Why Do Women Commit Organized Crime

Most of the time, men try to justify female offenders just because they are women. One thing that should never be assumed is that everyone behaves like they do because of outside influences. Sometimes people are perfectly healthy (mentally, emotionally, and physically), but they simply make bad choices. In the end, chivalry is used to ‘protect’ those women; in other words, chivalry tends to be used to justify their actions by presenting them as victims. In most occasions, women use this stereotyping to their advantage because they know that if they do their sentencing will more likely be reduced.

There are many factors that inhibit women to commit violent crimes. Most women suffer from substance abuse, spouse abuse and mental issues. The most common risk is being previously being abused earlier in life. A survey conducted in 2002 reported that thirty six percent of all female

Criminology is the study of crime and is concerned with developing theories on what causes crime, whereas criminal justice focuses more on the processing of victims and offenders. Crime remains a constant problem in every society, no matter how civilized or uncivilized that country may be. Although, the criminal justice system does receive a lot of attention, the attention is focused more on the males in the system rather than the females. Since 1980 the number of women in state and federal prisons has increased at nearly double the rate for men. There are now nearly seven times as many women in state and federal prisons as in 1980, yet there is still a common misconception that the criminal behavior of females is not a serious problem. In fact when I first enrolled in the class I thought there would be a section about gender politics in the criminal justice system because it is an extremely important component in society, and I was disappointed to discover that there was no such section. I feel that this topic is one of importance because the policies and practices of the criminal justice affect all women, directly or indirectly, and is why I chose this subject over the many others.

Hello Jamie, I agree with you in the reason why more and more women are being incarcerated. Women are steadily moving into more skilled careers and as a result, the temptations to commit crimes that are punishable by prison are more accessible. As in both males and females, parents are driven to provide for their children by any means necessary. The steady increase of drug offenses also plays a part in more and more women being incarcerated. I agree with you that black and whites do sell drugs at similar rates, but the majority of minorities live in the heavily policed cities so the offenses are noticed more. The majority of whites live in the suburbs or in the rural parts of the county where there is less police presence and less likely

Many people recognize that gangs have been around for what seems like forever. What they don't realize is that the numbers are increasing to amazing proportions, there were 28,000 youth gangs with 780,200 members in the United States (in 2000) and 20% to 46% of those members are female (Evans). And what is even more shocking is, in Chicago alone there are 16,000 to 20,000 female gang members (Eghigian). These girls start out as ?groupies?, become members, and sometimes even leaders of all-girl gangs because of troubles in the home, a need for money, for the social scene, or just because it is all they know.

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.

Based on this vital information does this bring us to the conclusion that women are simply becoming more violent and bolder as time passes by even to the point that they surpass that of men? Surely I am of the view that women did not spontaneously decide to turn to a way of crime, as a matter of fact the majority of women in prison have experienced some form of physical or sexual abuse both related and unrelated to men.

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.

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

Crime has always been, and always will be a factor in society. It has existed since ancient times. The first recorded laws were “Hammurabi’s Laws”. A set of rules engraved in a large pillar in the middle of the Sumerian city-state of Babylon. Back then the punishments were simple. If you stole something, then your hand was cut off. In the modern day our laws are not so simple. Now a days something minor like theft, or minor drug possession could land you a harsher sentence than embezzling millions of dollars. Today the laws are dictated by a scared people and a justice system that doesn’t do its job. The punishments for crimes often do not fit the crime committed. More often than not one’s social status can directly impact the sentence one would receive.

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

I believe that this train of thought addresses the cause of criminal behavior in women because many viewpoints that fall under the umbrella of feminism are given as different causes of criminal conduct in women .Feminist criminology lacks evidence of a woman’s crime. Women's activist theories not only strive to elucidate criminal wrong doing, exploitation and additionally join together theory with practice to create more impartial answers for the crime at hand.

Feminist criminology emerged out of the realisation that criminology has from its inception centred on men and the crimes they commit. Although it can be argued female criminality was researched by Lombroso, as far back as 1800’s, female crime, it’s causes and the impact in which it had on society was largely ignored by the criminological futurity. Those Criminologist who did attempt to research female crime such as Thomas and Pollak were not only very damning of women but were also very condescending, choosing to stereotype them as either Madonna or whore (Feinman).