Gender differences in crime explained through social opportunity theory

Women, Crime, And Opportunity

On the importance of "Women, Crime, and Opportunity" (Curran & Renzetti, 2002, pg.125)

Chapter 4 of Curran and Renzetti's book on Theories of Crime focuses on theories that seek to explain criminality by stressing causal factors that promote criminality within society, rather than forces within the individual. This emphasis, however, causes the authors to ask the question: Why do females, on the whole, commit fewer or different crimes than men and what social forces are the causes of this phenomenon? One of the reasons that the issue of "Women, Crime, and Opportunity" is so interesting is that it highlights not simply why persons commit crimes, but also the origins of gender distinctions within contemporary society and the different opportunities for criminality present in society for members of different social groups.

Women, according one possible sociological explanation of crime, are often ostracized from traditional networks such as street gangs that encourage and facilitate crime. Also, there is less societal tolerance for women embracing what may be perceived as masculine traits such as violence, even within criminal organizations and environments that normalize criminal activity amongst males. Women's crimes like shoplifting may thus be more individualized, garner less media attention because of their less violent and wide-spread nature, and while women may commit crimes such as abusing drugs, these crimes may not provide women with connections to profiting off of crime, because of a lack of social opportunities within criminal organizations.