Female Criminals

Research Paper # 99210

Criminology
Women Studies

Female Criminals

This paper explores why women commit crime in the United States.

2,905 words () | 10 sources | MLA | 2007 United States

Paper Summary:

The paper discusses how women refrain from some acts because of a fear about the physical violence involved and engage in other acts because their living conditions leave them with no alternative. The paper explains that female criminal activity is not motivated by a desire for status or for "fun" because they have not bound up their personal self-identification with whatever power or riches attend such behavior. The paper concludes that, at the risk of over-generalization, women commit crimes because they have to while many males commit crimes because they feel they can.

From the Paper:

"To begin with, there is evidence that women are driven to crime primarily out of desperation or fear. In a recent scholarly study, Anne Campbell, Steven Muncer and Daniel Bibel conclude that "resource scarcity" propels women towards the commission of property offenses (chiefly stealing) and also towards the commission of violent crimes. To put the matter another way, property offenses committed by women reflect an effort to provide for themselves in the absence of a "provisioning" male; furthermore, violence by women (at least against other women) is rooted chiefly in competition for desirable men."

Sample of Sources Used:

Arnold, R. "Processes of Criminalization from Girlhood to Womanhood". Women of Color in American Society. Ed. M.B. Zinn and B.T. Dill. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1989.
Bowker, L., and H. Gross and M. Klein. "Female Participation in Delinquent Gang Activities". Women and Crime in America. Ed. L. Bowker. New York: MacMillan, 1980. 158-179.
Campbell, Anne, Steven Muncer, and Steven Bibel. "Women and Crime: An Evolutionary Approach". Aggression and Violent Behavior, 6.5 (2001): 481-497.
Denno, D. "Gender, Crime and the Criminal Law Defenses". Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, 85.1 (1994): 80-180.
Gilfus, M. "From Victims to Survivors to Offenders: Women's Routes of Entry and Immersion into Street Crime". Women & Criminal Justice, 4.1 (1992): 63-89.