It is no secret that gender differences in crime exist; however even with all the theories there is no set reason as to why this is. Kevin Beaver said “In virtually every study ever conducted, males are much more likely than females to engage in violence, aggression, and serious crimes”. There has always been a gap in the amount of crime that men commit compared to women. All crime, aside shoplifting and prostitution, males commit significantly more. With population between the genders being almost exactly 50/50, with females making up 51%, why is there such a clear difference?
These are a few theories criminologists came up with to try and explain this phenomenon. Although there are several theories trying to explain why this difference in gender crime exists, the fact still remains that we know much more about the differences rather than why they exist. According to 2012 FBI:UCR all crimes excluding theft and prostitution males commit much more frequently. The difference in gender even between prostitution is nowhere near as big of a gap as most violent crimes. 32. 3% of males are involved in prostitution while 67. 7% of females are involved in prostitution.
Seems like a big gap doesn’t it? Given that double the amount of females are involved in prostitution than males. However this gap is nothing compared to the gap that males have created between most other crimes. 88. 7% of males are involved in murder while 11. 3% of females are involved in murder. 99. 1% of males are commit forcible rape while only 0. 9% of females do. 83. 6% of males commit burglary compared to 16. 4% of females who commit burglary. These are only 3 of many crimes that males commit easily 6x the amount that females do.
The difference in violent crime is so wide that the ost violent criminal acts are seen as crimes exclusive to males. It is often said that cultural influences and inequality between men and women are the cause of this so drastic difference. However if this were the case shouldn’t we be seeing an increase in female crime as time moves on? Especially now considering how important women’s rights and the fact that men and women are equal are becoming in today’s society. If this were the case then as men and women become more and more equal, women should have the same opportunity to commit, what was previously seen as traditionally male crimes.
However even after all these cultural changes were supposed to create new opportunities for women to commit the same crime as men, the statistics remained relatively the same. In Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution, which was prioritized in explaining how the process of natural selection, he mentioned sexual selection which”seeks to explain male female differences within species”. Sexual selection claims that due to the roles of child bearing, child protection, and child rearing females became pressured to become more sensitive to “immediate environmental stimuli” than males.
Due to this sensitivity females are said to be more aware of their surroundings than males and can respond to what is going on around them. Therefore they tend to stay clear of dangerous situations. Researchers claim that due to men’s lower level of environmental awareness, men tend to be more “sensation seeking”. Researchers say that men’s desire for increased arousal and stimulation is closely related to crime. Nothing in this theory denies the fact that social influences and expectations play a role in this difference in crime.
Afterall society practically predetermines how men and women should act. Society set a standard for men and women, for example men usually tend to hear “don’t cry, men don’t cry” while females often hear don’t do this or that, that’s not how women should act. Due to this preconceived notion of how we should act we are often raised to act a certain way, or at least think a certain way. Men’s ego/pride often plays a role in the crimes that we commit, because due to societal views, if we get belittled we feel as though we need to prove ourselves.
There have been several studies on how sentencing between men and women differ in our criminal justice system. For example both studies done by the following groups: Darrell Steffensmeier, Jeffery Ulmer, and John Kramer(1998). And Spohn and Holleran (2000) concluded that compared to other factors such as the offender’s age/ethnicity, the gender of the offender is the most powerful and influential factor. The mass majority of studies show that female offenders receive much milder sentences than male offenders. Professor Starr, A professor of law, came to the same conclusion in 2012.
She says “If you’re a criminal defendant, it may help a lot-to be a woman”. Her studies concluded that men receive 63% longer sentences than women. Although she says the way to fix this problem is not by sending more women to prison but to lessen the sentences of men. However I disagree with this because I don’t think sentences of men should lessen but that they should all be equal. Don’t lessen the sentence of a crime because of gender, set the sentence on the crime itself, everything other than the crime itself and the evidence shown, there should be little to no other factors in court/sentencing.
One reason why the sentencing may be different is because there are significantly more men committing crime, so it may be to deter other men from crime by forcing harsher sentences. However wouldn’t that do the exact opposite to women? Wouldn’t doing that encourage women to commit more crime because their sentences are milder? I feel as though this may shorten the gap, but at the end it wouldn’t make a difference. Crime rates would stay the same and the only thing that would change is crime according to gender. The gender gap also apply to juveniles.
Over the years the amount of crime girls commit have drastically increased in our juvenile justice system. Between 1985 to 2002 the amount of delinquency cases for girls have increased 92 percent, while boys have only increased 20 percent. Although there may be more girls delinquents than previous years, there are other reason why this increase may be taking place. For example aggravated assault from girls, over the past few decades, have increased from 15 percent to 24 percent. However “this increase may be due in part to changes in policy, such as the reclassification of simple assault to aggravated assault” (Hilary Hodgdon).
If we compare 1980 where boys were four times as likely to commit crimes than girls, to today where they are only twice as likely, the gap is clearly closing as time moves on. According to Melissa Sickmund this may be because general crime as a whole has decreased over the years but it also may be because more girls are committing crime. The gender gap between men and women in crime and crime as a whole has been on the decrease over the past few decades. Reasons for this may be due to psychological, environmental or biological factors.
The gender gap between men and women in crime has existed and most likely will continue to exist for a very long time. However it is on the decline, either for societal reasons or whatever it may be. The reasons for this difference between the two genders is still unknown but these are some of the many theories that people have come up with as an attempt to explain this difference. As times change so does crime, along with what type of crime is more prevalent in what years. Gender differences in crime along with crime as a whole is a constant moving cycle; it will always change, however little as it may be, year by year.
