NCJ Number
110897
Date Published
1986
Length
17 pages
Annotation
This review of Australian criminological research on females and crime addresses women as offenders and victims, the criminal justice system's treatment of women, and historical studies of female offenders.
Abstract
Australian criminology has advanced the least in its contribution to the understanding of women as criminals. Until recently, no Australian criminologist had attempted to collect either official or self-report data to profile female crime in Australia. Australian historians, however, have focused on female criminals, portraying them as having a sense of their own interests and purposes within a specific historical context rather than as passive objects of a range of social and legal controls. Women as crime victims have been addressed in a great deal of Australian research, particularly as rape victims and victims of domestic assault. The treatment of Australian women by the criminal justice system has also received significant research attention. Sentences imposed on juvenile offenders have been scrutinized for signs of sex discrimination. A number of researchers have studied female inmates. Recommendations have ranged from gradual reform to meet the needs of female inmates to radical changes across the board. A small literature has considered the fairness of the criminal law with respect to women. One charge is that some of the key criminal defenses are predicated on typical male behavior and therefore favor the male defendant. Suggestions for relevant criminological research are offered. 87 footnotes.