Youth who are accused of crimes are often older males. In fact, of all youth court cases reported in 2008-09, 72 percent involved males, while 21 percent involved females (Kong and AuCoin, 2008). The gender of the offender was not reported in seven percent of the cases. This paper will explain how the “girl” crime picture differs from the “boy crime” picture, and show the extent the differences that appear to be increasing/decreasing over time. While it is clear that females are accused of crimes less frequently than boys, the ratio shift depending on the type of crime.
“Girl” Crime Picture Female youth account for just one out of every five people who are accused by the police in the Criminal Code offenses in Canada (Kong, 2008). This has been a reality for some time now. This low crime rate among females resulted in little being known about female offenders and their motives. The low rate also means women and girls who commit crimes face a Canadian criminal justice system that is primarily designed to deal with male offenders (Kong, 2008). “It is precisely the relatively small number of women and girls who commit crimes that creates a need to regularly monitor trends in offending patterns among females, trends that become masked by the larger male population if not examined separately” (Kong, 2008). Various crime prevention strategies can use the trends in female and male crime patterns. The information can be used to assess the responses by the justice and the social
Youth and juvenile crime is a common and serious issue in current society, and people, especially parents and educators, are pretty worried about the trend of this problem. According to Bala and Roberts, around 17% of criminals were youths, compared to 8% of Canadian population ranging between 12 to 18 years of age between 2003 and 2004 (2006, p37). As a big federal country, Canada has taken a series of actions since 1908. So far, there are three justice acts in the history of Canadian juvenile justice system, the 1908 Juvenile Delinquents Act, the 1982 Young Offenders Act, and the 2003 Youth Criminal Justice Act. In Canada, the judicial system and the principle of these laws have been debated for a long time. This paper will discuss how
Current statistics show that men commit 80% of all crime and women commit only 20%. However there are arguments to suggest that the statistics highlight an under representation of female criminality, and there are many sociological arguments to suggest that female criminals are treated more leniently. On the other hand, some sociologists believe women are treated more harshly when they commit certain types of crime. This essay aims to assess the reasons for gender differences in reported crime rates.
With this in mind, this study shows that research could contribute to crime control theories considering it identified a correlation between gender and crime by focusing on the physical attributes of criminals. However, this theory for the physical differentiation between criminal and non-criminals is viewed by modern studies as statistically insignificant. Furthermore, this suggests that crime control has change over recent years considering theories have been challenged by researchers using more reliable and valid measures. In addition to the relationship between criminality and gender, Klien (1973:185) states that, “These characteristics are of physiological or psychological nature and are uniformly based on implicit or explicit assumptions about the inherent nature of women. This nature is universal, rather than existing within a specific historical framework.” In other words, the observable difference in crime rates between criminal and non-criminal women might have been due to economic, social, and political factors. As a result, several criminologists have tried to establish a theory that explains all crime is still possible, while others have suggested that crime control should focus on understanding particular types of crimes instead. Therefore, it is clear that crime control has been modified over the years to accommodate for more rounded theories.
In terms of gender, aboriginal female youth account for 32% of the remand population and 25% of the prison population. Male aboriginal youth comprised 23% of the remand population and 21% of the youth prison population (Stats Canada). There is an obvious gender differentiation between aboriginal and non-aboriginal within the justice system. It is possible that this is due to the high number of urbanized aboriginal girls who are forced into prostitution. It would be very interesting to develop further analysis of the types of crime, for instance violent versus victimless crime.
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
In the United States, “an estimated 7,100 juvenile defendants were charged with felonies in adult criminal court in 1998” ("Juvenile Defendants"). These numbers portray how there were a lot of juveniles being charged. In addition to a large increase in the amount of crime, there was a change in the severity of the crimes that were committed, “the number of violent crimes committed by young people declined substantially from the 1990s to 2003, but then surged again that year, with the estimated number of juvenile murder offenders increasing 30 percent” (Kahn). These numbers show how juveniles were committing more crimes that were serious in the face of the law. These numbers are a brief snippet of
There have been many studies conducted that examine ways in which the juvenile justice system responds to female offenders. Historically juvenile female offenders have been treated under status offense jurisdiction (Zahn et al., 2010, p. 10). United States Courts would exercise the principle of “parens patriae” to place the female in detention as a form of punishment for misbehavior (Sherman, 2012, pp. 1589-1590). This principle also remains prevalent as it pertains to how the juvenile justice system currently responds to juvenile female offenders.
When one thinks of the juvenile corrections system, they tend to gender this institution, focusing mainly on young boys. Due to this, one often neglects the thought there are also young girls that are in the system. This may be due to the fact that when compared to young boys within the juvenile corrections system, in previous years the girls consisted of a small portion within in this space. However, according to recent studies, girls in the juvenile system has been rapidly increasing over the last 20 years (Levintova, 2015). This is an issue which needs to be acknowledge due to the fact that young women are caught in this system for starkly contrasting reasons when compared to young males. These reasonings are described in the book Girls in Trouble with the Law by Laurie Schaffner which we will further explore.
Females are said to be very emotional and if they were troublemakers at a young age they are said to possess “masculine traits and characteristics” (Siegal & Walsh, 2015). Males tend to commit crimes like robbery, assault and burglary. This has changed in the last decade. The rate of offending has decreased for males by 27 percent and females about 15 percent. “Girls have increased their
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
Serious crimes such as murder, burglary and rape have raised questions as to whether the young offenders should face severe punitive treatment or the normal punitive measures in juvenile courts. Many would prefer the juveniles given harsh punishment in order to discourage other young people from engaging in similar activities and to serve as a lesson to these particular offenders. However, results from previous studies indicate such punitive measures were neither successful nor morally acceptable. Instead, the solutions achieved have unfairly treated the youths and compromised the society status (Kristin, page 1).
The characteristics of these offenders and the crimes they are committing are also changing over time. Demographically the juvenile female offender is most likely coming from a single parent home and may have been physically or sexually abused at some point in her life. She will also most likely be under the age of 15 and even more likely to be a woman of color, African-American young woman comprise almost 50 percent of all young women in secure detention, while Hispanics make up 13 percent (Bergsmann, 1994). In 1996, females represented 57 percent of the arrests for running away. In 1996, females represented 15 percent of juvenile arrests for violent crimes, while arrests of boys for violent offenses declined by 9 percent (Snyder, 1997). Aggravated assault, the most frequent of the violent offenses committed by juveniles, represented 20 percent of all arrests for juvenile females, while declining for boys by 10 percent (Snyder, 1997). In considering these changes it is still important to note that girls are still arrested more often for status offenses it is becoming more evident that girls are engaging in delinquent behaviors more often
Statistics show that the number of female offenders in the legal system has been increasing steadily. The number of female offenders entering the American justice system is growing at a rate faster than males. Statistics from the United States in 2010 show the female offender population to be increasing by 2.7% each year, compared to the male population at a rate of 1.8% each year, with similar statistics being seen in other Western countries (West & Sabol, 2010). The continued increase has made understanding female offenders and their catalysts for committing crime more imperative.
The focus of this paper will be based upon different crime prevention strategies implemented by members of the communities, local and government authorities.
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.