Peer Review 2

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Gender differences amongst offending has been a concern on whether women offend differently than men. Criminal offending covers a wide range of behaviors from sexual assault, physical assault, or even destructive acts and stealing. Research has shown that men have always engaged in greater amounts of criminal acts, while women become more involved in crime and the criminal justice's system. Today, I personally feel that majority of the time, men are the face of crime but, arrest rates trends over time demonstrate that there was an overall decrease in violent crimes for both women and men, but there was an increase in property crimes for women. Personally, I have never experience anything involving criminal offending, but to others that have, I learned among my research that your experience may not have been pleasant. Through research and exploration, women and girls are known to be treated differently from their male counterparts by agents of social control, such as, police, prosecutors, or even judges, for the result of their gender. As mentioned in the textbook, Women, Gender, and Crime (Core Concepts), by Stacy L. Mallicoat, “Women’s participation in the crime of homicide accounts for less than half of the arrests of men. And as with the rates of male violence, women’s participation in these crimes has decreased, with homicide offending rates for females declining from 3.1 offenders per 100,000 in 1980 to 1.6 offenders per 100,000 in 2008 (Cooper & Smith, 2011)". With this statement, I was able to conclude that violent crime perpetuated by women, rarely occurs, and that men engage in far more acts of violence than females. Unfortunately, there have been cases where Mothers kill their children in which it, presents a significant challenge to the cultural ideas of femininity and motherhood. If this instance unfortunately occurs, the court may find someone (female) guilty for postpartum syndromes, mentally ill, in which this distinction can allow them to serve a portion of their sentence in a treatment hospital or a related facility. In a case that I learned in Chapter 8: Female Offenders and Their Crimes, "Andrea Yates was convicted of murder and sentenced to 40 years to life by the state of Texas in 2002, her conviction was later overturned. In her second trial, she was found not guilty by reason of insanity and was committed to a state mental health facility for treatment." Now, if the results were somehow reverse, men would have a higher convicted sentence and most likely, not receive mental health treatment. With this, research was even proven that women are more likely to be treated leniently than men by prosecutors who determine the charges that were filed against an offender and charge-reductions strategies would be implanted in order to secure a guilty plea. Regardless, it has been true that women engage in every category of crime, yet their rates of offending are significantly lower than male offending practices.

The main objective of theories on criminal behavior try to explain why offenders engage in crime. Causes of crime focus on macro or micro explanations for criminal behavior. Macro theories mainly explore the large-scale of social explanations for crime, such as the topic of poverty and community disorganization. While micro theory is the opposite, focusing on an individual difference between law-abiding and law-violating behaviors. Out of all the theories I have read upon, the one that is the least convincing to me is the social bond theory. This theory is an alleged gender-neutral theory that sadly failed to consider the lives of girls and women. With this theory, it happens to focused on four criteria, or bonds, that prevent people from acting on criminological impulses or desires. During this time throughout the 20th century, number of arrests involving females increased dramatically. Data happened to reflect changes in polices regarding societal perspectives of female offending versus a direct increase in the rates of offending by women. Mentioned in the YouTube video, Shortcuts to crime and Deviance: Women and Crime, during the second wave feminism, patriarchy took over women's lives, which lead to men having a hold over women. The statement above reminded me of the social bond theory, in which I didn’t like. The theory that was the most convincing to me happens to be the differential association theory. The differential association theory focuses on the influence of how relationships lead to a crime, and the influence of peer relationships on delinquent behavior. The theory is suggested that it is influenced by social learning theory, which happens to advocate that criminality is a learned behavior. Discussions of gender were absent, which was great since it focused on that individual, similar to the micro theory. There as, critiques of these theories demonstrate a need in a greater discussion about women and crime, especially the relationship between the context of females lives and their offending behaviors.

Researchers Daly and Chesney-Lind (1988) mentioned that, “Feminist discussions about crime are not limited to “women’s issues.” They argue that it is important that any discussion of women’s lives and criminality incorporates conversations on masculinity and patriarchy. Given the historical distortions and the casual assumptions that have been made about women’s lives in relationship to their criminal behaviors, incorporating feminist perspectives can provide a richer understanding about not only the nature of female offending but also the role of how experiences with victimization of women shape this process". During the process of evolution, Feminist pathways research show how life events and trauma affects the likelihood of engagement in crime. I see the second wave feminism movement as the important change for women and crime. This movement advocated and introduce the women’s liberation and civil rights movements which influenced the first time that feminism was recognized in criminology, as a result of the feminist scholar's acknowledgment and the exclusion of gender from criminological analysis (YouTube Video from Module B, Week 6: Theories on Female Offending: Imxxmercedes. (2013, May 01). The Feminist Theory of Crime. Retrieved November 09, 2020, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIdzD8kpYwk). Overtime, development in feminist research addressed the relationship between victimization and offending. Female criminologist worked at identifying issues upon race, class, and sexuality. Through these developments, we learned that women of color experience multiple marginalized identities, which in turn their trajectories of offending. As scholars continue to study and pursue opportunities in their research and activism, it is important for these scholars to educate others to eliminate consequences for the lives of women, their families, and their communities.