A descriptive comparison of criminality, substance use, and mental health among two samples of female offenders

With the growing number of women involved in the criminal justice system, there is a need to examine female offenders in order to understand potential differences which might have important implications for treatment assessment and planning. The purpose of this study is to describe criminal histories, substance use, and mental health of two samples of female offenders in the community: Drug court (n = 173) and probationers (n = 160). Findings suggest differences between the groups on measures of lifetime and recent substance use. A higher percentage of female probationers reported lifetime use of five substances, but female drug court participants reported more recent substance use. In addition, a higher percentage of female probationers reported lifetime depression, anxiety, cognitive impairment, and difficulties controlling violent behavior, as well as recent mental health problems when compared with drug court participants. Logistic regression models indicated that membership in these two groups could be predicted by drug use and mental health. These findings suggest that a "one size fits all" approach for working with community substance using female offenders may not be appropriate.