Female criminals essay paper

The revised book deals with the increasing rate of female crimes from the point of criminology. The book consists of several parts which represent a research of juvenile delinquency, motivation of committing crimes in early age, growing number of female offenders. Though the book is a summary of various researches, idea of creating it belongs to Lisa Pasko, American sociologist who’s been involved in criminal analysis and investigation for 7 years, and Meda Chesney-Lind, professor of the department of Women’s studies in Hawaii. The female offender is intended for researchers, academics and students of sociology, criminology and just people interested in female and juvenile delinquency. The Female Offender deals with criminalized women and tries to give a clear view of young women who for some reason began committing crimes. It outlines the reasons and consequences of so-called ”˜pathways’ into adult criminality and further punishment in special detention centers. It’s a theoretical book, so you won’t find some narrative about certain women who became killers or showed some extra violence. The book contains main questions like motivations of females committing crimes, why does the number of female criminals grow and what can be done to prevent further spreading of aggression among “weak gender”.

The book deals with various topics, such as ”˜Girls troubles and female delinquency’, ”˜Gangs, violence, Juvenile justice system’, ”˜Drugs, female crimes’ and several others. Considering possible motivations of crimes the author pays attention to serious problems in childhood. As people’s character and mind forms in childhood they depend much on love and care of parents, friendship, and other important elements. And if person doesn’t get all this in his early years of life, it can lead to drug use, unemployment, homelessness, prostitution or entering the criminal world. In the USA according to the latest statistics the number of black females in prisons is greater than that of white ones.

Specialists tried to find out the reason of such phenomenon. The research revealed that black female criminals were mostly from poor unstable families. The majorities of them were beaten by parents and never had true friends.

So not only gender stereotypes influence the further way to criminal world, but racial peculiarities are important element as well. For instance modern situation in the USA is considered to be criminal crisis due to growing rate of violence. The rate of incarceration is increasing at even faster rate for women than the rate for men, the war with drugs became the war with women, who can be involved in distribution of drugs even more likely than men. The rate of imprisonment of people of color is more disproportionate in women’s prisons rather than in men’s ones. In addition to all these, the number of books on women in prison has greatly increased. Different articles, researches and documental films try to reveal modern criminal situation. This book proved to be a significant contribution to criminal literature. This book is the result of an enormous study of different researchers. Besides nowadays rights of women and men became more equal, and as a result women are not protected by the law. As the number of female offenders is constantly growing, women are no longer trusted and protected by the law. Nowadays females can be as dangerous as males. Some of female offenders appear to be even more violent than their male colleagues.

In the early 1970s notions began to emerge concerning women’s movement accused of serious crimes, but this discussion focused on an imagined increase in crimes of adult women, most of all white females. More recently, however, the discussion has turned to the young females accuse of violent crimes, in association with youth gangs.

Females were not thought to be capable to commit “male crimes” accepting gender stereotypes as valid: viewing the female as weaker and gentler gender; believing that women, no matter how ill-treated they may seem, are not able to behave violently. But unfortunately in 2000 the highest percentage of juvenile female arrests occurred among 13 and 15 year old youth. In this age young people are likely to have a desire of making something great and prominent. It is hard to imagine, that girls being so young are capable of committing violent crimes. It may seem unbelievable how the rate of female crimes grows. But it’s truth. Psychologists say that it may be an unconscious answer of young girls to criminals and rappers. As nowadays many girls suffer from being “beaten, stabbed, shot or raped” at the age of 13 and 14.

In this way traumatic experiences in such an early age can become a clear reason for violence and aggression.

Another question is Why Do Young Females actually Join Gangs? According to psychological researches of delinquent behavior, sociable people with close relations with family, having friends at school are not likely to become delinquent and to commit crimes. There are several elements, preserving young girls from becoming criminals. They include taking part in such traditional activities, as attending school or work, and participating in sports activities.

But of course apart from all this the most important factor is basic moral values and laws. Young females may enter gangs after some unpleasant experience in the past or just fear to become a victim of criminals. So some females may choose a way of a criminal for themselves not to be afraid of anything and moreover to make people be afraid of them. For instance if a woman lives in criminally unstable neighborhood she is more likely to become a criminal herself to protect herself somehow. There are even women especially young girls who help their criminal “boyfriends” to escape from future imprisonment in the case of being caught, providing them alibis and even holding drugs for them. In a number of studies, it appears that relationships between family members is not a motivator for females to get involved in crimes. But such affective characteristics as low self-esteem or poor interpersonal relationships may have a larger influence on a young female’s decision to join a gang than father absence, family poverty or constant control of parents which usually annoys young people greatly. For some young females, gang involvement may draw the attention in the case people don’t notice their personalities. Some females view gang membership as a way to get respect.

Apart from these reasons there can still remain a motivation of attracting Media Attention. A desire to make some thing outstanding can lead to committing a murder or selling drugs just to risk. Girls are committing more violent crimes than ever before. They don’t need the boys actually.  The days when girls committed secondary crimes, when they merely provided money, guns and drugs are gone. Some girls did it loving their boyfriends, not noticing their dangerous connection to criminal world. The new members, often as young as twelve, are considered to be as violent as experienced ones. Many girls who enter the juvenile justice system come from unstable home environments (though it’s not the main reason) and by breaking the law they try to escape from troubles at home, quarrels with parents.

In past times criminology treated women’s role in crime with indifference. Women who conform as pure and obedient daughters, wives and mothers are a great benefit to society. But women committing crimes are considered to be doubly deviant. They are seen as ”˜mad’, not ‘bad’. These behaviours often lead to being considered mentally unstable or psychologically abnormal. So among psychologists it is considered to be gender inequality. While men who were more likely to commit crimes than women are punished to full extent, being accused in violent behavior, women are just diagnosed to be mentally mad and are sent to centers of mental diseases.

Up until the turn of the century, women remained homemakers in male ideology, who are not able to commit any kind of crime. Women are considered to be likely at home, bringing-up children and trying to keep house in order. Women who strayed from the norm could be severely punished. There used to be a conception that women must be protected from crimes, rather than be responsible for their criminal actions.

Changes in social and different spheres of people’s life should be taken into account when considering the world of criminals. During last thirty years women try to fight for equality of their rights with men. So now they do have some kind of equality with male gender. But it also touches the criminal world. Of course after so many centuries of oppression and inequality, changes in all spheres of human life can not be expected to happen over night. Behavior may be changed. Everybody has some kind of potential for aggression and compliance. No matter Male or Female.

Second addition of the book “The Female Offender, Girls, Women, and crime” released in 2003, is an excellent supplement to the first one. It shows how the world has changed concerning criminals. The numbers of female criminals appear to be growing fast. Some act out in male-female gangs while many commit crimes on their own.

Female killers get more press than offenders in other types of crimes, violent behavior reveals a lot about women, breaking the law

Psychologists say “Female crime is now increasing at an alarming rate due to a drastic increase in drug use and the cold hard fact that many women now have to work for themselves and some of them, just like males cannot cope with such responsibility”. Yet there’s still been little research on the nature of female aggression. In “The Female Offender, Girls, Women, and crime” there’s been made an effort to penetrate into female criminal’s soul to find out why do they really commit crimes. It’s no wonder, that given the opportunity, some women will freely do things to harm others to protect themselves or to feel more secure. Anyway this question isn’t studied very deeply yet. It is still under discussion and concerns many psychologists and researchers. Female violation only starts spreading. But everyone should try not only to find out motivations of aggressive behavior, but ways to prevent it as well. As it’s not really enough to know about problems in modern society, but it’s important to think of how to make life more stable.