NCJ Number
144351
Date Published
1993
Length
51 pages
Annotation
The influence of witch hunts and premenstrual syndrome (PMS) on sex and gender crimes and on the commission of property crimes by females in England is addressed from a historical perspective.
Abstract
Witch hunts in the 15th through 19th Centuries epitomized the notion that undisciplined women, by virtue of their sex, had the power to lure, terrorize, and endanger other human beings. Further, the radical significance of witch hunts problematized and intensified gendered meanings of other early female offenses, including prostitution, scolding, adultery, killing one's husband, and infanticide. Sex and/or property crimes consisted of actions or ascribed characteristics that offended the church, patriarchs, the gentry, medical professionals, and emerging capitalists. Gender role standards were entrenched through contradictory reiterations of biological determinism. On the one hand, based on maternity, females had an innate moral superiority which explained why so few women committed crime. On the other hand, female crime was evidence of women's natural, physiological inferiority and sexualized propensities for evil and chaos. The latter point of view has resurfaced in the late 20th Century in the form of the PMS defense. The historical review of sex and gender crimes generally examines philosophical issues and female stereotypes and specifically looks at prostitution, adultery, infanticide, and relevant legislation. Theories of female crime and the emergence of women's rights are examined. The author contends that a socialist-feminist point of view is useful in analyzing the material base of women's lives as it affects particular criminal offenses. 74 references