sex crimes are in tandem with the pathways associated with leading to these crimes. Most victims are shown to be runaways, of poor living conditions, or victims of sexual abuse. In these crimes, research states that when these girls and women are in a vulnerable stage such as that of poor living conditions, they are lured in under false promises of a better life. Day after day, women and girls are victimized and reduced to nothing, but objects of sexual desire. The Pathways theory is what humanizes the victims of these sex crimes. With this theory, it is discovered by the legal system that it is not the women who are “guilty”, but it is their captors or