The Role Of Gender In Crime

Gender can play a vital part in predicting criminal patterns. In the case of most crimes, the gender of the criminal could generally be bypassed completely, especially in the case of male perpetrators; or could become the sole focus of a case, especially in cases in which the perpetrator is a woman. Men are generally viewed as more violent and more aggressive by nature. Therefore, when women commit violent acts, their punishments can divert from the typical sentences given to their male equivalents, whether that be more or less harsh is something that needs to be delved into within the paper. In addition to the issues within crime in gender, aside from differing punishments, is the unsolved crimes due to the focus on trends of expected behaviors
Female convicts were found to be the subject of sexual abuse: In a report on women offenders by Lawrence A. Greenfeld and Terry L. Snell in 2000 “Nearly 6 in 10 women in State prisons [reported having] experienced physical or sexual abuse in the past.” Female offenders have a higher correlation between a negative personal life and committing crimes. Events such as “marital discord, recent marital disruption, and living in a single-parent home” affected women more, while “males were more likely to appear depressed and anxious in the face of their parents' marital dissolution” (Deborah W. Denno). While men and women do not appear to show any significant differences in their overall rates of mental disorder, they do differ in the types of mental disorders experienced. “Women have higher rates of depression and anxiety disorder (referred to as ‘internalizing’ disorders), while men have higher rates of substance abuse and antisocial disorders (also called ‘externalizing’ disorders)” (Reiss). However, women are more likely to seek treatment for said disorders, which may be a contributing factor to the lower numbers of female crime compared to male crime. For females, the social and biological construct is a strong attribute in determining a woman’s ability to commit a crime. The social-biological approach to this study suggests that the inability to conform to the typical “feminine roles” as well as familial disorders and sexual corruption factor into female crime rates (Deborah W.