Joanne Belknap
Biographic Data
| ID | 254131 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Joanne Belknap |
| GIVEN NAMES | Joanne |
| FAMILY NAME | Belknap |
| SIGNATURE | BELKNAP J |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Colorado Boulder |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-6500-1202 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 38 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 252 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 38 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1986 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 8 |
The Extreme Sexual Victimization Histories of Women in Prison and the Significance of Race
This unprecedented research compared the self-reported SVs (sexual victimizations) of randomly sampled women in and outside of prison. Specifically, National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey (NISVS) Ohio data were compared with data the second author collected in Ohio women’s prisons. Consistent with pathways theory, all 15 SV measures increased the likelihood of being in prison, and this was true among both African American (Black) an…
Domestic Violence Policy: A World of Change
The second wave of the feminist movement brought unprecedented changes in awareness of criminal legal system (CLS) responses to domestic violence (DV). The seemingly feminist “success” in the harsher CLS responses, however, resulted in the disparate criminalization of BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) and poor individuals, among both DV defendants and victims. Therefore, feminist support for anti-carceral/abolitionist feminism, recog…
America's Jails: The Search for Human Dignity in an Age of Mass Incarceration
Fifty Years After the 1967 Crime Commission Report: How Nonpolicing Domestic Violence Research and Policies Have Changed and Expanded
In the 50 years since the U.S. President's Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice under President Johnson issued its report, feminist activism and both feminist and mainstream research have resulted in defining domestic violence (DV) as a social problem. This awareness of the seriousness and expansiveness of DV has spurred the development of unprecedented programs and policies. Although DV policing changes have been significa…
Trauma experiences and mental health among incarceratedwomen
This work provides further support for the importance of assessing trauma exposure of women in jail, especially the family context, as well as mental health. Implementation and testing of evidence-based treatment approaches that address trauma-related distress in correctional settings are warranted. (PsycINFO Database Record
Response Essay to the Special Edition of Critical Criminology
Activist Criminology: Criminologists’ Responsibility to Advocate for Social and Legal Justice
Similar to many criminologists, my interest in pursuing this career was driven by a desire to improve responses to injustices, on both small and large scales. I believe that among criminologists, this dedication to effect changes in social and legal justice disproportionately drives those of us historically kept out of the academy due to our race, gender, class, sexual identity, and/or other marginalizations. Fortunately, there is a growing diver…
The Significant Frequency and Impact of Stealth (Nonviolent) Gender-Based Abuse Among College Women
The prevalence, incidence, and impact of the gender-based abuse (GBA) of college women have been increasingly documented since the 1980s, with growing precision in the measurements and expanding identification of tactics. Although there is an obvious class bias in focusing on college women (compared to women of similar ages not attending college), it is important to address GBA among this population as they are at serious risk of sexual abuse (pa…
When Abuse Happens Again: Women's Reasons for Not Reporting New Incidents of Intimate Partner Abuse to Law Enforcement
Although most women abused by intimate partners experience a patterned behavior of abuse (by either the same or new partners), little is known about their decision making regarding whether to call the police for subsequent abuse. The current study found that 90 percent of women who had encountered the criminal legal system for previous intimate partner abuse victimizations did not contact the police for some or all recurrences. Qualitative analys…
Life History Models of Female Offending: The Roles of Serious Mental Illness and Trauma in Women’s Pathways to Jail
Our mixed-methods study advances understanding of pathways to offending for jailed women with and without mental illness. Life history interviews with 115 women from five U.S. states examined how onset of crime and delinquency varied based on mental health status and trauma exposure. Women in jails had high rates of mental health disorders, with a majority meeting lifetime diagnostic criteria for a serious mental illness (50%), posttraumatic stre…
Beth E. Richie. Arrested Justice: Black Women, Violence, and America's Prison Nation . New York: New York UP, 2012
The U.S. Women's Jury Movements and Strategic Adaptation
Journal Article The U.S. Women's Jury Movements and Strategic Adaptation Get access The U.S. Women's Jury Movements and Strategic Adaptation by Holly J. McCammon. New York, Cambridge University Press, 2012. 320 pp. $79.00. Joanne Belknap Joanne Belknap University of Colorado-Boulder Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Political Science Quarterly, Volume 128, Issue 3, Fall 2013, Pages 563–564, https://doi.org/1…
Sexual Minority Status, Abuse, and Self-Harming Behaviors among Incarcerated Girls
The Impact of Victim-Focused Outreach on Criminal Legal System Outcomes Following Police-Reported Intimate Partner Abuse
Randomized control designs have been used in the public health and psychological literatures to examine the relationship between victim outreach following intimate partner abuse (IPA) and various outcomes. These studies have largely relied on samples drawn from health providers and shelters to examine outcomes outside the criminal legal system. Based on the positive findings from this body of research, we expected that a victim-focused, community…
The Impact of Victim-Focused Outreach on Criminal Legal System Outcomes Following Police-Reported Intimate Partner Abuse: Reply to the Commentaries
Working With Female Offenders: A Gender-Sensitive Approach
Rape: Too Hard to Report and Too Easy to Discredit Victims
The Levels and Roles of Social and Institutional Support Reported by Survivors of Intimate Partner Abuse
This article explores the roles of social (informal) and institutional (formal) support in the lives of 158 women whose intimate partner abuse (IPA) cases reached the courts in three jurisdictions in the United States.Women were asked who knew about the IPA and their levels of supportiveness. Data analysis includes comparisons across the women in terms of social support and institutional support, and how these were related to the women’s demograp…
The Extensive Sexual Violation and Sexual Abuse Histories of Incarcerated Women
A growing body of research reports on the lifetime prevalence of sexual victimization experiences among incarcerated women. However, none of this research provides a detailed account of the many types and levels of sexual violations and sexual abuses, the age of occurrence, and the victim-offender relationship. This study used the Sexual Abuse Checklist (designed by the first author) and a modified version of the Sexual Experiences Survey (SES) t…
Culturally‐focused Batterer Counseling
Contextual factors impacting battered women's intentions to reuse the criminal legal system
While a small number of past studies have examined either situational, relational, or systems-level factors that influence battered women's use of either the police, prosecutorial, or court systems, no study to date has examined how these factors each influence women's intentions to reuse these systems. To address this gap, in-person interviews were conducted with 178 women whose assailants had been charged with a domestic violence–related crime …
The Gendered Nature of Risk Factors for Delinquency
Traditional delinquency theories typically exclude girls and examine economic marginalization as the primary risk factor for boys. More recent mainstream theories expand the childhood strains associated with delinquency but fail to account for the link between childhood abuses and subsequent offending reported in the feminist pathways studies of girls and women. In addition, policies since the 1990s request the development of “gender-specific ser…
The Trials of Measuring the “Success” of Domestic Violence Policies
Meda Chesney-Lind: The Mother of Feminist Criminology
No individual has contributed as much to feminist criminology as Meda Chesney-Lind. This article is a biography of Chesney-Lind written after conducting two interviews with her, and a careful reading of her work and other works written about her. Feminism was always a strong force in Chesney-Lind's life. Her childhood was difficult, but positively affected by her strong mother. In college and graduate school, Chesney-Lind became an ardent politic…
Little Women: Girls in Adult Prison
Despite the growing trend of waiving youth to adult/criminal court, little is known about how convicted youth experience adult prison. To date, no research has been published about girls in adult prisons. In this study, intensive interviews were conducted with 22 girls serving time in a women's prison in the Midwest, as well as four staff working in the girls ' unit. The findings describe the complex lives of girls housed in an adult women's pris…
The Gendered Nature of Risk Factors for Delinquency
Traditional delinquency theories typically exclude girls and examine economic marginalization as the primary risk factor for boys. More recent mainstream theories expand the childhood strains associated with delinquency but fail to account for the link between childhood abuses and subsequent offending reported in the feminist pathways studies of girls and women. In addition, policies since the 1990s request the development of “gender-specific ser…
Tenuous Borders: Girls Transferred to Adult Court
There are tremendous gaps in our theories and knowledge about girls who have committed crimes deemed so serious as to justify adult sentencing. This study is guided by a feminist approach to “give voice” to 22 girls incarcerated in a women's prison in the Midwest. Through in‐depth interviews, the girls describe their lives before prison and their perceptions of being tried and convicted as adults. Consistent with other research on female offender…
Life History Models of Female Offending: The Roles of Serious Mental Illness and Trauma in Women’s Pathways to Jail
Our mixed-methods study advances understanding of pathways to offending for jailed women with and without mental illness. Life history interviews with 115 women from five U.S. states examined how onset of crime and delinquency varied based on mental health status and trauma exposure. Women in jails had high rates of mental health disorders, with a majority meeting lifetime diagnostic criteria for a serious mental illness (50%), posttraumatic stre…
Activist Criminology: Criminologists’ Responsibility to Advocate for Social and Legal Justice
Similar to many criminologists, my interest in pursuing this career was driven by a desire to improve responses to injustices, on both small and large scales. I believe that among criminologists, this dedication to effect changes in social and legal justice disproportionately drives those of us historically kept out of the academy due to our race, gender, class, sexual identity, and/or other marginalizations. Fortunately, there is a growing diver…
Law Enforcement Officers' Attitudes about the Appropriate Responses to Woman Battering
The debate over the appropriate police response to cases of battered women has intensified over the last two decades, with the majority of the research focusing on the deterrent aspect of pro-arrest policies. By contrast, this study is an examination of 324 law enforcement officers' reported attitudes and preferences regarding arrest and mediation and attitudes about battering victims and offenders. Overall, the findings include far more support …
The Extensive Sexual Violation and Sexual Abuse Histories of Incarcerated Women
A growing body of research reports on the lifetime prevalence of sexual victimization experiences among incarcerated women. However, none of this research provides a detailed account of the many types and levels of sexual violations and sexual abuses, the age of occurrence, and the victim-offender relationship. This study used the Sexual Abuse Checklist (designed by the first author) and a modified version of the Sexual Experiences Survey (SES) t…
The Development of a Comprehensive Measure of the Sexual Victimization of College Women
It is only in recent years that sexual victimization has been identified as a salient problem on college and university campuses. Researchers have used a variety of different methodologies and data sources to describe the extent and the nature of sexual victimization of college women. These studies, however, are most commonly flawed by an incomplete conceptualization of sexual victimization (e.g., omitting sexual harassment and stalking), and by …
The Impact of Victim-Focused Outreach on Criminal Legal System Outcomes Following Police-Reported Intimate Partner Abuse
Randomized control designs have been used in the public health and psychological literatures to examine the relationship between victim outreach following intimate partner abuse (IPA) and various outcomes. These studies have largely relied on samples drawn from health providers and shelters to examine outcomes outside the criminal legal system. Based on the positive findings from this body of research, we expected that a victim-focused, community…
Contextual factors impacting battered women's intentions to reuse the criminal legal system
While a small number of past studies have examined either situational, relational, or systems-level factors that influence battered women's use of either the police, prosecutorial, or court systems, no study to date has examined how these factors each influence women's intentions to reuse these systems. To address this gap, in-person interviews were conducted with 178 women whose assailants had been charged with a domestic violence–related crime …
The Trials of Measuring the “Success” of Domestic Violence Policies
High School Students' Adherence to Rape Myths and the Effectiveness of High School Rape-awareness Programs
Over the past 15 years, the emergence of date rape as a social problem has resulted in college campuses implementing rape education or awareness programs. Simultaneously, researchers have worked to uncover the rates of rape on college campuses, college students' adherence to rape myths, and to a lesser extent, the effectiveness of rape-awareness programs on college campuses. This study departs from most of this prior research by focusing on high …
The Levels and Roles of Social and Institutional Support Reported by Survivors of Intimate Partner Abuse
This article explores the roles of social (informal) and institutional (formal) support in the lives of 158 women whose intimate partner abuse (IPA) cases reached the courts in three jurisdictions in the United States.Women were asked who knew about the IPA and their levels of supportiveness. Data analysis includes comparisons across the women in terms of social support and institutional support, and how these were related to the women’s demograp…
Police Responses to Woman Battering: Victim Advocates' Reports
Most of the research on police responses to battered women has been conducted by surveying or observing the police or by using forms completed by the police. This study takes a unique approach by using data collected by advocates for battered women in two agencies in a large metropolitan area of the United States. In 1992 shelter (refuge) workers and workers at a women victims' hotline agency developed a one-page form to be filled out by advocate…
Woman battering and police referrals
Fifty Years After the 1967 Crime Commission Report: How Nonpolicing Domestic Violence Research and Policies Have Changed and Expanded
In the 50 years since the U.S. President's Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice under President Johnson issued its report, feminist activism and both feminist and mainstream research have resulted in defining domestic violence (DV) as a social problem. This awareness of the seriousness and expansiveness of DV has spurred the development of unprecedented programs and policies. Although DV policing changes have been significa…
Response Essay to the Special Edition of Critical Criminology
Domestic Violence Policy: A World of Change
The second wave of the feminist movement brought unprecedented changes in awareness of criminal legal system (CLS) responses to domestic violence (DV). The seemingly feminist “success” in the harsher CLS responses, however, resulted in the disparate criminalization of BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) and poor individuals, among both DV defendants and victims. Therefore, feminist support for anti-carceral/abolitionist feminism, recog…
The Impact of Victim-Focused Outreach on Criminal Legal System Outcomes Following Police-Reported Intimate Partner Abuse: Reply to the Commentaries
Working With Female Offenders: A Gender-Sensitive Approach
An empirical assessment of exemplary project publications: Do they provide the necessary information for implementation
Women in Conflict: An Analysis of Women Correctional Officers
This study of 35 women correctional officers working in a large metropolitan jail confirms much prior research. AIthough most of the women believed that men and women are equal, they tended to believe that men and women perform the corrections job differently and that women are less likely to advance. Furthermore, most of the officers were restricted from working with male inmates. The women confirmed the existence of sexual harassment, but they …
Woman battering and police referrals
Law Enforcement Officers' Attitudes about the Appropriate Responses to Woman Battering
The debate over the appropriate police response to cases of battered women has intensified over the last two decades, with the majority of the research focusing on the deterrent aspect of pro-arrest policies. By contrast, this study is an examination of 324 law enforcement officers' reported attitudes and preferences regarding arrest and mediation and attitudes about battering victims and offenders. Overall, the findings include far more support …
Criminal justice teaching practicum I: Teaching doctoral students to teach
Most college professors receive no training in education and teaching unless they have degrees in education. Criminal justice professors are no exception. This article describes a three-credit course on teaching that is required of all doctoral students in one academic criminal justice program. Not only are the students required to take this course for graduation, they also must complete this course adequately in order to teach during their docto…
In Their Own Words: Battered Women’s Assessment of the Criminal Processing System’s Responses
High School Students' Adherence to Rape Myths and the Effectiveness of High School Rape-awareness Programs
Over the past 15 years, the emergence of date rape as a social problem has resulted in college campuses implementing rape education or awareness programs. Simultaneously, researchers have worked to uncover the rates of rape on college campuses, college students' adherence to rape myths, and to a lesser extent, the effectiveness of rape-awareness programs on college campuses. This study departs from most of this prior research by focusing on high …
The Development of a Comprehensive Measure of the Sexual Victimization of College Women
The Development of a Comprehensive Measure of the Sexual Victimization of College Women
It is only in recent years that sexual victimization has been identified as a salient problem on college and university campuses. Researchers have used a variety of different methodologies and data sources to describe the extent and the nature of sexual victimization of college women. These studies, however, are most commonly flawed by an incomplete conceptualization of sexual victimization (e.g., omitting sexual harassment and stalking), and by …
Born Feminist
Police Responses to Woman Battering: Victim Advocates' Reports
Most of the research on police responses to battered women has been conducted by surveying or observing the police or by using forms completed by the police. This study takes a unique approach by using data collected by advocates for battered women in two agencies in a large metropolitan area of the United States. In 1992 shelter (refuge) workers and workers at a women victims' hotline agency developed a one-page form to be filled out by advocate…
Tenuous Borders: Girls Transferred to Adult Court
There are tremendous gaps in our theories and knowledge about girls who have committed crimes deemed so serious as to justify adult sentencing. This study is guided by a feminist approach to “give voice” to 22 girls incarcerated in a women's prison in the Midwest. Through in‐depth interviews, the girls describe their lives before prison and their perceptions of being tried and convicted as adults. Consistent with other research on female offender…
Margaret Abraham, Speaking the Unspeakable: Marital Violence among South Asian Immigrants in the United States
Meda Chesney-Lind: The Mother of Feminist Criminology
No individual has contributed as much to feminist criminology as Meda Chesney-Lind. This article is a biography of Chesney-Lind written after conducting two interviews with her, and a careful reading of her work and other works written about her. Feminism was always a strong force in Chesney-Lind's life. Her childhood was difficult, but positively affected by her strong mother. In college and graduate school, Chesney-Lind became an ardent politic…
Little Women: Girls in Adult Prison
Despite the growing trend of waiving youth to adult/criminal court, little is known about how convicted youth experience adult prison. To date, no research has been published about girls in adult prisons. In this study, intensive interviews were conducted with 22 girls serving time in a women's prison in the Midwest, as well as four staff working in the girls ' unit. The findings describe the complex lives of girls housed in an adult women's pris…
The Gendered Nature of Risk Factors for Delinquency
Traditional delinquency theories typically exclude girls and examine economic marginalization as the primary risk factor for boys. More recent mainstream theories expand the childhood strains associated with delinquency but fail to account for the link between childhood abuses and subsequent offending reported in the feminist pathways studies of girls and women. In addition, policies since the 1990s request the development of “gender-specific ser…
The Trials of Measuring the “Success” of Domestic Violence Policies
Contextual factors impacting battered women's intentions to reuse the criminal legal system
While a small number of past studies have examined either situational, relational, or systems-level factors that influence battered women's use of either the police, prosecutorial, or court systems, no study to date has examined how these factors each influence women's intentions to reuse these systems. To address this gap, in-person interviews were conducted with 178 women whose assailants had been charged with a domestic violence–related crime …
Culturally‐focused Batterer Counseling
The Extensive Sexual Violation and Sexual Abuse Histories of Incarcerated Women
A growing body of research reports on the lifetime prevalence of sexual victimization experiences among incarcerated women. However, none of this research provides a detailed account of the many types and levels of sexual violations and sexual abuses, the age of occurrence, and the victim-offender relationship. This study used the Sexual Abuse Checklist (designed by the first author) and a modified version of the Sexual Experiences Survey (SES) t…
The Levels and Roles of Social and Institutional Support Reported by Survivors of Intimate Partner Abuse
This article explores the roles of social (informal) and institutional (formal) support in the lives of 158 women whose intimate partner abuse (IPA) cases reached the courts in three jurisdictions in the United States.Women were asked who knew about the IPA and their levels of supportiveness. Data analysis includes comparisons across the women in terms of social support and institutional support, and how these were related to the women’s demograp…
Rape: Too Hard to Report and Too Easy to Discredit Victims
Working With Female Offenders: A Gender-Sensitive Approach
Sexual Minority Status, Abuse, and Self-Harming Behaviors among Incarcerated Girls
The Impact of Victim-Focused Outreach on Criminal Legal System Outcomes Following Police-Reported Intimate Partner Abuse
Randomized control designs have been used in the public health and psychological literatures to examine the relationship between victim outreach following intimate partner abuse (IPA) and various outcomes. These studies have largely relied on samples drawn from health providers and shelters to examine outcomes outside the criminal legal system. Based on the positive findings from this body of research, we expected that a victim-focused, community…
Psychology (31 works) · Criminology (27 works) · Medicine (25 works) · Poison control (22 works) · Medical emergency (20 works) · Suicide prevention (20 works) · Criminal Justice and Corrections Analysis (18 works) · Political science (16 works) · Sociology (15 works) · Intimate Partner and Family Violence (14 works)