Theories Of Female Offending

Michelle,
It does appear clear that early theories on female offending were surrounded by the idea that women who committed crime were either inferior or had some type of biological issue. However, if we look at the timeline of when the popular theories were to blame female crime of the inherent nature of women, we can see that these theories match the views of society at the time. During the early theories of female criminology, females were mostly in traditional roles and remained in the household. Thus, females who committed crimes during this time were considered abnormal. Interestingly, Lombroso blamed female crime on women lacking the development into “proper” women and being “man-like”. Lombroso also blamed males who commit crime as …show more content…
Some including Simon believed that as females entered the workforce, they would have access to criminal opportunities for crime including fraud, embezzlement, larceny, and forgery. It would seem logical that as any group of individuals were given greater access to something that the chance of something such as crime occurring could also increase. As females were given broader opportunities for employment, they may have also been given access to commit crimes. It could also be the case that some females felt the need to commit crimes in order to support their family and the greater access gave them the opportunity to do so that may not have been present before. Other theories held a feminist approach that the powerlessness of women in a male-dominated culture led to women offending. As you stated, some believed the increase in female crime had to do with females escaping abusive households and having to resort to street crime. However, it does not seem likely that so many women would be feeling abusive households especially during the time period to account for such an increase. It also fails to explain white collar crimes by women. I also found Messerschmidt theory to be interesting and honestly a bit absurd. I am not sure what would be considered masculine needs or acts and the need to commit crime in order to prove masculinity seems