Investigating the Relationship Between Women and Crime :: Papers

A consistent feature of the statistics, not only in England and Wales but across Europe and America, is that far fewer women are convicted of abomination than men a fact which has changed little over the years. Female offenders in like manner show a different pattern of offending being little involved in violent offences and proportionately more involved in theft. In general most now accept that girls and women do excite fewer offences than boys. sex activity AND PATTERNS OF CRIME Writing in 1977 Carol ingenious stated Our knowledge is still in its infancy. In comparison with the capacious documentation on all aspects of male delinquency and criminality, the amount of cultivate carried out on the welkin of women and crime is extremely limited. Although the years since quick-witteds study have seen much more interest in the study of egg-producing(prenominal) crime and deviance, many general theories in this area continue to neglect gender a s a compute influencing criminality. This is patronage the fact that official figures suggest that gender is perhaps the most of import single factor in whether an individual is convicted of crime. Any theories which fail to excuse this relationship could therefore be seen as inadequate. OFFICIAL STATISTICS, CRIMINALITY AND GENDER Pollak the masked female offender chivalry thesis Writing in 1950, Otto pollak argued that official statistics on gender and crime were highly misleading. He claimed that the statistics ill under-estimated the extent of female criminality. From an examination of official figures in a spell of different countries he claimed to have identified certain crimes that are ordinarily committed by women but are particularly likely to be unreported. Pollak went on to give reasons as to why there should be an under-recording of female crime. 1. He argues that the police, magistrates and other law enforcement officials tend to be men. Brought up to be chivalrous, they are usually lenient with female offenders so that fewer women front in the statistics. However, he regards this as only a minor factor