Females and Criminology - Research Paper Example

Females and Criminology In this millennium, women are have and are impressively managing to bring down all the hindrances in the way of their ambition. They have and are renegotiating their relationships with men. Women these days are very aggressive in their pursuit of their ambition, and are becoming more and more equal to men. Females are starting to do better than males in education, becoming leaders such as presidents and even joining the disciplinary forces. However, in their aggressive quest to be or be better than men, they have picked up negative aspects. Women involvement in crime is ever on the rise, being directly proportional to their endeavor to overcome male bias. Females make up approximately half of violent crime victims, despite representing a minority of offenders. Women in the criminal justice system have mainly been involved as crime victims rather than as offenders. However, in order to understand the crime processing of women as victims and/or as offenders, it is crucial to study incidences and experiences of crime pertaining to women, both as victims and as offenders. My broadest exploration in this article is on women as perpetrators. This is because there are has been extensive exploration of women as victims of crime, and fairly minimal as perpetrators (Chesney-Lind & Pasko, 2012; Deflem, 2006). Women are in most cases known to be the victim as opposed to being the perpetrators of crime. Women are most often, victims of physical assault and sexual assault, the later being high. Also, female victims account for a large percentage, half of all victims of violent crimes being women. This could be because females are more likely to report being a victim. For many reasons, people rarely disclose their victimization experiences to the authorities. The most common form of crime perpetrated against females is assault. Women are the most common victims of sexual violations. The perpetrators of crime, especially sexual crimes against women, are people they know. These people are usually known to them, since in most cases, they are family members and close friends (Belknap, 2011; Hayward, 2004). As perpetrators, we can first look at female involvement in gangs in our criminological research and theory. Women have long been members of gangs, since they see this as a channel to solve their problems of gender, race and class through their involvement in gangs. The main issue in regards to this is not their presence, but the extent and form of their participation. Although it has been observed that throughout history and information from male gang informants, female gang members play secondary roles such as cheerleaders or camp followers, their main role is offering of sexual services. However, this pattern is changing, and their roles in gangs have been considerably more varied, thus early stereotypes and male bias have to be overlooked in order to have a good understanding of women in relation to crime. It has been observed that even if female gang members are still reliant of their male counterparts, the girls’ standing is dogged as much or even more so by her female colleagues. The gang context is a vital source of initiating them into patterns of crime and in their involvement in gangs seems to be evoking violence in more arenas, where they are seen to be using many of the same weapons as males. The aggressive rhetoric of female gang members and their actual behavior continues to show extensive deference to their male counterparts (Chesney-Lind & Pasko, 2012; Presdee, 2000). In most modern societies, women are being involved in drug related crimes at a very high rate. This is the main field of crime responsible for the increasing rate of women’s incarceration, which calls for a critical evaluation of our criminal justice system, which relays on correctional facilities to deal with the rising women’s involvement in crime. In developed societies, drugs have been the most influential and are leading in being the reason for expansion of the female prison population. Nowadays, women are being involved in drug related crimes due to their indulgent in drugs at a very high rate (Belknap, 2011). We can also explore male bias and the "invisibility" of women in crime through particularized study of their careers in crime and patterns of crimes committed. This is an increasing focus in criminology. Comparing male and female criminal careers broadens the scope of understanding women’s involvement in crime. As females, women participate in notably less violent crimes as compared to the males during their criminal career. Women are in most cases not likely to repeat their criminal offenses. It has been understood that careers of aggressive women start and reach their peak earlier than men, mainly because women mature earlier than men and they are also most probably likely to abstain from further criminal offenses. In general, women tend not to have firm commitment to criminal behavior (Siegel, 2003). An array of evidence seems to suggest that the overlap in regards to causes of male and female crime is very considerable, and that both traditional and more recent criminological research theoretical perspectives contribute significantly in explaining female crime involvement patterns and gender variation for minor crimes. With respect to the social backgrounds, female offenders are basically the same with those of male offenders. A large percentage of women who engage in criminal activities are poorly educated, under employed or unemployed, naturally of low socioeconomic position, and notably from minority groups (Siegel, 2003). Logically, in communities or societies comprising of high crime rates among male also have high female crime rates, and communities or societies comprising of generally low male indulgence in crime also have relatively low female indulgence in crime. This is the case and will continue being the case, even when over time, there is fluctuation in the male rates (that is if their crime rates decline, rise, or become steady over a specific time period). We can therefore accurately assume that the female crime rates basically act in response to the same social and legal contributing factors as that of male crime rates, independent of any unique state of both genders. In societies and communities which comprise of high levels of economic inequality and poverty, the probability of women being involved in crime tends to be higher. There are many biases, inequities and ineffectiveness of the criminal justice system pertaining to women. The following are some of the examples. After arrest, women are more likely to be cautioned rather than charged as opposed to men, and they are also less likely to be remanded in custody or committed for trial as opposed to men. Whether the predominant authority is a man or a woman does not really matter. Women have been designed to be sympathetic, for example, a female police officer is most likely to be lenient with a fellow woman, but a male counterpart will exercise much more sympathy than the woman. As opposed to usually harsh sentencing of male offenders, woman offenders are much more likely than men to be acquitted of their charges or just given a community sentence, and less likely to be fined or put in correction facilities like prison sentence. Female offences are usually less severe, and women are not likely to have criminal records. Due to this factor, the prevailing criminal justice system in most societies treats women much more leniently. In a broad-spectrum and obvious observation, we see that women sent to correctional facilities like prison receive much shorter sentences as opposed to men. In this general observation and assumption, the seriousness of the offence and difference in offending history has been taken into account. The differences in the type of offences and past offences are reflected in the higher cautioning rate for women. Conclusion As a result of the historical lack of services for women, the criminal and justice system have the mandate to come up with systems that ensure that female offenders are given access to services similar to those provided for males in reference to both quality and quantity. Since the yesteryears, the criminal justice system has been predominantly based on profiles of male criminality. Up to now, this system seems to be continuing with this male-oriented perspective of criminology. The prevailing criminal justice system usually fails to find gender and cultural approaches in terms of women’s needs (Belknap, 2011). References Belknap, J. (2011). The Invisible Woman: Gender, Crime, and Justice. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth. Chesney-Lind, M., & Pasko, L. (2012). The Female Offender: Girls, Women, and Crime. London: SAGE Publications. Deflem, M. (2006). Sociological Theory and Criminological Research: Views from Europe and the United States. London: Elsevier. Hayward, K. J. (2004). City Limits: Crime, Consumerism and the Urban Experience. London: Routledge. Presdee, M. (2000). Cultural Criminology and the Carnival of Crime. London: Routledge. Siegel, L. J. (2003). Criminology. London: Thomson-Wadsworth. Read More