Most studies conducted to understand crime have focused mainly on male crime, seeing as how men have far higher criminal rates and offences than women. Gender does play an important role when looking at the difference in the rates of crimes, and the types of specific crimes committed by both males and females. The statistics of male and female criminal offence rates, as expected do differ greatly, once again because of the fact that most crime is committed by men. However why is this so? Certain theories such as the sex role theory which relates to gender roles, the social control theory and the liberation theory have all been explored as ways to explain the low female crime rates. Although an increase has been shown in the rates of female
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No longer are the traditional characterizations of what a woman is, how she is supposed to act and behave the exact same as it was in the past. “Through emphasizing women’s capacity to engage in a range of acts once reserved for men, the conventional idea of what it means to be a woman”, (Silvestri, M, Crowther-Downey, C 2016, pp.107). With the change in traditional criminal justice models, no longer are women only victims and men known as only offenders. During the time of a second wave female liberation, Freda Adler published in 1975 ‘Sisters in crime: The rise of the new female criminal’. Through her book she proposed her theory of Liberation. She stated in her theory that during the period of the 1970’s, the feminist liberation movement was what influenced the rise in female criminality at that time. Her argument was based on the notion that during the feminist movement, social and economic changes meant that there were more opportunities for females to break away from the traditional homemaker or housewife roles. The new changes in their positions would open them up to the same temptations and challenges which men faced, thus also creating more opportunities for increased female criminality and deviance unlike before. Using data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation as …show more content…
As proven in the cases of Andrea Yates and Khoua Her, women who follow the ideals of what femininity should be according to the rules of the public, were in fact more likely to get a lesser sentence. Khoua Her was a single mother who strangled her six children and then tried to attempt suicide. Her spent eight years in a Cambodian refugee camp, where she was raped and at the age of 13 she had her first child. Whereas Andrea Yates was a married, white, middle-class woman who drowned her five children. The media depiction of the two women, vastly differed, although their crimes were similar. Yates depicted the good mother construct, due to her being a white, middle-class woman, and Her was portrayed numerous times as the “other”, due to her being a Cambodian refugee. Her marital status and teen pregnancy were also frequently mentioned as well her having four more children, being used by media to portray Her as having no control over her sexuality. “Her was portrayed as failing as a mother within her Asian cultural constructs of good mothering”, (Bissler, D.L, Conners, J.L 2012, pp.101). Unlike Her, Andrea Yates was depicted in a vastly different light. Yates was shown as a fundamentalist Christian nurse who was devoted to
No longer are the traditional characterizations of what a woman is, how she is supposed to act and behave the exact same as it was in the past. “Through emphasizing women’s capacity to engage in a range of acts once reserved for men, the conventional idea of what it means to be a woman”, (Silvestri, M, Crowther-Downey, C 2016, pp.107). With the change in traditional criminal justice models, no longer are women only victims and men known as only offenders. During the time of a second wave female liberation, Freda Adler published in 1975 ‘Sisters in crime: The rise of the new female criminal’. Through her book she proposed her theory of Liberation. She stated in her theory that during the period of the 1970’s, the feminist liberation movement was what influenced the rise in female criminality at that time. Her argument was based on the notion that during the feminist movement, social and economic changes meant that there were more opportunities for females to break away from the traditional homemaker or housewife roles. The new changes in their positions would open them up to the same temptations and challenges which men faced, thus also creating more opportunities for increased female criminality and deviance unlike before. Using data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation as …show more content…
As proven in the cases of Andrea Yates and Khoua Her, women who follow the ideals of what femininity should be according to the rules of the public, were in fact more likely to get a lesser sentence. Khoua Her was a single mother who strangled her six children and then tried to attempt suicide. Her spent eight years in a Cambodian refugee camp, where she was raped and at the age of 13 she had her first child. Whereas Andrea Yates was a married, white, middle-class woman who drowned her five children. The media depiction of the two women, vastly differed, although their crimes were similar. Yates depicted the good mother construct, due to her being a white, middle-class woman, and Her was portrayed numerous times as the “other”, due to her being a Cambodian refugee. Her marital status and teen pregnancy were also frequently mentioned as well her having four more children, being used by media to portray Her as having no control over her sexuality. “Her was portrayed as failing as a mother within her Asian cultural constructs of good mothering”, (Bissler, D.L, Conners, J.L 2012, pp.101). Unlike Her, Andrea Yates was depicted in a vastly different light. Yates was shown as a fundamentalist Christian nurse who was devoted to