Crime and Gender as Steffensmeier

Crime and Gender

As Steffensmeier & Allan (1996) point out, "men offend at much higher rates than women for all crime categories except prostitution," (p. 460). Official crime statistics substantiate the universal truth that men commit more crimes more frequently than women. The gender gap in crime is more pronounced for violent than for property crimes. Criminological statistics provided by the Federal Bureau of Investigation Uniform Crime Reporting Program are shocking, showing a definite, distinct gender gap in criminal behavior. Psychological and sociological theories including social control theory and routine activities theory explain core variables that impact the gender gap in criminal behavior. Social control theory presents crime and deviance in terms of how individuals perceive and react to social norms. The pressure to conform to acceptable standards of behavior may be based on social bonding, a core component of social control theory. Focusing on lifestyle issues, the routine activities theory presents crime in terms of individual choices that increase or decrease risk factors for crime. Legitimate as well as illegitimate daily activities can become risk factors for victimization or criminal behavior. Routine activities and lifestyle theory present crime in terms of opportunism. Social control theory and opportunity theory both shed light on the cause for and possible solution to the gender gap in criminology.

Social bonding structures and methods differ for males and females (Chapple, McQuillan, & Berdahl 2004). In particular, familial bond creation and nurturance differ for girls and boys. Social bonds may also be construed differently for males vs. females in early childhood and adolescent psychosocial development. Differential socialization accounts for the gender gap in criminology possibly because females are encouraged to "be more relational and focused on the cares and feelings of others than men," (Chapple et al. 2004, p. 359). Social control theories suggest that relational bonds and caring for others deters criminal or deviant behavior. The desire to please others or to maintain healthy social relationships precludes the desire to commit acts of violence against others. If that desire is stronger in females than in males, then social control theory at least in part explains the gender gap in criminal behavior. Female felons were found to be more "conventional" than their male counterparts based on "greater responsibilities for children, commitment to education, and legitimate sources of income," (Steffensmeier & Allan 1996, p. 467). Moreover, Chapple et al. (2004) suggest that the structure of social bonds may be more important than the way those bonds were formed or how they are perceived by males vs. females. Males and females create and sustain different types of social bonds with differential consequences. The bonds females create and sustain with others deter crime more effectively than the bonds males create and sustain with others. Differential gender norms also play a major role in how males and females react to social bonding.

Supporting the social control theory is evidence that suggests that when family or peer structures are more egalitarian, females may be more likely to commit crimes (Steffensmeier & Allan,1996). Assuming an innate equality of the sexes, gender differences in criminal behavior might be based wholly on socialization. Social control theory can be used to provide non-biological explanations for the gender gap: dispelling the theory that males are naturally more aggressive and less scrupulous than females. Any gender differences in criminal behavior would be attributed more to how males and females create, perceive, and react to the social bonds they create. The gender cap in criminal behavior may be due to differential patterns of conformity and deviance for males vs. females.

Men and women cultivate different types of social bonds, leading to differential patterns of deviance. Gender also creates differential access to social resources and opportunities. Opportunity theories of crime can illuminate variables that might explain the gender gap in criminal behavior. Steffensmeier & Allan (1996) notes that an overall increase in social equity gave more females the opportunity to participate in crimes typically associated with male perpetrators. "Greater freedom has increased female participation in the public sphere," which would expose greater numbers of women to criminal behaviors and the opportunities to commit crimes (Steffensmeier & Allan1996, p. 469). Combined with social control theory, opportunity theory offers a plausible explanation for the gender gap in criminal behavior. Social control theory and opportunity theory share in common the basic assumption that deviance is a natural human instinct; that left to their own devices both men and women are predisposed to crime. Criminal behavior is always an option, according to social control theory and opportunity theory. The two sociological theories suggest that deterrents to committing crime, such as a lack of opportunity or strong social bonds, determine patterns of criminal behavior. Moreover, social control theory and opportunity theory emphasize sociological variables at the expense of psychological or personality-based ones.

The opportunity theories such as theories of routine activities present deviance as a function of exposure. If an individual is exposed to opportunities to commit crime, he or she is more likely to do so. Daily routines and the behaviors associated with them either create or eliminate the opportunity to commit crime. Because male and female daily routines frequently differ, routine activities theory can account for the gender gap in criminal behavior. For example, a stay-at-home mother has a daily routine that consists of household duties and childcare chores. Those daily routines rarely put the woman in contact with an opportunity to rob a bank or steal a car.

However, ancillary variables like social class and relationship with the domestic partner may affect a woman's predisposition to commit a crime. Smith & Paternoster (1987) suggest that female deviance is frequently attributed to the "home and family factors" whereas male deviance is more often described as a result of external factors like the "pressure to succeed in achieving culturally defined success goals," (p. 141). Being poor might motivate a mother to steal, but unless the mother encounters an opportunity to steal during the course of her daily activities then she is unlikely to commit the crime. Domestic abuse might be a mitigating factor: no matter what her daily routine activities are a woman can always experience or perpetrate domestic violence. Social inequity, victimization, and the desperation of poverty commingle with daily routine activities to provide a matrix of sociological variables.