DRUGS, ABUSIVE RELATIONSHIPS TO BLAME FOR RISE IN ARRESTS OF FEMALES,
CRIMINAL EXPERTS SAY

The number of women arrested statewide has more than tripled during
the last 20 years, according to statistics from the state Law
Enforcement Division.

The number of men arrested increased by about half during the same
time, according to SLED.

Women who commit violent crimes still are an anomaly, law enforcement
officials said. Instead, more women are being arrested and going to
jail because of drugs, exeperts say.

In 1998, S.C. police arrested 54,131 women, compared to 17,004 women
arrested in 1978, according to SLED. Police arrested 167,222 men in
1998, up from 113,990 men arrested in 1978.

"It's because of the war on drugs," said Joann Morton, an associate
professor at the University of South Carolina college of criminal
justice. "That's what seems to have resulted in the dramatic increase."

Fifth Judicial District solicitor Barney Giese agrees drugs are behind
the increase in the number of women arrested.

"We might see some killings involving women, but they are usually
domestic in nature," Giese said, whose district includes Richland County.

As Giese spoke, his top assistant, Johnny Gasser, immediately
remembered Dorothy Harden. A grandmother, Harden was convicted in 1998
of operating a major drug operation.

"She literally ran the organization," Gasser said. "There were a lot
of women involved."

Experts who have studied women and crime agree drugs are a major part
of the problem.

The number of women convicted of drug charges, including drug
trafficking and possession, increased 37 percent between 1990 and
1996, according to the U.S. Justice Department. Drug convictions for
men jumped 25 percent during the same period.

The number of women sent to prison for felony convictions increased 42
percent from 1990 to 1996, federal statistics show. Felony convictions
for men increased 17 percent during the same period.

Besides drugs, researchers also think that years of abuse might lead
many women to crime.

Abusers often force women to commit crimes, USC's Morton
said.

"Even with bank robberies, there's usually a man involved," Morton
said. "People probably think that women can't even manage bank
robberies by themselves."

Cristy Lee Booze is an example, police say.

Booze needed money to get her boyfriend out of jail. The 18-year-old
woman and a friend drove to Palmetto Trust Federal Credit Union in the
St. Matthews area on Feb. 9 to get the cash.

Booze used a semiautomatic pistol to hold up two tellers, according to
agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Booze and her friend were arrested just days after the robbery. That
same month, the two held up a Subway restaurant, police said.

Both are awaiting trial.

Lexington County Sheriff Jimmy Metts, who has been in law enforcement
34 years, thinks women's crimes are changing with the times.

For years, women got money by prostituting themselves, writing bad
checks and embezzling, Metts said. But, while still rare, more women
are breaking into homes and robbing people, Metts said.

"Women are more independent than they used to be," Metts said. "They
are just as competitive as men are. And crime hasn't left them out."

Wednesday morning, for instance, two women were charged with robbing a
Lexington Waffle House.

Tanya Grogan James held a revolver as she went inside the restaurant
while a friend, Susan Elizabeth Green, waited in a car for James to
come out, said Metts.

"This is a stick-up," James said, ordering employees to fill a bag
with money, Metts said.

James, 38, left the restaurant with the money and got into the car
with Green, 48. A deputy arrested the pair less than an hour later
during a routine traffic stop, Metts said.

Both James and Green, now awaiting trial. have previous criminal
records, according to the state Law Enforcement Division.

But Morton said most women involved in violent crime usually target
people they know -- spouses, boyfriends and children.

"The crime that frightens most of us is stranger-to-stranger crime,"
she said. "Women don't tend to do those."

Richland prosecutor Giese said that in his 20 years as solicitor he
could not immediately recall a crime that a woman committed against a
stranger. Until 10 years ago, it was hard to recall a woman being
involved in a holdup, unless she was the get-away driver.

While anecdotal arrests suggest women are committing more violent
crimes, Dana D. DeHart of USC said that's not true.

Instead, said DeHart, who works in the univerisity's center for child
and family studies, said drugs are responsible for the increase in the
number of women arrested and jailed.

"Women have been swept up in the war on drugs, while legislators and
prosecutors, driven by the liberation fallacy and the law-and-order
movement of the late 1980s and 1990s, often take an approach of 'If
you can do the crime, you can do the time.'"

DeHart believes women's crimes still differ from those committed by
men.

Women, she said, largely commit crime because of drug addiction or to
retaliate against abusive partners. As long as those problems exist,
women will commit crimes, she added.