It may not come as a surprise to many that there exists a significant difference in the gender of perpetrators of violent crimes. For example, in tracking the perpetrators of homicide in the United States by gender and year, one can find that males outnumber females many times over, with over 15,000 more males than females committing homicide in the early 1990’s (Fox & Zawiz, 2004). While it seems concreted that males perpetrate more violent acts than females, the data still shows at least 1,000 females a year behind violence. The question that arises from these findings concerns the reason for such a large gap between genders, and what facilitates it. Two popular lenses than can be compared in examining the question lie in the studies of sociological and biological influences on men and women – more specifically what influences women to be so much less violent than men given the statistics. It is important to consider learning experiences, either through natural instincts or facilitated through social means, and the history of individuals among their families. One of the aforementioned lenses has a much larger impact on creating differences in violent dispositions amongst men and women, and there is a vast array of evidence from which to draw upon for support.…
The Drug War Facts website is a great statistical resource. The information presented on the site is complied from several criminal and federal justice statistic websites and organized in a concise format. I felt that the information was accurate and reliable as all statistics were cited from a credible, and in most cases, government web resource.…
The statistics are true to some extent; women commit less crime than men. Women conform to the social controls. According Heidensohn, women are generally more conformist because patriarchal society imposes greater control over their behaviour. Also, Smart notes that girls are more strictly supervised by their parents, especially outside the home. For example, girls might get a curfew like not staying out after dark because it can be dangerous for them to stay out that late. Feminists such as Lees state that girls are more likely to be controlled, in that they may fear acquiring a ‘bad’ reputation. She notes that boys in schools often use verbalised sexual labels. For example, they use the label ‘slag’ to control girls. This can lead to girls avoiding any behaviour that is deemed ‘deviant’ in order to avoid these labels which is why women commit less crime than men. However, this view has been criticised because society has changed and social control is balanced.…
During the Elizabethan Era crime was a major problem, and the main contributor was the issue with poverty. Due to the fact that there were no social services, many people had to steal money or food just to stay alive. Elizabethans liked a calm way of life, and to maintain that meant that everyone had to behave themselves, be satisfied, and stay in their proper place. If there was anyone who disturbed the peace, they would be considered a threat to society, and they were to be punished.…
The “aging out process” means that crimes that are being committed by young adults and adolescents tend to reduce or diminish their criminal activity as they get older. Possibly, this is because when an individual grows older they tend to become more mature than when they were younger and they want to take reasonability of their actions and also want to choose a better path than they did before. Hence is why most criminals as they get older the individuals choose to stop or reduce their criminal behavior.…
The involvement of females in crime and as the committers of crime was once a rare phenomenon but in recent years a dramatic increase has been seen all over the world. In England and Wales statistics have shown between 1994 and 2006 female crimes have steadily increased and have since continued to do so (MOJ 2009). Many sociological explanations and interpretations have arisen to coincide this surge in female offending as to understand its recent development in society. This assignment will look at different feminist explanations and critically evaluate them and their value in understanding female crime.…
The objective of this essay is to examine what crime and punishment was like during the 17th century through to the 19th century. Throughout the 17th and the 19th century, in Europe, states were being taken over by early forms of organized crime, such as highwaymen, bandits, brigands and bushrangers. Europe was not the only country to be overrun with organized crime, international countries had to deal with them too. How organized crime came to be was during the 15th and 17th centuries, in Europe there were a lot of countries going to war causing the economy to drop drastically. Cities in France, Italy, Spain and German were taken over by “bands of army deserters, discharged soldiers, smugglers and robbers.”…
Some of the areas have increasing women and crime. Through the years the number has been rising when it comes to women being incarcerated as the length of their incarceration. Women in this day and time are committing serious accesses which are giving lengthy prison terms, even life imprisonment. Young ladies are going front of the judge as a minor offenses for drugs and theft.…
The author took into account the differing patterns of crimes in the context of gender and considered empirical studies in this regard. The author began by explaining that there are two ways of recording statistics about crime. One is to take into account the government statistics which are by no means conclusive. Second is to conduct the statistical analysis of victims as per the category of crimes that took place against them. He observed that the latter has recorded the crime rate four times higher than the one recorded by the governmental reports. The difference arises because the government records the statistics as per offenders whereas the victims statistics identify the victims of the crimes.…
“Women were punished as men were, with the exception that pregnant women were often spared punishment until after they had given birth. Women were generally mixed with male prisoners and supervised by male jailers, which made the women doubly subject to abuse and exploitation.”(Foster, 2006)…
The early twentieth century brought about several progressive ideas for reforms, but there was little action upon those ideas. The crime rate did not experience any major change at the start of the new century; the types of crimes and violence level remained mostly unchanged (Oliver & Hilgenberg, 2010, 213-215). Strained race relations and poverty influenced much of the crime, as portrayed in the court case of the State v. John Dobias. One major theme seen within this case is the exploration of gender roles through rape in the American society and whether there is potential partiality towards the feminine gender. Moreover, it examines how dependency, in terms of poverty or orphanage, can influence the lives of an individual and how religious…
The authors, Sharon Love and Seong Park, of (“Images of Gender Twenty Years Later”) extend findings twenty years later to research originally compiled by Baro and Eigenberg who analyzed gender being depicted in introductory criminal justice and criminology textbooks. Women are mostly depicted as victims rather than professionals in criminal justice or even criminals. But, I noticed in another text, (“Intersections of Race, Class, Gender, and Crime”) by Amanda Burgess-Proctor, she explains different types of feminism/feminist criminology that intersect gender, race, and class. She believes multiracial feminism will guarantee a better future for women in criminology/criminal justice.…
Anybody is able to commit a crime or become a victim to a criminal offence. Gender is a significant factors to consider when analysing crime and victimization. In order to critically understand the reasons behind crime and victimization you must be able to recognise and analyse the influencing factors. This essay will focus on a few of the central arguments which include criminal behaviour of men and women, feminist criminology, hegemonic masculinity and gender victimization of sexual abuse.…
Previous to the emergence of feminist theories in the 1960’s and 70’s the criminal justice system and studies surrounding it were developed under the assumption that males were the predominate perpetrators and victims of crime- particularly in cases regarding interpersonal violence. Whilst this was and still is true, the number of women being involved in interpersonal crimes is increasing, causing a new wave of interest as to what circumstances a woman finds herself involved in a criminal situation; hence the emergence of feminist theory. Whilst this theory does not aim to dismiss the majority (males) in this form of crime, it acts to elevate the minority (females) so as they can be recognised by the criminal justice system and have their cases…
Do we as a society have the right to deny a mother the opportunity to care for her child, even if that mother is a convicted felon? As society continues to grow and change these are important questions to ask. According to statistics today, “Female incarceration is growing at a rate far outpacing the growth in male incarceration” (Schubert, Duininck, and Shlafer 2016). With the emergence of a more prominent female prisoner population there are different factors to consider. Including the fact that it is still expected, based on gender roles and dynamics for mothers to be the primary caregivers of their children (Schubert et al. 2016). Keeping this in mind, there is a need for female prisoners with children to have options to interact with…