Women & Crime

Throughout history, the criminal justice system has mainly focused on men entering the criminal justice system rather than women. This is not portrayed largely by the media and society because it is not truly considered a highlight topic. Men and women face incarceration on a daily basis, causing them both to have different experiences based on their gender. The crimes and punishment faced by each gender is different and can affect the way society views the person as an individual and/or as a group. The nature and role in society can be a factor of the incarceration and the experience they may face while in the criminal justice system. Although the depiction of men entering the criminal justice system is portrayed regularly, the rate of women entering the criminal justice system has faced a higher increase than men entering the system.

This paper will attempt to analyze sociological factors, which explain societies propensity to treat women differently than men when they are accused of committing a violent crime, such as murder. Because we live in a male-dominated society it is believed that men commit most violent crimes. Some studies indicate that when a violent crime is committed by a man society has a more acceptable view of the offense. Because of gender stereotypes, women are judged more harshly by society than a man. Women are expected to follow normal behavior as ascribed by their societies current definitions of normal. Society views women as nurturers who are subservient to their husbands and devoted to their children (2008). The Andrea Yates case was chosen as the focus of this paper because it perfectly illustrates the impact of external and internal forces, which can drive a woman to commit a violent crime and societies reaction to those crimes.

The system unable to adapt for such a small number in comparison to men, incarcerated women are expected to fit into an institution developed by men for men, resulting in worse conditions, less familial contact due to fewer facilities, and more rules as if the women were children, all direct reflections institutionalized sexism and HM both in and out of the corrections arena. Additionally, due to the Madonna-like factor, women who are convicted have a farther fall from grace within society and do not have the luxury of the “good old boy” connections for defense and protection. While gender roles and expectations are assigned by society, believing women should be equal to men demands the acknowledgement that women can offend like men (Pearson, 1998) and therefore should be incarcerated not ‘like men’ but in an equalized manner. Perhaps, rather than revamping institutions developed to house and rehabilitate women, we first investigate the standards currently in play for the policing, convicting and sentencing of men as the foundation of creating a nonsexist criminal justice

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.

However, the validity of the chivalry thesis is questioned by Box (1981) who reviewed the data from self-report studies in the UK and USA. He concluded that ‘the weight of evidence on women committing serious offences does not give clear support to the view that they receive differential and more favourable treatment’. This claim is supported by Graham and Bowling study which found that females were less likely than men to be involved in the more serious offences. The seriousness of the offence could explain the lower proportions of females among the convicted and cautioned than among self-reported offenders rather than leniency in the criminal justice system.

It would be foolish to assert that gender plays no role in the criminal justice system, just as it would be equally foolish to say that race plays no role in this system either. Covington and Bloom cite the work of Kivel (1992) in reminding all that "Where sexism is prevalent, one of the gender dynamics frequently found is that something declared genderless or gender neutral is, in fact, male oriented. The same phenomenon occurs in terms of race in a racist society, where the term "race neutral" generally means white" (2003). The criminal justice system reflects the needs of men and the values of men in a highly patriarchal society; the issue becomes more complicated when some scholars argue that women should fight for equal rights in all areas of life, including the criminal justice system, arguing that while equal treatment might hurt women in the short run, in the long run, it's the best policy for women (Covington & Bloom, 2003). On the other hand, opposing groups argue that women are inherently different from men and that insisting on equality will always create a situation where women lose out (Covington & Bloom, 2003). This debate creates an uncertain situation about how women should be treated in the criminal justice system and whether gender should play a role accounting for differential treatment.

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.

The feminist movement was and still is about women have the same privileges, rights and power of men in the economy, politics, and in social environments (Oxford Dictionaries, 2015). According to Williams III & McShane (2011), there has been an increase in literary work about feminist perspective on crime. Thanks to the expanding literary information published about crime, these writing were divided into five perspective: Liberal, Radical, Marxist, Socialist, & postmodern. Liberal • Was the first perspective to publish any information about female criminality (Williams III & McShane, 2011). • Opposed gendered roles and responsibilities society have said were the standard for men and women.

All feminist theorists share a common focus on gender inequality; however feminism can be described as a set of perspectives rather than a single viewpoint (Strider, N.d.). Therefore, challenging gender biasness in the criminal justice system from the feminist perspective can take many forms given the fact that there a lot of sources of gender inequality in the system. For example, the early theories of criminal behavior largely ignored gender all together and as a result the field has become largely male dominated and males have also been shown to commit more crimes than women on average.

Liberal feminists believe women are less likely to be delinquent than men because there is less opportunity to commit crimes due to their social role. However, as the roles become analogous to those of men, the crime pattern will follow as women are motivated by the same stimuli

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

Pollak’s focus on the justice system found that males were dominant throughout so he believed there would be a tendency for men to be chivalrous in their conduct, hence women benefiting from a more lenient sentence, affecting statistics (Haralambos and Holborn, 2004). Feminist evaluation opposes this idea of chivalry, introducing the idea of double deviance as women have deviated from society’s expectations of normal female behaviour as well as committing the crime (Heidensohn, 1992). Women being punished for their crimes and deviation from their expected roles being portrayed by stereotype based on their supposed psychological and biological nature (Gelsthorpe, 2002). It appeared that those women who appeared to fit the typical female gender norm were given lesser sentences than those who didn’t (Tattersall, 2010). Women’s sentences are typically shorter than men’s, with fewer receiving custodial sentences (www.crimeinfo.org.uk).

Feminist criminology was created out of the realization that criminology from its beginnings focused on the male criminal and the unlawful acts they committed. When in the fact it could be argued female crime was studied as far back as 1800's, female criminal activity, its causes and the effects in which it placed on public opinion were often disregarded. Over the past 20 years, there has been a significantly different approach in how females are being dealt with inside the criminal justice system. This has been the result of a more broadening law enforcement effort, stringent medication sentencing laws, and post-conviction limits to reentry that would greatly influence females.

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