Exam 13: Female Offenders Psychology of Criminal Behaviour

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In 2009,approximately 23 percent of people accused of a Criminal Code offence in Canada were female (Hotton Mahony 2011).The typical female offender in Canada has probably shoplifted small items,knowingly written a bad cheque,failed to appear in court,or committed a very minor assault that did not physically hurt the victim (Hotton Mahony 2011).Countless studies have revealed that compared to boys and men,girls and women commit substantially less crime,particularly less violent and less serious crime.This fact holds t regardless of who published the study,or what methodological approach was adopted (Blanchette and Brown 2006).Though males do markedly outnumber females in all types of non-violent crime in Canada,the size of this gender gap does vary as a function of the crime.For example,in the realm of property crimes,males commit 87 percent of break-and-enters and motor vehicles thefts.In contrast,females account for a greater share of theft and fraud related crime (66 percent committed by males,34 percent by females).However,there is one crime category that does not appear to discriminate on the basis of gender - prostitution.In 2009,3001 Canadians were accused of prostitution-related offences,of whom 1351 were female (45 percent) and 1652 were male (55 percent) (Hotton Mahony 2011).The gender gap is even more pronounced in the context of violence.The most serious forms of violence - homicide,sexual assault,forcible confinement,robbery,and aggravated assaults - are,in essence,the purview of male offenders.In 2013,452 individuals were accused of homicide in Canada.However,only 52 (or 11.5 percent) of the accused individuals were female.Once again,the key message is that female-perpetrated homicide is rare.Further,adolescent females who perpetrate homicide are even more rare.Only five girls (aged 12-17) were accused of homicide in Canada in 2013 (Statistics Canada 2014a).The official statistics also reveal a staggering gender disparity in sexual assault crimes.Female offenders accounted for a mere 2.4 percent of all sexual assault accusations in 2009 (Hotton Mahony 2011).The gender gap in violent crime is less pronounced for less serious forms of violence.For example,while females accounted for 16 percent of all aggravated assaults in 2009,they accounted for a somewhat higher proportion of all minor assaults (25 percent).Similarly,when we define violent crime as making threatening or harassing phone calls,females account for a staggering 40 percent of all such violent crimes (Hotton Mahony 2011).
Unofficial data mirrors the official crime rate in some,but not all respects.A self-report study of youth delinquency in Toronto revealed boys were twice as likely to report engaging in violent behaviour in their lifetime (30 percent) than girls (15 percent).However,the gender gap narrowed significantly when youth were asked about non-violent crimes against property (30 percent for boys versus 26 percent for girls) (Savoie 2007).Terrie Moffitt and colleagues examined the ratio of boys to girls who are adolescent-limited offenders versus life-course persistent offenders and found that the ratio is considerably higher in life-course persistent offenders (10:1) than in adolescent-limited offenders (1.5:1).In sum,the important take home message is that official and unofficial reports confirm that males commit more crime than females and that the gender gap is particularly more pronounced for serious and violence offending.