“They Aim for Me” versus “Under the Radar:” Understanding Women’s Experiences in the Oregon Criminal Legal System through an Intersectional Lens

ABSTRACT

This article draws on intersectional criminology to explore how privilege and marginalization shape women’s experiences in the criminal legal system. Utilizing a phenomenological feminist approach, the findings from this study were derived from semi-structured interviews and focus groups with 19 women under community supervision in Oregon. Using thematic analysis, we developed three themes: experienced racism and privilege, police profiling, and differential sentencing outcomes. The findings highlight gendered racism experienced by BIWOC and gendered racial privilege experienced by White women. Theoretical and policy implications are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Legal process
• women as offenders
• methods
• qualitative

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the 19 women who participated in this study and shared their experiences. We would also like to acknowledge and thank Saleena Alverez for her assistance with data collection and entry. We would also like to thank Drs. Emily Troshynski and Emily Salisbury for their guidance and mentorship towards this study. Lastly, we would like to thank Dr. Sarah Daly for her feedback on this manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. This study was approved by the University of Nevada, Las Vegas Social/Behavioral Institutional Review Board under full committee review (#1063710).

2. In order to maintain the respondent’s anonymity, the actual name of the town is not included. It is a smaller town in Oregon with a population under 40,000 as of 2016 (U.S. Census, 2016).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by funding awarded to Breanna Boppre by the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV): President’s Foundation Graduate Fellowship, Summer Doctoral Research Fellowship, Graduate Processional & Student Association Research Funding Sponsorship, and Southwest Travel Award.