Gender And Crime : Gender Differences In Crime

Since there is limited research on female serial killers, identifying case laws and statutes related to the issue is relatively difficult. This process is also complicated by the fact that female serial killers only account for nearly 8 percent of all serial killers in the United States ("A Murderous Phenomenon", 2011). According to statistics by the United States Bureau of Justice, men were ten time more likely to commit murder than women between 1976 and 2005.

The official crime statistics show that men tend to commit more crime than women, and some Feminists would agree with this. One theory put forward is that this is because of the differential socialisation of males and females. Oakley argues that males are socialised to be aggressive, self-seeking and individualistic, which

The United States criminal justice system, an outwardly fair organization of integrity and justice, is a perfect example of a seemingly equal situation, which turns out to be anything but for women. The policies imposed in the criminal justice system affect men and women in extremely dissimilar manners. I plan to examine how gender intersects with the understanding of crime and the criminal justice system. Gender plays a significant role in understanding who commits what types of crimes, why they do so, who is most often victimized, and how the criminal justice system responds to these victims and offenders. In order to understand the current state of women and the way in which gender relates to crime and criminal justice, it is first

According to Doerner (2012), “The odds of incarceration for female defendants were approximately 42 percent lower than the odds of incarceration for male defendants” (p. 245). A recent study on the effects of gender on sentencing guidelines found that male defendants are 74 percent more likely to be incarcerated than similarly charged female offenders (Doerner, 2012). Data from this study was drawn from the United States Sentencing Commission.

It applies to gender as well. According to a paper written by Proff. Sonja Starr, “men receive 63% longer sentences than women do.” Counterarguments to these claims are that men commit worse crimes than women. However, according to Starr’s paper, women are two times more likely to avoid incarceration if they are convicted. On top of that, when a woman walks into the court room, and they are defending themselves against a male, or even vise versa, the sympathy automatically goes to the woman. Many people often assume that women are the victims in any case, even when it is the exact

In viewing the information contained in the aforementioned articles, one can immediately understand the underlying reasons that women are committing more crimes than men. Through the mid-1990s, the arrest rates of both genders has increased steadily, with the male rate far exceeding that of females (Gross, 2009, pp. 84). However, in recent years, a shift has been seen, with the numbers of female offenders rising significantly, especially at the juvenile level, which significantly raises the likelihood of re-offending later in life. As such, an understanding of the differences between the sexes in terms of the reasoning behind their offenses has long been researched.

Since 1970, there has been an increasing and alarming rise 138 percent of violent crimes committed by women. Still, while the equivalent percentage compared to male violence is small 15 percent to 85 percent the fact that the numbers have elevated so drastically points to something changing in society.

According to Lilly, Cullen, and Ball (232) Feminist theory has been on the back burner of modern criminology until the late 19th century. As with the other criminology theories there are many thoughts and ideas on why females commit crimes. In the beginning the theories seem to revolve around the victimization of the female gender. Then criminologist took a look at female delinquency, prostitution, and gender inequality in the criminal justice system. Lilly (233) wrote that Lombroso used physiological traits to determine what type of women would commit crime. Lombroso also argued that the women that committed the most crime were more masculine then the women who did not commit crime. He used physiological immobility, and passivity to make the argument. Lilly (235) also wrote that Sigmund Freud believed the reason women committed crime was because they has “penis envy”. Since women were physical different than men, women would become more aggressive trying to act like the male counterpart in order to fit in with the status quo.

For my extended project I will be evaluating the gender difference in crime specifically focusing in the UK. Gender is one of indicator of criminal behaviour: in general women commit less crime than men “four out of five convicted offenders in England and Wales are male” (IB, 2017). This assumption can be traced back to different periods in time.

Knowing this information, Nicksa further investigated specifically how different gender types react to specific crime situations. More directly, women report theft more than men, as well as sexual assault. Research indicates a lack of predictability with physical assault, since men are more likely to physically intervene themselves, whereas women are more likely to call police.

When talking about crimes and why people commit them, I do not think there should be separate theories for each gender. Although there are distinct differences between men and women, there are also many similarities since we are all one species. I think the driving forces behind why people do bad things apply to everyone, not just half the human population. It is true that women do not commit crime as much as men, but the root causes behind their illegal actions typically fall under the same category. It is possible that the hypotheses that have been made up to this point are just not fully accurate, and that is why some people believe there should be gender specific theories of crime. However, I believe that the crime theories we have learned

Even though it is generally believed that men commit more crimes than women, there are some instances in which women commit a greater percentage of the crimes. One example would be shoplifting, in which some estimates are as high as 80% of all shoplifters being women, and although men

Gender is clearly one of the major factors in the causes of crime as men commit far more crimes than women. “90% of those found guilty are men.” – the poverty site

The result has been failure to consider important difference in male and female pathways into crime, types of crime, victimization, and punishments. Feminist criminology seeks

The social process and traditional structure theory explained why female crime rates are rather lower than males. The social process theory tend to explain the traditional crime with regards to differential opportunity to lean criminal techniques and values. The use of the traditional theory shows evidence in which considered the overlap on the causes of crimes committed by both genders. Studies shows that both male and female offenders that came in contact with the criminal justice system often came from a social background that are typically of low socioeconomic status, poorly educated, under or unemployed, and minority groups (Steffensmeir and Allan, 1995). The only difference between male and female offenders is, female