NCJ Number
227309
Journal
Criminology Volume: 47 Issue: 2 Dated: May 2009 Pages: 361-400
Date Published
May 2009
Length
40 pages
Annotation
This article reassesses recent research that has compared male and female trends in violent offending based on Uniform Crime Report (UCR) arrest data and victims' reports in the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) and concluded that these two data sources yield contrary findings.
Abstract
The current study used pooled National Crime Survey (NCS) and NCVS data for 1873 to 2005, which show that the female-to-male offending-rate ratios for aggravated assault, robbery, and simple assault have increased over time. This narrowing of the gender gaps for these crimes was found to be similar to patterns in UCR arrest data for the same period. In addition, the study found that these patterns were due in part to larger decreases in male than female offending after the mid-1990s and not to recent increases in violent offending rates among females. This study offers several hypotheses that might account for a narrowing of the gender gap in nonlethal violent offending over time. Although economic marginalization and liberation hypotheses have been the focus of research on changing rates of male and female violent offending, other explanations may account for changes in the gender gap. One hypothesis is that the increasing presence of women in public life over recent decades has resulted in a civilizing process for men that may have restrained male violence to some extent. It is also possible that the declines in male offending may be due to changes in public policy that have made public domains safer. To the extent that male offending is more likely to occur in public domains compared to female offending, the suppression of crime in public places may result in a decline in male offending more than female offending. 8 figures, 30 notes, and 50 references