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Female Criminality
As with the general cultural perspective permeating academics and the life sciences in the early 20th century, theories on female criminality are pointedly sexist in nature and descend from an aggressively patriarchal view point. As we find in biologically driven models proposed by figures such as Lombroso, there is a proclivity to view female criminals through a completely different lens specifically informed by abnormalities or variations in femininity. According to Hamilton (1999), Lombroso "described criminal women as biologically dysfunctional. He believed that female deviants lacked maternal instincts, exhibited atavistic characteristics, and bore more masculine physical features, such as an excess of body hair." (Hamilton, p. 1) Taking this notion yet a step further, Freud argues that women prone to crime are abnormal not just in their deviation from femininity but in their penis envy. The view that female mental disorder descends from the desire to be male is, of course, unspeakably chauvinistic and unscientific. A similar lack of empiricism is found in Pollock's notion that female criminals...
The story by Hedeen (2012) tells of a woman recently incarcerated for threatening to kill President Obama. While the woman's backstory reveals previous evaluation for mental competency, it also denotes that social services had revoked her custody of her children. This condition, one that is specifically implicated by sociological conditions such as poverty and broken homes, is what led to her irrational criminal behavior. There is little to account for the sociological pressures that led to her criminal act in the above-delineated theories.
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The two sources here combine to offer a thorough understanding of the gradual evolution of perspective in female criminality. Indeed, the notion which perhaps emerges from the combination of these sources as most important is the need for balance. While female…
Works Cited:
Hamilton, M. (1999). Theorist: Freda Adler. FSU.edu.
Harris, M.K. (1998). Women's Imprisonment in the United States. Corrections Today.
Hedeen, M. (2012). Bail Hearing for Woman Accused of Threatening Obama Adjoured. YNN.
4). This idea has since been abandoned. The mythology of the Amazons, a matriarchy of warrior women, has been discounted as no more than a myth, one deriving from the deep-seated fear on the part of males that they might lose their power and authority. In matrilineal societies, men tend still to monopolize the rights of power. Some Chinese anthropologists believe the stories of true matriarchal societies in some
Female Sex Offenders Are female sex offenders more evil than male sex offenders? Biological differences in men and women have been thought to contribute to predispositions for various criminal activities. For example, hormonal differences exist between genders and cause significant alterations in behaviors. Men generally have more testosterone which has been correlated with aggressive and competitive behavior in some studies. However, women have higher levels of estrogen and different biological compositions. Studies
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In that regard, Agnew's version of strain theory no longer explains the marked difference in male and female homicide rates, simply because it downplays the importance of the types of strains described by Merton. Whereas Merton's strains were associated more with the types of failures more likely to be experienced by males, Agnew's strains included many types of strains that, at least arguably, could be said to plague females
Crime Attenuant: How Lawyers Have Used P.M.S as a Criminal Defence for Women Premenstrual Syndrome (PMS), the unique, often troubling physical and psychological symptoms that can accompany onset of menstruation in many women each month, has been used successfully in the past, and continues now to be used by lawyers worldwide (e.g., in the United Kingdom, Canada, the United States, and elsewhere) in defence of women accused of crimes (Johnson,
This raises the question if the false ideal of the caveman is white, not black, as when non-white males embody the example of the caveman, they are condemned. McCaughey brings this to light, but her book focuses on gender in contemporary society more than race, even after her intriguing discussion of 19th century racial junk science in the form of Social Darwinism. Perhaps the discourse of race and gender are