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Gender and Crime!. As we have seen from different explanations of crime, crime is mainly associated with males. Is this because males are committing more crime or are female crimes less serious are therefore not as high profile?.
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As we have seen from different explanations of crime, crime is mainly associated with males. Is this because males are committing more crime or are female crimes less serious are therefore not as high profile? Recent years have seen a substantial increase in the number of women coming into contact with the criminal justice system in the U.K., and in particular an increase in the number of women incarcerated. Figures from the Home Office and Her Majesty' Prison Service indicate a rise of 15% in the number of women incarcerated between 2001 and 2002, compared to an increase of 6% for men in 2001.
Women are fast becoming as likely as men to be caught up in alcohol-fuelled violence in bars and town centres. Dr David Green, director of the Civitas think-tank, said: 'The idea of a violent woman really was something of an oddity 15 or 20 years ago. 'But there has been a trend among a distinct minority of young females to become more like men, and the role models they have chosen to emulate are the worst men, rather than the best. 'Add to that the drinking, and that adds up to more violence.' The figures come just days after five women were caught on CCTV kicking and stamping on Matthew Campbell, 38, in a random attack.
Types of crime that females are more likely to commit are: • Shoplifting, Binge drinking, fraud,However, criminal damage, violence towards men and minor assaults are on the rise for women • Typical crimes committed by males: • Criminal damage, Robbery, theft, drug offences and violence.
Feminist Views on Gender and Crime Feminists argue that compared to males, females are underrepresented in crime statistics. But why?..... Men and boys have always been credited with committing crimes for a whole variety of reasons. In addition to being lead astray, being sick or evil, males have also been viewed as rational (Merton, 1938; Cohen, 1955). Male offenders have been credited with the faculty of reasoning, women offenders have not. As with the popular stereotypes of women in society generally women offenders are portrayed as hysterical, irrational and incapable of being fully responsible for her actions and crimes due to her biology and sex (Allen, 1987). http://www.britsoccrim.org/volume2/001.pdf
Masculinity and Crime Until recently, academic debate has generally accepted that crime and criminality are the domain of the male (Campbell, 2002;), a view endorsed by official statistics and self report studies, which have long indicated that men are more likely than women to be both the perpetrators and the victims of a wide range of criminals acts (Home Office, 2002;
What do the statistics say? • Though young men still carry out far more crimes, the gap between the sexes is closing dramatically. The massive increase, revealed in the Government's own data, means that women are now being convicted at the rate of more than 200 every week. • The number of women found guilty of murder, vicious assault and other attacks has risen by 81 per cent since 1998. • Murders have more than doubled, life-threatening wounding’s are up by a fifth and common assault has soared by 151 per cent. • Women are fast becoming as likely as men to be caught up in alcohol-fuelled violence in bars and town centres. Ministry of Justice said there had been a 22 per cent increase since 2004. • Girls of 18 and under committed more than 58,000 crimes last year, seven every hour. • The number of crimes committed by teenage girls has jumped by more than a fifth in the past four years with violent offences rising by 50 per cent • (January 2009)
Cases of violence against the person leapt by almost 50 per cent, from 10,412 in 2003/04 to 15,413 last year. • Racially-aggravated attacks by girls more than doubled, from 351 to 748, and public order offences such as drunkenness rose nearly 40 per cent, from 4,273 incidents to 5,852. • Robbery and criminal damage increased from 4,449 cases to 5,509. • In 1998, only 11 per cent of women between ten and 25 admitted committing a crime. That figure has now soared to 17 per cent, while the number of boys who admit law-breaking has stayed steady at 26 per cent. • Official statistics that in every age group males are much more likely to commit crime • In 2000 475,000 people were found guilty of these 88,900 were women • Official statistics also suggest there are gender differences in the types of crimes committed ie violent crime men; shoplifting women
In a separate incident, two 17-year-old girls were arrested after a 62-year-old gay man was beaten to death in Trafalgar Square. Violence is on the rise amongst women and is now the most common reason for women being arrested in England and Wales, overtaking theft and handling stolen goods- but why? “Five women were caught on CCTV kicking and stamping on Matthew Campbell, 38, in a random attack”.
Article release in March 2011 A study found that Scottish courts were increasingly likely to give custodial sentences to woman and for longer. Women over 30 were more likely to be handed a prison sentence by courts than younger women. But the researchers, from Glasgow and Stirling universities, said there was no evidence that women were committing more crimes. The study, by professors Gill McIvor and Michele Burman, was published by the Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research. It found that between 1999-2000 the average daily female prison population in Scotland was 210, but by 2008-2009 this had risen to 413. The average length of custodial sentences in the same time period had gone up from 228 days to 271 days.
