The State - News from March 24, 1987

Female arrest rates in California increased by 33.9% during the decade between the mid-1970s and the mid-1980s, while male arrest rates went up only 19.7%, according to the state attorney general’s bureau of criminal statistics. A report issued by the bureau said the arrest rate for women in 1976 was 2,137.7 per 100,000 population, while by 1985, it had climbed to 2,862.4 per 100,000. A spokesman for the office attributed the increase to drug and alcohol abuse, saying, “Substance abuse brings women into conflict with the law who would otherwise remain untouched by the criminal justice system.”