NCJ Number
127256
Date Published
1987
Length
12 pages
Annotation
This critical analysis of major findings and remaining questions in the criminological research regarding female criminality focuses on issues related to the characteristics of female offenders, economic influences, the relationship between gender and crime, and the handling of female offenders by the criminal justice system in Great Britain.
Abstract
Criminological writing on women has often reflected stereotyped assumptions regarding females. However, recent research has broadly confirmed the main hypotheses of the feminist critics of traditional criminology. This research has shown that female offenders and female criminality is characterized by the following four major characteristics: (1) economic rationality, (2) heterogeneity of offenses, (3) fear and impact of deviant stigma, and (4) the experience of double deviance and double jeopardy as a result of sex discrimination by the criminal justice system. Further research should examine the role women in social control, their responses to social control, the role of the mass media in perpetuating stereotypes, and policies and strategies for eliminating sex discrimination in the criminal justice system.