NCJ Number
161532
Date Published
1996
Length
5 pages
Annotation
Based upon a study of 286 female inmates in Italy and 250 prostitutes, this paper develops the theory that female criminals are dominated by primordial female urges and tend to be more ferocious than male criminals, although there are significantly fewer of them.
Abstract
The female criminal manifests the two most salient characteristics of primordial woman: precocity and a minor degree of differentiation from the male. Women have many traits common to children: their moral sense is deficient and they are inclined to jealousy and vengeance shown in a refined cruelty. In most cases these defects are neutralized by piety, maternity, want of passion, sexual coldness, physical weakness, and an undeveloped intelligence. When a morbid activity of the psychical centers intensifies the bad qualities of women, they become more terrible than any man. Children would be monstrous criminals if they had strong passions, muscular strength, and sufficient intelligence. Women criminals are big children, and their evil tendencies are more numerous and varied than those of men, but generally they remain latent; however, when they are awakened and overpower the many biological restraints on female criminal behavior, they produce results proportionately greater than those found in male criminals.