Introduction

Females in the criminal justice system have often been referred to as the "forgotten" or "neglected" offenders. Virtually all of the correctional literature and research has focused on male offenders, which is due primarily to the fact that men have comprised an overwhelming proportion of the nation's total offender population. However, statistics show that the number of female offenders is on the rise as is the proportion of the population they represent. In the last decade, the number of women imprisoned in the United States has tripled and on any given day more than 80,000 females are incarcerated in our nation's correctional system.