NCJ Number
126739
Journal
Criminology Volume: 28 Issue: 4 Dated: (November 1990) Pages: 567-599
Date Published
1990
Length
34 pages
Annotation
To examine the changing relationship between gender roles, social control structures, and official crime rates, this study analyzes qualitative and quantitative data on male and female arrest rates in Toronto between 1859 and 1955 as reported in the annual reports of the Toronto Police Department. Male and female arrests were classified as violent offenses, property offenses, and public order offenses; an examination of overall trends in the number of arrests in each category was followed by a multivariate analysis of the relation between male and female arrest rates.
Abstract
The analysis of violent crime reveals a sharp decline in serious crime rates for both males and females, with both curves following a parallel pattern that suggests that factors influencing social control of violent behavior are independent from conditions affecting only women. While the curves for property offenses also declined for both males and females, the downward trend for females in sharper. Public order offenses constituted the largest proportion of arrests for both genders during the reporting period and affirmed the relation between social class and official criminality. While male and female arrest rates are significantly and positively correlated, there are more gender-based variabilities in this category than for violent or property offenses. The authors maintain that the early feminists changed the formal and informal social controls on women which led to a sharp decline in female arrest rates in this century. 1 table, 5 figures, and 68 references