Gender and Crime

Term Paper # 102956

Criminology
Gender and Sexuality > Gender Studies
Gender and Sexuality > Theories of Gender

Gender and Crime

An examination of why women are committing more crime.

1,948 words () | 6 sources | MLA | 2007 United States

Paper Summary:

This paper examines the rise in the number of female offenders and how this occurrence impacts our understanding of crime. The paper investigates the new branch of criminology that has recently emerged to study this phenomenon, and the reasons researchers are giving to explain it. The paper discusses the different approaches and debates within this new discipline regarding this issue including the liberal feminist point of view, the power-control thesis, and the socialist feminist approach. The paper concludes that, in the end, it seems that we have still not come up with a definitive explanation as to why it is that the rates of women offenders seem to be on the rise.

From the Paper:

"Criminological theories have traditionally been divided into two types: conflict theories and consensus theories. The former are based on a conception of society as primarily conflict-driven (people and groups of people are constantly competing for resources); while the latter are based on a conception of society as primarily consensus driven (people want to live together happily and share resources). In the case of the former, apparent consensus is artificially created by forcing people to live together peacefully, for example by the use of laws. In the case of the latter, those few individuals who do not conform are controlled by law. What these two divisions of criminology theories have in common is that both have suffered from an extraordinary omission for a long time: namely that both have all but ignored the role that gender plays in crime."

Sample of Sources Used:

Carrabine, Eamonn, et al. Criminology: A Sociological Introduction. New York: Routledge, 2004.
Hagan, John, John Simpson, and A. R. Gillis. "Class in the Household: A Power-Control Theory of Gender and Delinquency." American Journal of Sociology, 92 (1987):788-816.
Lanier, Mark M., and Stuart Henry. Essential Criminology. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1998
Smart, Carol. Women, Crime and Criminology: A Feminist Critique. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1976.
Steffensmeier, Darrell. "Crime and the Contemporary Woman: An Analysis of Changing Levels of Female Property Crime, 1960-75." Social Forces 57 (1978):566-584.