NCJ Number
88535
Journal
British Journal of Criminology, Delinquency and Deviant Social Behavior Volume: 23 Issue: 1 Dated: (January 1983) Pages: 35-49
Date Published
1983
Length
15 pages
Annotation
Crime rates among females probably result from factors like adverse economic circumstances, which lower-class and ethnically oppressed women share with men in the same social class, rather than from the liberation of women.
Abstract
An attempt to find a statistical relationship between four measures of female liberation and female crime rates in England and Wales between 1951 and 1979 produced negative results. The factors related to female conviction rates were the rate of known unemployment among females and changes in the routine procedures and practices for processing female offenders, which both reflect and result from the steady employment of women in the police forces. The available data were insufficient for examining the hypothesis that the effects of women's liberation have occurred more intensely among young women and that consequently this subpopulation would experience a greater increase in criminal activity. Data tables and 52 references are provided.