Women and Crime Statistics in England and Wales - Coursework Example

Women and Crime Statistics in England and Wales Introduction In a report from the Guardian, Travis p1) s that accordingto national crime statistics in England and Wales, the rate of crime has fallen by 15% driven by a decline in violent crime, vandalism, specific household thefts, and car crime. This was identified as the biggest drop in crime in thirty three years, representing a drop of 25% in reported crime since 2008 and a sharp decline from the peak crime levels in 1995 (Travis, 2014: p1). However, the crime statistics for England and Wales also show that specific crimes, specifically those related to economic hardships such as shoplifting, increased over the same period. In addition, crimes related to women also saw an increase over the same period, especially with women as offenders or victims. This is in spite of the overall trend of crime from the national crime statistics showing a decline in crime across almost all categories. As such, this may indicate that, although it is widely recognized that women are far less likely to commit crimes than men are, the nature of crimes committed by women may provide an argument against the validity of these statistics. Women in the UK Criminal Justice System Ball and Drury (2012: p8) argue that male offenders, despite being consistently implicated as the major drivers of crime, have not been objectified by crime statistics because criminology does not delineate males and females in crime. However, the Criminal Justice Act 1991 in section 95 requires that statistical data presented by the government assess the probability of gender bias in the treatment of offenders and victims in the criminal justice system (Criminal Justice Act 1991). Indeed, an analysis of current crime statistics provided by the government shows a significant difference in the types and levels of crime between males and females. One of the areas that a significant difference is noted involves the types and levels of victimization with Drakulich (2015: p112) estimating that most women who suffer from risk of violence are victimised by acquaintances, compared to men who normally experience violence from strangers. In this case, most women in England and Wales are victims of violence meted by intimate partners or family members, particularly regarding stalking, sexual assault, force, threats, and non-physical abuse than men. Since these crimes are rarely reported, it may be surmised that they are not included in the national crime statistics. The above summation is also supported by the fact that reports of crime among young girls, especially with regards to being victims of violence, were fewer than those for boys, showing that the statistics may misrepresent crimes against young women. The Home Office (2014: p1) notes that in relation to homicides, fewer women compared to men are recorded as homicide victims and for cases reported; a bigger proportion of females knew the perpetrator compared to men. In relation to women as suspects in England and Wales, there was a decline in overall arrests by police with a decrease of 13% for females compared to a simultaneous decline of 7% for males. As a result, less than 1 in every 5 arrests made in England Wales between 2009 and 2013 involved females. During this period, the commonest offence group for which all females and males were arrested was violence against individuals with 31% of males and 34% of females arrested for violence-related crimes (Home Office, 2014: p1). Yarwood (2014: p21) focuses his discussion on the representation of women as defendants in England and Wales, noticing differences in disposals issued to females and males, as well as in the lengths of sentencing. It is presume that the reason for these differences between males and females could be as a result of several factors, including the plea entered and the offence types. In relation to out-of-court disposals, females made up 24% of all penalty notices for disorder, as well as another 24% of all cautions given to persons of determined gender. This shows that women account for a significantly lower proportion of all penalty notices for disorder, while accounting for a slightly higher number of those administered with cautions. Moreover, between 2009 and 2013, there were evident differences between the types of offences for which males and females are administered with out of court disposals (Yarwood, 2014: p21). Females, for example, were more likely to be administered with PNDs for retail theft compared to men, while men received more PNDs for drunk and disorderly offences compared to females. In addition, handling of stolen goods and theft has been identified as the most common offence for which females were cautioned for, compared for drug offences among males. In relation to out-of-court disposals, females accounted for 24% of those sentenced with 52% of those sentenced in all courts for handling of stolen goods and theft, including shoplifting, composed of females between 2009 and 2013 (Office of National Statistics, 2014: p1). Overall, a larger proportion of men compared to women received sentences of immediate custody during the same period, while women were more likely to receive a fine. For all indictable offences, females generally have lower average lengths of custodial sentences between 2009 and 2013 at 11.6 months compared to 17.7 months for males. However, females received longer average lengths of custodial sentence for criminal damage. During this same period, Shechory et al (2011: p405) note that there were more females without prior convictions or cautions who were sentenced for indictable offences than males, especially stating that more males, on the other hand, sentenced for indictable offences between 2009 and 2011 had at least 15 prior cautions or convictions. This shows that, although there are more male repeat offenders in England and Wales, the number of first time female offenders convicted or cautioned has made up a larger proportion than males. Walker et al (2014: p12) state that between 2008 and 2012, there were fewer females under prison custody and supervision than males, while a larger proportion of females were also found to serve shorter custodial sentences as compared to males in prison and in the community. This trend has been attributed to an array of issues, such as differences in the levels and types of offences that are committed by females and males. In relation to offenders under community supervision due to suspended and community sentence orders, women accounted for almost 15% of all offenders between 2009 and 2013, while almost 14% of all women supervised under community orders were supervised for below one year in comparison to 7% of the males (Ministry of Justice, 2013: p35). In prisons, on the other hand, women consisted of 5% of the total prison population in 2013, which is identified as being consistent with the previous four years. Moreover, more women under immediate custodial sentences in prison were serving less than twelve months. The Ministry of Justice (2014: p29) reports that, women are less likely to have committed a crime or offended over the past three years at 11% compared to 26% for males, arguing that women tend to ‘grow out of crime’ and are more likely not to offend as they reach the latter teenage years with the peak age for offending among females being 14 years. This fits into the trend that more males are involved in crimes than women are, although this statistics does not consider young girls. In addition, theft and the handling of stolen property seem to be one of the offences with the highest proportion of female offenders, as well as the highest proportion among all women offenders. This provides a contrasting view to the national crime statistics released in 2014, specifically because specific crimes of theft are said to have declined (Ministry of Justice, 2014: p29). Thus, taking the overall crime statistics without accounting for gender may have misrepresented the actual trend of statistics. It has also been noted that after arrest, females are more likely to be cautioned than men are, while they are less likely to be charged or have their cases identified as requiring no further action. This may be reflective of the fact that females tend to admit offences more often than men may, as well as they are arrested for offences that are less serious. Where there is sentencing involved, women are found as more likely to be given community services or discharged for indictable offences than males, while also being less likely to be given custodial sentences (Estrada & Nilsson, 2012: p577). When they actually get custodial sentences, they receive shorter sentences on average as compared to males. The most common crimes for which women have been associated with include ‘other wounding, theft from shops, burglary of all kinds, robbery, ‘other fraud’ supplying class A controlled drugs, possession and production with intent, handling stolen goods, and summary motoring offences (Estrada & Nilsson, 2012: p577). One of the most interesting aspects of these crimes is that they have the lowest decline in the national crime statistics, indicating that failure to consider these statistics from a gendered perspective may render these statistics unrepresentative of the actual crime rates. Representation of Women in UK Crime Statistics In recent decades, the representation and understanding of gender in criminology has been an emotive issue, especially from a feminist perspective. Maguire (2012: p217) notes that traditional stereotypes have cultivated the man’s intelligence, autonomy, and force of character, at the same time disdaining the women for passivity and weakness of compliance. While the large discrepancy between female and male crime rates have worked towards supporting the patriarchal society notion with men noted as being potential deviants, the gendered breakdown of crime statistics as shown above throws doubts on this assumption. The fact that most women offenders tend to commit minor offences, as well as pose little risk to the community, may explain why criminology still does not gender its analysis of crime because women crime is considered insignificant. Moreover, Carr and Hanks (2013: p441) argue that the criminal justice may view imprisonment of women as being detrimental to family life, which may provide a partial explanation for why females are underrepresented in national crime statistics. There have also been reports that majority of female offenders are mothers without work and who had a problematic education, which may have meant they left school without the required qualifications. The masculinity theory has been used in attempting to explain why the number of women in crime is rising, despite the overall decline in national crime statistics. Generally, it is widely accepted that men are more likely to commit offences compared to women, which has led many researchers to seek an explanation for why there is such a disparity between genders (Carr & Hanks, 2013: p441). The masculinity theory proposes that crime is inherently associated with masculinity, arguing that the apparent rise in the number of female offenders may have been as a result of increased masculinity in males. However, studies aimed at investigating this link have not provided any consistent or replicable results. Exploring this link using a self-perception measure of femininity and masculinity, Kruttschnitt (2013; p301) investigated four groups of women, including violent and non-violent female offenders, as well as professional women and full time mothers. The findings indicated that female offenders considered themselves to be more characteristically masculine in comparison to non-offenders, while those who considered themselves as the most masculine were more likely to be violent offenders. Hedderman et al (2011: p9) go further to claim that oppressive expectations and accepted practices are still suggestive of the fact that motherhood and femininity encourage females to disengage from activity and practices that are associated with deviance and violence. The concept of society as being patriarchal and requiring dependence of females on men partners is still representative of a society dominated by males, in which a major aspect of their success is based on aggression. However, a pertinent question that arises is whether treating males and females equally is actually a fair treatment. It is essential, in such a case, to consider the contact between mothers and their children because the severance of this contact has been widely considered as the most damaging aspect of administering a custodial sentence for females. Statistics from the Ministry of Justice (2014: p35) show that 65% of imprisoned females in England and Wales have minor children, of which 54% do not receive visits from their offspring because of geographical distance. Consequently, women are more often than not spared imprisonment or custodial sentences due to the implication this may have on the child’s emotional and mental health. Yet, there are still aspects of female prisons in England and Wales that have been subjected to controversy because, as Kim and Merlo (2012: p72) state, even in instances where the law is meant to be gender-neutral, women tend to be imprisoned as a way of rectifying their femininity. On the other hand, males are imprisoned as a way of suppressing their excess energy and masculinity, thus meaning that they are less likely to receive compassionate sentences from society and the criminal justice system. As a result, men are more likely to be overrepresented in national crime statistics than women. However, some areas of the criminal justice system have remained gender-free, including property crimes and drug crimes. This leads Javdani et al (2011: p161) to note that gender neutrality is dependent on the type of crime or offence, as well as the crime’s strategy, while there is a higher likelihood of gender separation for crimes like murder, domestic violence, and sexual assault because of the notion of ideal perpetrator and ideal victim, along with the female victimization theory. Serious crimes that need moral stamina and physical strength are often applied to males and, therefore, social and moral perceptions portend a significant influence on how the criminal justice system views females and males who commit similar crimes, subsequently influencing their representation in national crime statistics (Javdani et al, 2011: p161). Nevertheless, the number of women involved in the criminal justice system in England and Wales has seen a steady increase over the past few years, especially with regards to the number of women being given immediate custodial sentences (Javdani et al, 2011: p161). Indeed, as aforementioned 24% of all women offenders were sentenced in England and Wales between 2009 and 2014, while the number of imprisoned women over the same period increased at a rate of 15% in comparison to that of men. One argument for this trend has been that increased emancipation of women, as well as the increased masculine behaviour of women due to the Women’s liberation movements of the 70s, has been responsible for increased female offending. This fact is supported by Brundson (2013: p41), who argues that increased rates of crime among females are linked to increased social marginalisation and poverty among women, which, in turn, supports the idea that women are mad and not bad. However, Smart (2013: p41) makes an argument that women are equal offenders to men and that the only thing that lessens their impact in crime statistics is that most of their crimes remain hidden, primarily advancing the controversial view that women are inherently vengeful and deceitful and are aided by the besotted chivalry of men in exploiting numerous helpless victims. This ties in to the argument that crime statistics fail to account for gender differences in their reporting, specifically because the criminal justice system treats women offenders in a more lenient manner. This argument may be criticized due to the fact that women are statistically more likely to accept their guilt after offending compared to males, while also being more likely to get caught for non-serious or petty offences like pick-pocketing and shoplifting. Taken with the fact that males are more likely to commit rape, murder, and other serious indictable offences, which carry harsher punishments, official statistics are more likely to focus and report on men because they commit the more serious crimes (Smart, 2013: p41). Consequently, this creates the feeling that female crimes are hidden as a result of underreporting. Although using the argument that women are more vengeful and deceitful as a way of accounting for their underrepresentation in national crime statistics may be a stretch, the question of gender bias in criminology and the criminal justice system remains a salient one. Barberet (2014: p33) suggests that lack of gendered analysis in crime statistics may be as a direct result of idealised and ingrained stereotypes of females in society, such as the notion that females are more open and receptive to rehabilitation than males. Compared to men, women are considered as more morally independent in relation to familial relations with emotional weakness and maternal capability being used as mitigating factors in considering how the criminal justice system deals with females. Female deviance, in fact, is still viewed as a pathology that requires rehabilitation and medical attention, instead of the application of criminal law, thus reducing the impact of female crimes on national crime statistical reporting (Barberet, 2014: p33). Hobbs (2013: p29) puts forward a different perspective, arguing that female criminal offenders are more likely to experience less harsh outcomes in comparison to their male counterparts because of the sex role stereotype/expectation. To begin with, this argument is reliant on the doubly deviant argument that contends that females not only break laws, but also violate fundamental societal norms that are the foundation of sex-role behaviour. The fact that females tend to appear in courts fewer times as compared to men could support the fact that women offenders tend to be treated more harshly due to an inability to align themselves with norms expected of femininity. In this case, the adjudication process for males is less complex as their behaviour tends to have a sense of agency and rationality. Moreover, there is also an argument to be made that men, because of higher physical endurance, are able to withstand tougher and harsher punishments, specifically in relation to long-term incarceration (Hobbs, 2013: p29). On the other hand, females are more likely to spend time in custodial remand to receive psychiatric disposal or psychiatric reports. This provides further evidence that criminology perceives women offending in terms of pathology. Despite this inequality in gender representation by national crime statistics, however, recent focus of legislation in the EU, as well as in England and Wales, has set out to reflect the imbalance and inequality between males and females in the criminal justice system reporting apparatus (Jenkin, 2014: p69). The main aim of this move is to apply a strategy that is gender neutral to establish equality, while also breaking stereotypes of gender. One of the most important aspects to measure progress in development of gender equality has to do with how crime statistics are reported at the national level. In England and Wales, there have been steady attempts to build a fairer society by removing barriers to equal opportunity and social mobility. This has been evidenced by the Equality Act 2010, which seeks to protect vulnerable and discriminated populations, especially women (Jenkin, 2014: p70). Specific focus should be placed, in this case, on equality of gender in the criminal justice system. Whether this will automatically mean that women and men will be considered as separate entities in statistical crime reporting at the national level and treated equally, however, is a matter that is still unclear and remains to be seen. Conclusion In conclusion, while the law in England and Wales is meant to be gender-neutral, it is quite evident that the criminal justice system has failed, albeit in a non-intended manner, by allowing gender stereotypes to creep into its crime statistics reporting apparatus. The masculinity concept continues to demonstrate the supremacy of males in how the criminal justice system understands deviance and crime. Feminist perspectives, despite the aims of gender neutrality to establish gender equality, explicitly promote the importance of gender in one’s predisposition to crime and in human behaviour. Historically, it has been expected of women to dedicate tenderness and care in fulfilling their roles as wives and mothers, which has ensured that crime and deviance are still considered to be betrayal of their womanhood. It has been shown in the discussions above that the national crime statistics that indicated a decline in the level of crime in England and Wales are not a true reflection of the crime situation. Whereas there has been a discernible drop in crime, there has been a rise in the types of crimes that are mostly associated with women, including theft, shoplifting, handling stolen property, and other crimes related to economic hardship. The failure to account for gender in crime reporting has resulted in underreporting of female-related crimes in national statistics. References Ball, R., & Drury, J. (2012). Representing the riots: The (mis) use of statistics to sustain ideological explanation. Radical Statistics, 106, 1, 4-21 Barberet, R. L. (2014). Women Crime and Criminal Justice: A Global Enquiry. Routledge Brunsdon, C. (2013). Television crime series, women police, and fuddy-duddy feminism. Feminist Media Studies, 13, 3, 375-394 Carr, N. T., & Hanks, R. S. 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