In What Ways Does Women's offending Differ from Men's offending, and Can Criminology Explain Why This Is So?

In what ways does women's offending differ from men's offending, and can criminology explain why this is so?

The purpose of this essay is to analyse the ways in which women's offending differs from men's offending and also to identify whether criminology can provide reasons for why this is so. The differences between male and female rates of offending, usually known as the 'gender gap' (Heidensohn, Silvestri in Maguire et al, 2012: 339) has been one of the key themes increasingly being looked at by feminist criminology as well as in gender-related studies of crime. The difference in nature of their crimes, that is, the extent of their involvement in criminal activity has also been analysed. Criminologists have widely agreed that the gender gap in crime is widespread. Women all over the world are always less likely than men to commit crimes and it is recognised that men and women often have different 'criminogenic needs' (Sheehan, Mclvor, Trotter, 2013: 50), that is, women's routes to offending as well as their reasons for offending tends to differ from those of men. This difference in offending have been analysed from many different perspectives, such as, from biological models, socialisation theories and social control theories (Bennett, Farrington, Huesmann, 2005). This essay will aim to demonstrate the reasons provided by criminology for the differences in offending by men and women and overall how and why the causes of female offending and also the nature of the crime distinct from their male counterparts. Once the differences of involvement in crime becomes visible between men and women, it will help obtain a general guidance on the types of crimes usually committed by women, and from this, the distinctive reasons as to why men and women become involved in crime in the first place will be able to be identified, as well as their distinctive pathways to crime. Thus, in attempting to do that, the patterns of female offending will be examined, with the aim of setting out clearly the gender differences in crime.

Most research on offending have predominately been on males since they tend to offend more than females and their offences tend to be more serious, violent and persistent than women. According to Carlen (2002), women do not commit as much crime as men and the crimes that they do commit tends to be less dangerous physically and also less socially damaging. For this reason, women have mostly been subjected to informal rather than formal forms of regulation, which might be the reason why they tend to appear less in criminology generally. However, despite this, it is clear that in some circumstances, the risk factors which drive men to commit crimes are similar to those that influence female offending (Painter, Farrington, 2008), but it has also been identified that men are often more exposed to risk factors than women (Bennett, Farrington, Huesmann, 2005). Patterns of offending by men and women are often notable for both their similarities as well as differences. It is said that both men and women are usually involved in petty crimes such as minor property theft. However, men tend to offend at much higher rates than women in all categories of crimes, except for prostitution, which is viewed as a crime mostly committed by women (Steffensmeier, Allan, 1996: 460). It is widely agreed that although women do commit a range of offences, they commit less crimes than men and as previously mentioned, they are also less violent and dangerous in comparison to men and it is believed that 'men out-number women across all major crime categories' (Silvestri, Crowther-Dowey, 2008: 24). Also, it is believed that in certain situations, even in similar situational opportunities between men and women, women tend to behave differently. Reasons for this is because women are often socialised differently to men, that is, women are taught to be more passive and submissive, while men are socialised to be independent risk takers, which is highly reflected in offending rates (LaGrange, Silverman, 2006).

Women have long been invisible in the discussions on criminality since it is said that criminological theories have rarely been concerned with analysing female criminality (Evans, Jamieson, 2008: 5). The reason given for this is that women offenders constitute to a smaller proportion of the known offenders as a whole compared to male offenders, as a result, it is reported that statistically, the number of female offenders have been very insignificant in research (Smart, 1976: 2). However, when they do appear in criminology, they are portrayed as 'evil, unstable and irrational' (Silvestri, Crowther-Dowey, 2008: 24). Biological theories argue that the true nature of women is adversative to crime, and that criminality is mostly linked with 'maleness' and 'masculine traits', which usually involves aggression and violence (Mclvor, 2004: 16). Thus, women's contribution in criminality is often viewed as pathological as they deviate from the 'true biologically determined nature of women' (Evans, Jamieson, 2008: 7), which is seen as the norms of the acceptable behaviours of women. Women's criminality have stemmed out of biological determinism, that is, women who offend have been perceived to have been motivated by certain 'biological bodily processes' (Evans, Jamieson, 2008: 8).

Further, it is stated by Heidensohn (1989) that women tends to appear as offenders in 'all categories of offences from the most serious to the least serious' (Heidensohn in Walklate, 2004: 5). However, having said that, while looking criminal behaviours based on the type of offence, it is a reasonable conclusion to draw that certain types of crimes are more predominate amongst men than women, for instance, more serious crimes, such as murder and also sex offences are seen as a predominately male activity. It is believed that men are more likely be the majority of both the perpetrators as well as the victims of murder, while women on the other hand, are more likely to commit 'acquisitive crimes' (Silvestri, Crowther-Dowey, 2008: 24), that is, less serious, petty crimes with the exception of prostitution and property crimes (Evans, Jamieson, 2008), which are usually economically driven (Bloom, Covington, 1998). Women seem to have low rates of involvement in crimes such as, murder, professional crimes and also serious violence. However, it has been identified that when women are involved in serious crimes, for instance in relation to homicide offending, many studies have stated that 'women's homicide trends tend to mirror men's trends in homicide offending' (Delisi, Conis, 2011: 202), since they are often subjected to the same social and cultural influences which leads