Sex Differences in Crime

The study of sex differences in crime examines how gender influences both the perpetration and victimization of crime. Historically, men have been associated with higher crime rates, particularly in violent offenses, while women have been seen as less likely to engage in criminal behavior. This disparity is often attributed to societal norms and the patriarchal structure, which has traditionally confined women's roles and opportunities. However, some researchers argue that the lower rates of female criminality may reflect restricted access to activities rather than an inherent lack of propensity for crime.

There is also a notable focus on the types of crimes committed by each gender; women are more frequently involved in offenses such as prostitution, which relate to societal control over female sexuality. Additionally, the victimization rates reveal that men are more commonly victims of violent crimes, but women are more likely to develop post-traumatic stress disorder following victimization. Current research is evolving to consider both biological and social influences on criminal behavior, with an emphasis on understanding the complexities of gendered experiences in crime and victimization. As society moves toward greater gender equality, some theorists predict that rates of female crime may rise, reflecting shifts in social opportunities and pressures. Overall, sex differences in crime remain a prominent and nuanced area of study in criminology and gender studies.

Published in: 2021

By: Zimmer, Scott

Subject Terms

Sex Differences in Crime

Abstract

The study of sex differences in crime involves multiple levels of inquiry, both qualitative and quantitative, into the rates at which the two genders are victimized by crime and the rates at which each gender perpetrates crime. In addition, researchers study differences in how each gender experiences crime as perpetrator and victim. Research into the intersection of gender and crime is to some extent descriptive, as it seeks to provide an accurate picture of the current state of affairs, but it can also be prescriptive, providing implications about the reasons for crime among each gender and by proposing methods for reducing crime's effects.

Overview

The study of the relationship between gender and crime has a complex history, intertwined as it is with evolving social views regarding the sexes and the roles available to them. For most of human history, women have been forced to occupy a position subordinate to that of men in patriarchal societies. Some attribute this to biological factors such as different levels of body mass and hormones related to aggressive behavior, while others see it more as a consequence of socialization, with women placed in the role of nurturer and caregiver and men tasked with hunting and fighting. Both sides of this debate generally agree that while in past eras there may have been some logic to the gender hierarchy (from an evolutionary, if not ethical, perspective), in the modern world there is no longer any reason to maintain it, apart from blind adherence to tradition (LeClerc & Wortley, 2014). Nevertheless, the consequences of gender inequality persist, as is evidenced by the study of sex differences in crime.

One aspect of the field focuses on defining and determining the reasons for differences in risk factors for criminal behavior between men and women. Throughout history, the conventional wisdom has been that women are much less likely to exhibit criminal behavior than men. In part this can be attributed to the system of patriarchy which has prevailed almost everywhere in the world. One of the central features of patriarchy is that men have been the ones considered to set the standard for human behavior and "normality." This has left women to be treated as embodying either deviations from normal (male) behavior or as a kind of sub-species which can only be defined by comparing it unfavorably to men. Thus, women are often described as more emotional than men, less physically aggressive, less rational, and--to return to the present context--less inclined to criminal behavior. This conceptual frame of reference is deeply problematic in many ways (Renzetti, Miller & Gover, 2013). It tends to ignore the fact that women's lower reported rates of criminal behavior are likely to be an effect of their narrower confinement within social boundaries. That is, women have historically been excluded from many activities, both personal and professional, as a consequence of patriarchy. It is at least possible that if women and men had enjoyed access to the same range of activities, then their crime rates would have been less disparate.

It is also important when analyzing sex differences in the commission of crimes to remain aware that rates change significantly depending on the type of crime involved. Many of the crimes for which perpetration rates are higher among women, such as prostitution, are related to women's sexuality. This is explained by the fact that throughout history, society in general and the criminal justice system in particular have spent more energy regulating female sexuality than on controlling men's sexual behavior. One way of exercising such control has been through criminalizing behavior that does not conform to the expectations of the patriarchal system. A famous example of this phenomenon can be seen in Italy, which for many years made it a crime for a woman to commit adultery but not for a man to do so (Walklate, 2012). Obviously, this caused women to have a much higher rate of criminality than men within this category (Cusack, 2015). Such a pattern has been repeated in other types of crime.

At the same time, men tend to have much higher rates of committing crimes of violence, such as murder, assault, and so forth. This is often attributed to their greater physical stature, which makes it easier for them to engage in physical conflict with a reasonable chance of success, and to their greater freedom in society, which provides them with more opportunities to engage in activities that culminate in violence (Hayes, Luther & Caringella, 2015).

The other side of the coin, sex differences in rates of victimization by crime, is in many ways a mirror image of crime commission rates. Men are more likely to commit violent crimes, which are by their very nature more detectable, more likely to have witnesses, and in general more visible to society. There is also a tendency for law enforcement officials, and to some extent judges and the court system, to treat criminal defendants in a way that is based on traditional stereotypes of men and women (Walklate, 2012). This means that men often receive harsher sentences or are less likely to be shown leniency than are women. Over time, this behavior tends to solidify itself in place, because the effects it produces appear to provide justification for its continuance: More males are convicted of crimes, based partly on widespread assumptions about gender-based behavior, and the fact that more men are incarcerated then reinforces the belief that men are more prone to certain types of crime (Russell, 2013). Overall, what can be said with confidence is that while men do commit crimes at higher rates than women in almost every category except prostitution, many of these crimes are ones which have male victims, so it is important to distinguish crime commission statistics from crime victimization statistics.

Viewpoints

For many years there has been concern in the fields of gender studies and criminology that traditional notions about women's participation in crime may be skewed by the fact that almost all of the research done in the past was conducted on men, and the results were later either simply assumed to apply to women also, or were somewhat haphazardly extrapolated to include women. Part of the reason for this was the effect of patriarchy discussed above: Male researchers tended to assume that men are the "standard" human and that it was not necessary to study women as well as men (LeClerc & Wortley, 2014). Critics have also suggested that there may have been some reluctance in the scholarly community toward studying women and criminality, caused by fear that the findings of such research would differ so markedly from the assumptions based on a male-only population that they would not be taken seriously. It was much easier to concentrate scholarly attention on male populations, for to do otherwise would be seen as at best impolite and at worst deviant.

The view of sex differences in relation to crime that has predominated in recent years is sometimes referred to as the gender equality hypothesis. By looking at historical crime rates, researchers have noted that, as already stated, men commit most crimes at a higher rate than women do (Andersen & Hill, 2013). Taking the analysis a step further, it has also been shown that when the crime rates for a particular category of offense go up for men, they tend to go up for women by roughly the same amount. So, if an average of twenty men and two women commit murder each year, and the figure for men suddenly increases to forty per year, the number for women that year would likely double also. This realization has had profound implications for those who argued that the basis for the difference in crime rates between the two sexes is based purely on biology rather than on circumstances in society (Russell, 2013). If biology were indeed the sole explanation for differences in crime rates between genders, then one would expect that in a year when men's crime rates increased, women's would stay the same. However, the fact that male and female rates tend to remain in proportion to each other suggests that both men and women are being influenced by the same social factors (unemployment rates, inflation, availability of illicit drugs, etc.). This awareness laid the foundation for the gender equity hypothesis, which proposes that male and female crime rates are different because of society's unequal treatment of women, and that as women move closer to parity with men, female crime rates can be expected to rise until they are on a par with those of males (Cusack, 2015).

Proponents of the marginality theory see the situation for female perpetrators from the opposite direction. While gender equality theory states that greater equality for women will provide more women with more opportunities to commit crimes, marginality theory states that many of the crimes women commit are desperate acts rather than the result of rational deliberation (Pasko & Chesney-Lind, 2012). Poverty, substance abuse, and physical and sexual abuse drive many women to commit crimes in order to survive or escape their circumstances. According to marginality theory, as the overall condition of women improves through the creation of new opportunities and the removal of gender-based barriers to success, fewer women out of the population will find themselves in circumstances dire enough to motivate them to commit crimes. More recently, researchers have begun calling for a "gendered" theory of crime--one that takes into account the context of crime, prevailing norms of gender in the context being studied, antecedents of crime particular to women, and biological influences (Steffenmeier & Allan, 1996). The goal of those pursuing a gendered theory is not to determine the underlying reason for the difference in crime rates between men and women but to study the phenomena of male crime and female crime in depth and in their own contexts.

There is also an expanding body of research into the different effects each gender experiences as a consequence of being victimized by crime. Studies conducted in recent years show that women are almost twice as likely as men to suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in the aftermath of victimization. This is particularly surprising because men are the ones at greater risk of exposure to trauma-inducing events, yet women appear to be more vulnerable to trauma itself. PTSD research has shown that whether or not an individual develops PTSD after a traumatic experience is closely related to the way the individual mentally processes the trauma (Andersen & Hill, 2013). Studies are ongoing into the ways men and women cognitively process events, in the hopes of determining the nature of the difference in their cognition, as it is presumed that this may reveal why women appear more susceptible to PTSD. It appears that women have a greater tendency to view the traumatic event as having a negative impact on their lives, thus making it more difficult for them to process emotionally what happened (Russell, 2013). Men, in contrast, tend to have a greater chance of being able to bring to mind positive consequences that emerged from a negative event.

Another difference that has emerged in some studies is in men and women's attitudes about the likelihood of being victimized by crime. For men, it appears more common to think about crime as something that is so widespread that there is a significant possibility that it will affect everyone at some point or other (Gartner, 2014). This appears to make it easier to deal with the aftermath of crime, because there is less of a tendency to question oneself and one's fate, and to wonder "Why did this have to happen to me?" Women, on the other hand, frequently report that they were always aware of the potential for being a victim of crime but on an abstract level, so that they did not truly think it would happen to them. This suggests the possibility that when these women were victimized by crime, the shock was all the more intense and thus more difficult to recover from.

Sex differences in crime is an active area of research, and developments are expected on a number of fronts in the years to come. A great deal of psychological research now underway uses recent discoveries in neuroscience and brain imaging to gather heretofore unavailable information about the inner workings of the brains of crime victims and perpetrators. These studies seek to delve further into physiological differences in brain function that may exist between men and women, and between those who commit crimes and those who do not. At the same time, other developments in the realm of sociology and civil rights suggest that there is no cause for concern that criminality can or should be defined as nothing more than the result of a few misplaced neurons. There is growing awareness in the United States and elsewhere of the sociological, economic, and educational factors that together act upon young people, shape their identities, and help to incline them either toward or away from criminal behavior. In particular, the concept of the "school to prison pipeline" has captured the attention of large numbers of teachers, who are working to find ways to help children develop into mature and productive adults even as they lack many of the social support systems that were available to previous generations. There is no doubt that the debate will continue over the causes of crime--nature or nurture--and the reasons for sex differences in crime--biology or socialization. It is to be hoped that before too much more time passes, some concrete conclusions can be drawn from the research that is ongoing and from the debate, to reduce the incidence of criminality and victimization for both genders while continuing to maintain the societal trend toward greater equality for women.

Terms & Concepts

Gender equality hypothesis: This hypothesis suggests that as women's status in society comes closer to equaling that of men, rates of female criminal behavior will also rise to comparable levels.

Gender neutral theory of crime: A theory of crime is gender neutral if it places its emphasis on the factors that motivate a person to commit a crime without regard to the person's gender. Most gender neutral theories of crime were developed by studying populations composed almost exclusively of men.

Gender specific theory of crime: A theory of crime is gender specific if it attempts to account for the reasons a particular gender group commits crimes, often in an effort to understand which aspects of gender identity either encourage or inhibit criminal behavior by persons of that gender. Gender specific theories of crime often focus on female subjects in an effort to understand the forces that cause them to engage in criminal behavior.

Marginality theory: This theory suggests that rates of crimes committed by women fall as women's socioeconomic status increases to equal that enjoyed by men. This is because a majority of crimes by women are committed among those at the margins of society due to poverty, discrimination, or abuse. As women's status rises on average, the theory goes, there will be fewer women driven to crime through desperation.

Patriarchy: A social or political system of organization in which power is vested in males to the detriment of females.

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD): Often referred to by its acronym, PTSD, this disorder afflicts millions of people each year. PTSD is triggered by a traumatic event such as a car crash, a violent attack, or the prolonged conflict of war. Those suffering from PTSD experience a variety of symptoms, which can include difficulty sleeping, anxiety, depression, and flashbacks to the traumatic event.

Bibliography

Andersen, M. L., & Hill, C. P. (2013). Race, class, and gender: An anthology. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.

Cusack, C. M. (2015). Criminal justice handbook on masculinity, male aggression, and sexuality. Springfield , IL: Charles C. Thomas.

Gartner, R. (2014). The Oxford handbook of gender, sex, and crime. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.

Hayes, R. M., Luther, K., & Caringella, S. (2015). Teaching criminology at the intersection: A how-to guide for teaching about gender, race, class and sexuality. New York, NY: Routledge.

LeClerc, B., & Wortley, R. (2014). Cognition and crime: Offender decision-making and script analyses. New York, NY: Routledge.

Pasko, L., & Chesney-Lind, M. (2012). The female offender: Girls, women, and crime. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Renzetti, C. M., Miller, S. L., & Gover, A. R. (2013). Routledge international handbook of crime and gender studies. London, UK: Routledge.

Russell, B. L. (2013). Perceptions of female offenders: How stereotypes and social norms affect criminal justice responses. New York, UK: Springer.

Steffenmeier, D. & Allan, E. (1996). Gender and crime: Toward a gendered theory of female offending. Annual Review of Sociology 22: 459-87. Retrieved March 22, 2015 from EBSCO Online Database Business Source Complete. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=9704023946&site=ehost-live

Walklate, S. (2012). Gender and crime. London, UK: Routledge.

Sex Differences in Crime

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Subject Terms

Sex Differences in Crime

Abstract

Overview

Viewpoints

Terms & Concepts

Bibliography

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