NCJ Number
197577
Date Published
2001
Length
24 pages
Annotation
This chapter reviews a variety of criminological theories regarding why women commit crimes and why they commit fewer crimes than men.
Abstract
The chapter begins by summarizing key similarities and differences between female and male patterns of offending. This is followed by a brief review of early explanations of criminality among women and the gender gap. The authors then examine the contemporary period, focusing on two competing theoretical approaches. The first approach attempts to explain female crime within the context of mainstream criminological theory; the competing approach consists of efforts to develop new theoretical frameworks with the explicit goal of explaining female offending patterns and the gender gap. The authors then highlight recent efforts to link these competing approaches by expanding on a gendered paradigm for explaining female and male crime. The chapter advises that the considerable stability in the gender gap for criminal offending can be explained in part by the historical durability of the organization of gender and by underlying physical/sexual differences, whether actual or perceived. Three key elements should structure future efforts to develop explanations of female offending and the gender gap. The first is the need to take into account how the organization of gender deters or shapes delinquency by females but encourages it by males. The second is the need to address not only gender differences in type and frequency of crime but also differences in the context of offending. Third, theory and programmatic approaches to female offending should address several key ways in which women's routes to crime may differ from those of men. 82 references