Women and violent crime

Hand and Dodd (2009) — 2000-2008 % increase/year for women arrested for violent crime in 🇨🇦, 🇦🇺 and 🇺🇸

17%

Criminalisation of women — 🇺🇸 Steffenmeier and Schwartz (2009)

• 1980-2003

  • Women’s share of arrests for violence 1/5 → 1/3

  • Not shown in victim surveys or self-report studies so suggests an increase in female criminalisation (not female crime)

Criminalisation of women — 🇺🇸 Steffenmeier and Schwartz (2009) — net widening

• Forces of order arrest and prosecute women for less serious forms of violence than boys e.g. low-level physical altercations

Criminalisation of women — 🇺🇸 Chesney-Lind (2006)

• Mandatory arrests for both parties involved in DV → seeming increase in female violence rates

  • Women used to be ignored by police, now arrested

Criminalisation of women — 🇬🇧 Sharpe and Gelsthrope (2009)

• Netwidening policies → rise in official stats of female violent crimes

Criminalisation of women — Young (2011)

• Netwidening = part of ‘defining deviance up’ to include trivial offences

Criminalisation of women — Worrall (2004)

• Girls’ misbehaviour has gone from welfare issue → criminality

Moral panic about girls — Burnman and Batchelor (2009)

• Media depicts young girls as drunk/disorderly/out of control/looking for fights

  • Then impacts CJS

Moral panic about girls — Sharpe (2009)

• Professionals influenced by media stereotypes of “ladettes”

  • Believe female violent behaviour is getting worse

Moral panic about girls — 🇺🇸 Steffenmeier et al (2005)

• Media-driven moral panic about women → influence on sentences

  • More reports of female misbehaviour → courts take tougher stance → more convictions → more reports…

Gender and victimisation — CSEW (2012)

• Gender differences in levels and types of victimisation

Gender and victimisation — homoicide victims % men

70%

Gender and victimisation — male homicide victims

• More likely to be killed by a friend/acquaintance

Gender and victimisation — female homicide victims

• More likely to know killer

Gender and victimisation — female homicide victims % killed by (ex-)partner

60%

Gender and victimisation — vicims of violence

• Majority men

• Women more victims of intimate violence

  • More likely to experience personal repercussions if reported

Gender and victimisation — % of women that experience DV during their adult life

25%

Gender and victimisation — women -x more likely to report SA

5x

Gender and victimisation — % of SA that’s reported

8%

Gender and victimisation — proportion of women who didn’t report SA as they didn’t think the police could do much

1/3

Gender and victimisation — Walby and Allen (2004)

• Women more likely to be victims of multiple incidents of DV

Gender and victimisation — Ansara and Hindin (2011)

• Women experience more severe violence and control

Gender and victimisation — fear v risk

• Most women have fear that’s disproportionate to the risk they experience

Gender and victimisation — Lea and Young (1993)

• Women more at risk than men for crime

Gender and victimisation — Sparks et al (1977)

• Female victims of violence less likely to be interviewed