Gender and Crime

1
Gender and Crime
2
Females and crime

• Females have not been thought capable of
  committing "male crimes" for reasons that often
  arise from society viewing the female as the
  weaker and gentler gender believing that
  females, no matter how ill-treated, are incapable
  of violence.
• This underestimation of the anger and devastation
  resulting from physical, emotional, and
  psychological violation affects the lack of
  services for females in need or at-risk

3
Is the Female Juvenile a Victim First?

• In 2000, the highest percentage of juvenile
  female arrests occurred between the ages of 13
  and 15 (Snyder,2002)
• It is hard to imagine that young girls at such an
  impressionable age would be placing themselves in
  situations that lead to arrests
• The truth is, young girls are running from a cold
  and harsh reality
• They come from abusive and negligent homes, have
  nowhere to turn

4
Is the Female Juvenile a Victim First?

• National statistics suggests that one in four
  girls under the age of 18 has been sexually
  abused
• These traumatic experiences are the reason for
  serious drug abuse (Acoca, 1999 Acoca and Dedel,
  1998)
• Because mood-altering drugs aid in dulling the
  pain of traumatic experiences, it is believed to
  be the combination of trauma and drug influence
  that places these young girls in the
  uncomfortable position of engaging in high-risk
  behaviors (e.g., unsafe sexual practices and gang
  involvement)

5
The Female Path to Juvenile Injustice

• 57 of females under correctional authority
  report that they were physically or sexually
  assaulted
• at some time in their lives.
• 69 reported that the assaults happened prior to
  age 18.
• 32 reported that they were abused by a family
  member, relative or intimate acquaintance.
• 20 of female offenders have spent time in the
  foster care system.
• 58 percent grew up in homes without both parents
  present.
• 34 grew up in homes where the parents abused
  alcohol and/or drugs.

6
Gender and Crime

• Most victims and perpetrators in homicides are
  male
•    Male offender/Male victim 65.1 
• Male offender/Female victim 22.6 
• Female offender/Male victim 9.9 
• Female offender/Female victim 2.4

7
The gender distribution of homicide victims and
offenders differs by type of homicide
Women are particularly at risk for intimate
killings, sex-related homicides, and murder by
arson or poison.Women are more likely to commit
murder as a result of an argument or murder by
poison.
8
Background Information is important

• A few facts about the lives of adult women in
  U.S. prisons in 2000
• 60 of women under correctional authority
  reported that they have been sexually and
  physically assaulted at some time in their lives
• 69 of these women reported the assault happened
  before they were 18 years old

9
National Study

• In 1990, the American Correctional Association
  published the results from a survey it conducted
  on female offenders Based on the responses of
  female offenders in 400 state and local
  correctional facilities, a very detailed profile
  of the female offender was produced

10
Female offender - Profile

• Most are young (25-29)
• The majority are economically disadvantage
  minorities with children
• About half ran away from home as youths
• About a quarter had attempted suicide/had serious
  drug problems
• More than half were victims of physical
  abuse/sexual abuse

11
Female Offender - Profile

• About a third had never completed high school
• Over a quarter had been unemployed in the three
  years before going to prison
• Most of the women were first imprisoned for
  larceny, theft, or drug offenses, and, at the
  time of the survey, they were serving time for
  drug offenses, murder, larceny, theft, or robbery
  
• Many of the women convicted of manslaughter or
  murder had killed a boyfriend or husband who
  abused them

12
Weapon use in Murder

• A firearm (handgun) is used in about two-thirds
  of all homicides (predominantly males)
• Knives or other cutting instruments
  (predominantly females)
• Personal weapons (hands, fists, and feet)
• Blunt objects
• Strangulation
• Contrary to media images, poison and explosives
  are rarely used as murder weapons

13
Females prefer.

• A knife or sharp instrument (78)
• Poisoning (6.2)
• Blunt instrument (2.6)
• Arson (2.2)
• Shooting (2.0)

14
Homicides committed by women

• Female-perpetrated homicides account for 10-12
  of the overall homicides
• Who do women kill?
• The answer is those closest to them, with whom
  they live (intimate partners, or ex-partners and
  family members)
• Over the period 1995-2001, intimate partners
  accounted for 32 of female-perpetrated homicides

15
Explanations of Intimate Partner Homicide

• Battered Woman Syndrome (Walker, 1989) (women
  who have been physically, psychologically, or
  sexually abused over an extended period of time)
• Financial gain (financial benefit from the death
  of partner)
• Sexual Motivation (establish legal relationship
  with another party)

16
Liberal feminism

• Liberation perspective
• Greater equality in education, politics, economy,
  and military
• An unintended consequence of this availability to
  women of a wider range of social roles is their
  greater involvement in crime (arena dominated by
  men)

17
Power-Control Theory of Gender and Delinquency

• John Hagan, 1987
• The theory explains the difference between male
  and female rates of delinquency
• Two types of family structures (Patriarchal
  families vs egalitarian families)

18
Patriarchal family

• Fathers occupy the traditional role of sole
  breadwinner and mothers have only menial jobs or
  remain at home to handle domestic affairs
• Fathers focus is directed outward towards his
  instrumental responsibilities, while the mother
  is left in charge of the children, especially
  their daughters
• Sons are granted greater freedom as they are
  prepared for the traditional male role symbolized
  by their fathers

19
Patriarchal family

• Sons are encouraged and allowed to "experiment"
  and take risks
• Daughters are socialized into the cult of
  domesticity under the close supervision of their
  mothers, preparing them for lives oriented
  towards domestic labor and consumption
• Daughters in this scenario are closely monitored
  so that participation in deviant or delinquent
  activity is unlikely.

20
Egalitarian family

• Is characterized by little difference between the
  mother's and father's work roles, so that
  responsibility for child rearing is shared
• Neither child receives the close supervision
  present over females in the paternalistic family
• Middle class aspirations and values dominate
  mobility, success, autonomy, and risk taking
• Daughter's deviance now mirrors their brother's

21
Middle-class girls

• ...middle-class girls are the most likely to
  violate the law because they are less closely
  controlled than their lower-class counterparts
• And in homes where both parents hold positions of
  power, girls are more likely to have the same
  expectations of career success as their brothers
• Power-control theory, then, implies that
  middle-class youth of both sexes will have higher
  crime rates than their lower-class peers

22
Assessing power-control theory

• Hagan's theory has been criticized as being
  basically a fairly straightforward adaptation of
  the "liberation hypothesis," as females
  experience upward mobility and status change,
  their access to deviant and illicit behaviors
  expand

23
Assessing power-control theory

• Female deviance becomes a product of the "sexual
  scripts" within patriarchal families that make it
  more likely for them to become the victims of
  both sexual and physical abuse
• If they run away, the juvenile court supports
  parental rights and returns them to the home,
  persistent violations lead to incarceration and
  future trouble as official delinquents/deviants
  or life on the street where survival depends on
  involvement in crime