gender and crime essay sociology

Gender and Crime

Annual Review of Sociology, Vol. 39, pp. 291-308, 2013

Posted: 27 Jul 2013

Candace Kruttschnitt

University of Toronto - Department of Sociology

Date Written: July 2013

Beginning with the last review of gender and crime that appeared in the Annual Review of Sociology (1996), I examine the developments in the more traditional approaches to this subject (the gender ratio problem and the problem of theoretical generalization), life course research, and feminist research (gendered pathways, gendered crime, and gendered lives). This review highlights important insights that have emerged in this work on gender and crime, and it considers how this work might be further enriched by drawing on sociological theories that can address how gendered lives shape the impetus and opportunities for offending. This includes work on the context of offending, the learning and expression of emotions, and identity theory.

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Candace Kruttschnitt (Contact Author)

University of toronto - department of sociology ( email ).

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Annual Review of Sociology

Volume 39, 2013, review article, gender and crime.

• Candace Kruttschnitt 1
• View Affiliations Hide Affiliations Affiliations: Department of Sociology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario M5S 2J4, Canada; email: [email protected]
• Vol. 39:291-308 (Volume publication date July 2013) https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-soc-071312-145605
• © Annual Reviews

Beginning with the last review of gender and crime that appeared in the Annual Review of Sociology (1996), I examine the developments in the more traditional approaches to this subject (the gender ratio problem and the problem of theoretical generalization), life course research, and feminist research (gendered pathways, gendered crime, and gendered lives). This review highlights important insights that have emerged in this work on gender and crime, and it considers how this work might be further enriched by drawing on sociological theories that can address how gendered lives shape the impetus and opportunities for offending. This includes work on the context of offending, the learning and expression of emotions, and identity theory.

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In This Article Expand or collapse the "in this article" section Gender and Crime

Introduction, introductory works.

• General Overviews
• Historical Context
• Gender Differences in Crime
• Gendered Crime Pathways
• Gender and Desistance
• Gendered Crime Rates: Convergence or Divergence
• Early Feminist Critiques of Criminological Theory
• Criminological Theory and Gender
• Victimization
• Debates and Controversies

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• Prostitution
• Race, Ethnicity, Crime, and Justice
• Rape and Sexual Assault
• School Bullying
• Victimization Patterns and Trends
• Violence Against Women
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Gender and Crime by Sally S. Simpson LAST REVIEWED: 14 December 2009 LAST MODIFIED: 14 December 2009 DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780195396607-0052

In Western cultures, gender and crime, as a subject of intellectual curiosity, did not gain much attention until the late 1960s and the 1970s. Previously, female offenders were an object of curiosity, often understood and treated as an aberration to their sex. As a consequence of the women’s movement, female offenders and, in particular, female victims of male violence, moved front-and-center in the field of criminology. Feminists played a key role in this emergence, launching critical assessments of the field’s neglect, both in terms of empirical research and theoretical developments. These efforts produced a solid body of scholarship that led nonfeminist researchers to acknowledge that gender is a critical factor (some argue “the” critical variable) that distinguishes who participates in crime and who does not. Over time, scholarship shifted away from “women” as a category in favor of intersectional approaches (i.e., gender, race, class, ethnicity, and sexuality), a focus on gender differences, and postmodern theorizing (e.g., discourse analysis, rejection of structure, sexed bodies). Nonetheless, debates about how best to study gender (positivism versus other epistemological approaches), whether males and females have distinct pathways into crime (including violence and the potential link between early victimization and the risk of later criminality and victimization), and the impact of crime prevention policies such as mandatory arrest on female victims remain unresolved.

The field of criminology and criminal justice, like that of other social science disciplines, has been dramatically affected by ideas and challenges brought about by the women’s movement. Scholars classify these influences in terms of “waves” linked to women’s suffrage (first wave), the social movements of the 1960s (second wave), and dissentions and discord within the movement itself (third wave). Distinct types of research are closely associated with these broad historical categories. Contemporary research, beginning in the second wave, emphasized women as research and theoretical subjects ( Heidensohn 1968 ) out of which two distinct conceptualizations emerged ( Daly and Maher 1998 ): real women (women offenders and victims as active agents in their own lives) and women of discourse (the ways in which women are constructed as discursive subjects—see Smart 1992 ). During the third wave, scholars adopted a more heterogeneous perspective by recognizing intersectional differences ( Burgess-Proctor 2006 ) and “gendered” relations ( Heimer and Kruttschnitt 2006 ).

Burgess-Proctor, Amanda. 2006. Intersections of race, class, gender, and crime: Future directions for feminist criminology. Feminist Criminology 1.1: 27–47.

DOI: 10.1177/1557085105282899

Reviews the emergence and importance of “multiracial” feminist criminology, especially with regard to theoretical, methodological, and praxis-related developments.

Daly, Kathleen, and Lisa Maher, eds. 1998. Criminology at the crossroads: Feminist readings in crime and justice . New York: Oxford Univ. Press.

Multifaceted compilation of feminist work organized around emergent themes, including discourse analysis, victimization and criminalization, masculinities and violence, and gender, politics, and justice. A helpful introductory chapter by Daly and Maher navigates the history of feminist criminology.

Heidensohn, Frances. 1968. The deviance of women: A critique and an enquiry. British Journal of Sociology 19.2: 160–175.

DOI: 10.2307/588692

In this classic article, Heidensohn assesses the absence of women from studies of deviance and challenges scholars to study female deviance “as an aspect of the female sex role and its relationship to the social structure.”

Heimer, Karen, and Candace Kruttschnitt, eds. 2006. Gender and crime: Patterns of victimization and offending . New York: New York Univ. Press.

A collection of original empirical and conceptual papers that address some of the current gaps in the gender and crime/victimization literature. Compares feminist constructs with more traditional criminological approaches and integrates criminological knowledge about victimization more generally into violence against women specifically. Examines the role of agency in offending, the link between offending and victimization, and the debate surrounding quantitative versus qualitative approaches to knowledge. Also includes cross-national comparisons. Appropriate for graduate students and academics.

Smart, Carol. 1992. The woman of legal discourse. Social and Legal Studies 1.1:29–44.

DOI: 10.1177/096466399200100103

Explores the ways in which law is gendered, how law is a gendering strategy, and the challenges faced by feminist socio-legal studies. Uses examples from Great Britain.

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Gender, Race, and Crime: The Evolution of a Feminist Research Agenda

• First Online: 06 June 2018

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• Kenly Brown 5 &
• Nikki Jones 5  

Part of the book series: Handbooks of Sociology and Social Research ((HSSR))

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Over the last several decades, feminist scholars have advanced our understanding of the relationship between race, gender and crime. This body of work illustrates how gender inequality makes women more vulnerable to incarceration and punishment. Feminist criminologists who examine crime and victimization through the lens of intersectionality, especially women of color, have also worked to shift the scholarly focus from intersections of gender, race, and crime, which often focus on offending, to a consideration of the intersection of gender, race, and justice , which critically interrogates not only disparities in the distribution of justice, but also the ways that structural violence shapes the vulnerability of women of color to various forms of violence and punitive sanctions. New research and theorizations in this area, including Black feminist and intersectional research and writings, encourage us to move beyond gender binaries to examine the interrelationship between institutions (e.g., police, prisons, etc.) and gendered vulnerabilities to punishment and violence.

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Building an Intersectional and Trans-Inclusive Criminology: Responding to the Emergence of “Gender Critical” Perspectives in Feminist Criminology

Taking Stock of the Intersection of Race, Gender, and Crime: Statistics, Theory, and Correctional Applications

Gender and Crime

Kimberlé Crenshaw’s “Mapping the Margins” pioneered a critical and intersectional examination of race, gender, and violence against women. She argues how violence against women is racialized and gendered through structural, political, and representational contexts.

At the American Sociological Association conference of 2016, a plenary session on Lives “Protesting Racism” was given on the ascension of the Black Matter Movement and public awareness on police brutality and racism. The panel included Kimberlé Crenshaw, Black feminist legal scholar, Charlene Carruthers, the national director of the Black Youth Project, and Mariam Kaba, founding director of Project Nia. The panel centered on their work to address, illuminate, and disrupt the violence inflicted by the state and suggested resolutions to alleviate the brutal and inhumane treatment of the Black community in the United States.

Intersectional vulnerabilities speaks to what Dana Britton ( 2000 ) argued feminist criminology needs to rethink the significance of the state, “Finally, one of the most important issues facing activists in the discipline during the coming years will undoubtedly lie in rethinking feminist criminology’s relationship with the state. Those working on issues connected to women offenders have already recognized the perils of the liberal strategy of strict legal equality. Such policies, when imposed in an already unequal and gendered context, have almost invariably disadvantaged women” (73).

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Brown, K., Jones, N. (2018). Gender, Race, and Crime: The Evolution of a Feminist Research Agenda. In: Risman, B., Froyum, C., Scarborough, W. (eds) Handbook of the Sociology of Gender. Handbooks of Sociology and Social Research. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-76333-0_32

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Gender and Crime: A General Strain Theory Perspective

• Lisa Broidy , R. Agnew
• Published 1 August 1997
• Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency

917 Citations

Addressing a divide in the conceptualization of the gender-crime relationship: a comparative test of gender and sex using general strain theory.

• Highly Influenced

Race, Crime, and General Strain Theory

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Gender and Crime Statistics

Table of Contents

Last Updated on July 31, 2024 by Karl Thompson

Men are more likely to commit more serious crimes than women. They are more likely to be arrested and sent to jail than women. Men are also more likely to be victims of more serious crimes such as murder and violence against the person.

Women commit less serious offences and are less likely to go jail. Only 4% of the prison population is female. Women are less likely to be victims of most crimes, but they are more likely to be victims of sexual offences than men.

This is an important update for the gender and crime topic which makes up part of the A-level sociology crime and deviance module.

Men are more likely to be arrested, prosecuted and sent to jail

Both the male and female crime rates have been declining over the last five years of statistics, with fewer men and women being dealt with by the criminal justice system.

Men commit more serious crimes than women

Men are more likely to commit indictable offences

78% of males are in court for summary (less serious offences) compared to 90% of women, and men are more likely to on trial for motoring offences!

Differences in male and female offending, less serious crimes

Also, and this isn’t shown above, 74% of prosecutions for television licence evasions are against women.

Women are much less likely to go to jail compared to men

These gender differences in offending relate to the fact that women commit less serious crimes than men, rather than the courts treating women more leniently.

Women receive shorter prison sentences than men

Women only make up 4% of the prison population

The proportion of women compared to men in jail remained stable at 5% for women, 95% for men between 2015 and 2019. In 2021 this changed and today men make up 96% of the prison population and women only 4%.

Female prisoners are twice as likely to self-harm compared to men

It’s also worth noting that 35% is is a HUGE proportion of female prisoners.

Gender and victimisation

Homicide statistics and gender

Men are twice as likely to be murdered compared to women.

Women are more likely to be victims of sexual offences

Source: Office for National Statistics .

Criminal Justice Professionals by Gender

Signposting

Sex Role Theory suggests that women commit less crime because they are socialised into being more passive than men.

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