NCJ Number
115345
Date Published
1982
Length
12 pages
Annotation
The thesis that there is a relationship between female crime rates and women's emancipation is not new to criminology; and the causal relationship between the women's liberation movement and increases in female criminality is rarely questioned.
Abstract
Despite the alarm displayed by social analysts about the new problem of increasing female crime, an historical approach indicates that similar concerns have been expressed by analysts in the 1880's, 1920's, and again in the late 1970's. Further, statistics purporting increases in female criminality often are misleading. For instance between 1930 and 1975, the sex ratio of offenders as a percentage of all offenders has remained virtually constant. Finally, any single-cause explanation of crime, including the emancipation hypothesis, is inadequate. The current attempt to explain apparent changes in female criminality in relation to the women's movement reveals a confused and simplistic understanding of the process of liberation, its influence on consciousness and social institutions, and its location within and along side social and historical developments. The movement is itself an outcome of social processes and forces that may themselves be more directly related to changes in criminality. Such explanations merely strengthen reactionary forces that would oppress women by arguing that female emancipation produces a breakdown in the social order and gives rise to new dimensions of criminal behavior. 18 references. (Author abstract modified)