Research Paper on Women and Crime

Introduction

Women and crime is a topic that scholars through the years have had marginal interest in due to the existing stereotypes of women having a minimal engagement in crime. However, the involvement of women in crime has revolutionized through the decades such that, women nowadays have not only been engaged in crime as victims but also as active perpetrators. Today, the mere mention of women and crime evokes feminist feelings driven towards defensiveness in protecting the fact that women in this contemporary time are actively engaging in crime as much as they are victims (Hayman 201). Women comprise half of the victims of crime compared to actual perpetrators which women represent the minority of offenders in crime (Chesney-Lind 78). It is in this sense that to understand crime and women; there is a need to dig deeper to decipher the incidence and the experience of felonies against women as well as women involved in crime as offenders.The evolution of women and crime over the centuries and decades can be termed as gradual with various factors playing part. The latter factors include the status quo of women in a patriarchal male dominant society in different centuries (Hayman 201). In the medieval era, women were solely under the helm of male-driven community in which the husband determined their status, father, sons or brothers thus the involvement of women in crime was mainly for their basic needs and at home. Lacey argues that the society was not recognizing them as full citizens thus leading to problems when the woman was the offender because their rights were not equated to those of men. The felonies that women committed in this era consisted of offenses of basic needs since, if the female was not married, there was no husband to take care of the needs. This state culminated in her resulting to illegal activities since finding a job was tumultuous in the medieval era (Lacey 100). The crimes in the medieval period committed by men included mainly petty theft and the most common crime for ladies which were prostitution were termed as the alternative.

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The enlightenment era followed in the 1750-1815 which considered women mainly as the victims of crime since women in this era were deemed not to have the ability and the capability to commit a crime (Lacey 104). The stereotype was that men had the ultimate capacity to commit crime, even the most outrageous ones. Crime and the urge to commit a felon were higher in men since they were considered bloodthirsty (Hayman 201). However, in the late decades, it was found out that women had an equal measure of committing a crime just like men. Women in this enlightenment era committed property crimes, battery, and prostitution. If a woman was involved in a crime for instance murder, it was mainly against the spouse in domestic abuse. Those who got caught up by the law in this era faced the law in full strength because, at that time, the legal system would be horrified by a homicide committed by a woman (Krauss 150). This act consequently would make the women face stiffer penalties by the legal system which would subsequently inflate women's rate of prosecution in turn leading to them being punished harshly compared to their male counterparts.

The 19th century portrayed the image of a woman as a caring, empathetic, upright and moral person since, at this particular century, cases of women in crime had significantly reduced (Lacey 105). At this specific time, the primary concern was the methods used to instill justice on women and crime. If a woman committed a felony be it theft, assault or homicide, it was considered a breach of the traditional feminism in the society (Campbell, Steven and Daniel 481). Women and crime in this era were classified in societal strata based on economic classes, for example, upper, lower and middle class. This century was the height of industrialization which brought along a class of wealthy landowners and poor workers in the factories. Consequently, women who engaged in crime at this particular time were the ones who had to worry about meeting their basic needs and those of their family. Therefore, women in crime at this time were considered of a lower class in the society since the wealthy women did not have to worry about food; just luxury and less likely to engage in crime. The crime involved at this time by women included petty theft, burglary, pickpocketing, handling stolen items like keeping them or with the intention of selling (Krauss 152). The legal system in the 19th century was more lenient to women in crime but handed harsher punishments to their male counterparts (Hayman 201). However, a woman who committed homicide received the equal measure of penalty to the men and was declared a social outcast which meant that she could hardly settle anywhere without segregation (Lacey 106).

Currently, in the 21st century, the trend being reported of women and crime is a steady constant but minimal compared to that of men (Krauss 154). The involvement of women in crime has vastly been as less of the offender but more of the victim. For the reason of women committing less crime compared to men, it is vital to monitor crime sequence closely and patterns in female felons otherwise, the engagement of women in crime might be clouded by the bulging numbers of male felonies.

Canadian GSS 2009 reported that more females fell victims of crime in 2009 than ten years earlier thus showing a cumulative of more engagement of women in crime in the current times compared to earlier centuries (Campbell, Steven & Daniel 482). In the case of crime reporting, among the women victims of violent crime, only a third of the victims reported in 2009 (Hayman 201). According to research carried out in past years, women do not always come forward to disclose their victimization instances to the relevant authorities. It is reported by GSS 2009 that women are more likely to report being victimized by crimes involving bodily assault followed by sexual misconduct and robbery. Currently, the most reported crime perpetrated against women is an assault which accounts for 46% of most of the incidents taken to the police. The other crime committed against women include passing of threats 13%, battery using a weapon resulting in bodily harm 9%, sexual assault 9% and harassment which is sexual 7% (Campbell, Steven & Daniel 484).

Sexual assault crimes are most likely to be committed against women making them more susceptible to sexual harassment and other sexual violations representing 87%-80% of the crime against women (Lacey 108). The crimes committed against women include forceful confinement or abduction standing at 76%, harassment which can be aggravated to cause bodily harm 76% as well as threats in phone calls or verbal harassment 68%. In comparison to the male counterparts, men stand at 75% being victims of homicides, manslaughter, attempted murder, battery and physical assault and two thirds as robbery victims (Campbell, Steven & Daniel 486).

Women in crime can be perpetrated mainly by many factors. As the victim, according to statistics, a crime against women is likely to be executed by someone they know (Lacey 110). According to 2009 report, police reported that women who are affected by crime, most were committed by their spouses; either a current spouse or a former including other partners who the woman could have been intimate with. The sexual crime against women is also likely to be committed by someone the woman knows which may include a partner either current or former, relative or an acquaintance. Furthermore, most of the sexual crimes against women go unreported, and only a third get reported (Hayman 202).

Lately, the statistics are reporting a higher crime rate in women compared to previous decades (Campbell, Steven & Daniel 487). However, as much as more women are committing felonies against the law, they have not caught up with their male counterparts. Scholars have put across that the gap between men and women in crime is explained partially by the weak nature of women in criminal tendencies as well as higher risk aversion, the fact that most women are docile (Krauss 156). Hayman argues that a woman having young children in her life minimizes the propensity to break the law. In the western nations, a young mother or a woman with young children receive subsidies which explain reduced engagement in crime by women (Hayman 202).

With the evolution of technology, society rules, and government policies, women have achieved top-notch equality compared to the medieval woman which in turn does not prevent a woman in the contemporary era to commit a crime (Lacey 112). These advancements have given women the freedom to be at par with the males too and have increased their active engagement in money-seeking activities thus the woman participates in the employment and labor market as well as the crime arena. Crime is no longer left for men only as women are actors in it (Hayman 202).

Despite the reduction on economic gap between men and women, the law is mostly lenient on women and crime. This reduction is shown by procedure and programs to give incentives to women and female education and sensitization with the aim of reducing crime among women who are considered as being the disadvantaged (Krauss 158). Studies have shown that the motives behind a woman committing crime differ compared to the reasons behind felonies by a man. The differences in purposes of women in crime push for various strategies to be employed to cope with women in crime.

Campbell argues that there is gender discrimination even in the crime arena not only by industrialized countries but also in the developing nations (Campbell, Steven & Daniel 488). A study conducted in 2014 using data by the US involving property crimes looked into whether there was bias in handling women in crime and the legal employment market (Hayman 202). This study narrowed down on a partnership between a man and woman in committing crime, and the man will only allow himself to partner with a woman only if the woman has good abilities to escape the law than he is. This act has consequently led to more involvement of women in crime since the law is more lenient on them.

Criminologists assess the engagement of women in crime over the years to being motive-driven and circumstantial (Krauss 160). Earlier criminologists presumed that crime was mainly a masculine trait. Furthermore, women who engaged in crime, according to them, may have suffered some abnormality in their biological makeup. Caesar Lombroso, a 19th-century Italian physician, collected bags of women's bones extracted from the Turin prisons in search for anatomical variances between criminal women and those who were not criminals (Hayman 202). After his research, he concluded that the cranium size and excessive growth of body hair were abnormal in criminal women as compared to those who were not involved in crime. These were the individual traits of criminal behavior thus put across as deviant (Chesney-Lind 80).

The depiction of women and crime as sexual deviants continued and spilled over the next half-century until further research was conducted to prove that crime is determined by social and economic factors and thus criminal tendencies we no longer an issue of testosterone (Lacey 114). The first generation of female criminal researchers argued that the same case women in the new world order could run boardrooms in massive corporate enterprises, is the same way women in recent times have stepped out of the traditional crime committed by women like prostitution and petty theft ( Krauss 162).

The treatment of women and crime in the recent times and the medieval era, as well as earlier centuries, has changed from crude, rudimentary punishment to lenient ways of tackling women in crime as offenders and as victims (Campbell, Steven...