CT #1

These assignment will cover the reading material for that week. The assignment will be two full pages, single-spaced, 12-point font, 1” margins, no heading. I only want your name at the top and nothing else; again, two FULL pages, which will be between 1300-1400 words in length.

There is no prompt. These assignment will include your thoughts on the assigned reading; there is no prompt. It is expected that the assignment will be well edited, thoughtful, and written in true writing format. Points will be deducted for short , poor grammar, bullet points, and the like. The assignment will be checked with turnitin.com, so do not collaborate with others. Quotes from the book can be used but should not be the majority of your assignment and should be marked as quotations so as not to plagiarize. The assignment should not show more than 10% match with other sources in Turnitin.com. If so, points will be deducted.

These assignments can include: personal stories of experiences you have had related to this section, information from the research you found in the books that sheds more light on the topic, questions/arguments about the reading you want to bring to light, thoughts on applications of the material to your own life, etc. This is your time to show you thorough read the material and understand it.

Mallicoat, Women, Gender, and Crime Core Concepts, Second Edition
Chapter 2: Theories of Victimization

Victims and the Criminal Justice System (1 of 5)
Victims: tool of justice system.
Victim-assistance programs.
Federal legislations increase victim rights.
Core rights of victims.
Mallicoat, Women, Gender, and Crime Core Concepts, 4e. © 2024 SAGE Publishing.
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2.1. Discuss the role of victims in the criminal justice system.
2.2. Identify the rights that victims have in the criminal justice process.

Victims and the Criminal Justice System
Victims: tool of justice system:
Many victims who seek out the criminal justice system for support following their victimization are often sadly disappointed in their experiences.
Human victims of crime are reduced to a tool of the justice system or a piece of evidence in a criminal case.
Due to little representation for victim’s needs and concerns, they express frustration over the justice system.
Victims can be further traumatized based on their experiences in dealing with the criminal justice system.
Victim-assistance programs:
Many prosecutors’ offices established victim-assistance programs during the mid-1970s to provide support to victims as their cases moved through the criminal justice process.
In some jurisdictions, nonprofit agencies for crimes, such as domestic violence and rape crisis, also began to provide support for victims.
Community agencies such as rape crisis centers developed in response to the perceived need for sexual assault prevention efforts, a desire for increased community awareness, and a wish to reduce the pain that the victims often experience.
Federal legislations increase victim rights:
These policies increase the voice of victims throughout the process, training for officials who deal with victims, and funding programs that provide therapeutic resources for victims.
For example, the Violence Against Women Act provides support for criminal justice researchers studying issues related to intimate partner violence.
Crime Victims’ Rights Act of 2004 is a federal legislation that provides protections for all crime victims.
While attempts to pass an amendment to the U.S. Constitution on victims’ rights have been unsuccessful, each of the 50 states includes references to the rights of victims in criminal cases.
Core rights of victims:
The right to attend criminal justice proceedings;
The right to apply for compensation;
The right to be heard and participate in criminal justice proceedings;
The right to be informed of proceedings and events in the criminal justice process, of legal rights and remedies, and of available services;
The right to protection from intimidation and harassment;
The right to restitution from the offender;
The right to prompt return of personal property seized as evidence;
The right to a speedy trial; an
The right to enforcement of these rights.

Victims and the Criminal Justice System (2 of 5)
Underreporting among women victims.
Reasons why victimization is not reported.
Support system for victims.
Underreporting due to fear of retaliation.
Mallicoat, Women, Gender, and Crime Core Concepts, 4e. © 2024 SAGE Publishing.
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2.1. Discuss the role of victims in the criminal justice system.
2.2. Identify the rights that victims have in the criminal justice process.

Victims and the Criminal Justice System
Underreporting among women victims:
A comparison between official crime data and victimization data indicates that many victims do not report their crime to law enforcement.
According to the Bureau of Justice’s National Crime Victimization Survey, only about half of all victims surveyed report their victimization to law enforcement.
Victims of serious violent crime are generally more likely to report these crimes compared to property offenses.
Robbery was the most likely crime reported (66%), followed by aggravated assault (57%).
Cases of personal violence are significantly underreported among women victims.
According to NCVS, only 42% of rapes and sexual assaults are reported.
Chicago Women’s Health Risk Study showed that only 43% of women who experience violent acts from a current or former intimate partner contacted the police.
The relationship between the victim and offender is a strong predictor in reporting rates, because women who are victimized by someone known to them are less likely to report than women who are victimized by a stranger.
Reasons why victimization is not reported:
Some victims feel embarrassed by the crime.
Others may decide not to report a crime out of the belief that nothing could be done.
People believe that the crime was not serious enough to make a big deal over it.
Others believe it is a personal matter.
Support system for victims:
Victims from sexual assault and intimate partner violence often seek help from personal resources outside of law enforcement, such as family and friends.
Many seek assistance through formal mental health services following a victimization experience.
Victims who receive positive support from informal social networks, such as friends and family, are subsequently more likely to seek out formal services, such as law enforcement and therapeutic resources.
Informal networks act as a support system for seeking professional help and for making an official crime report.
Underreporting due to fear of retaliation:
Fears of retaliation can affect a victim’s decision to make a report to the police.
Among the victims of intimate partner violence, research shows that violence can increase following police intervention.
The presence of children in domestic violence situations also affects reporting rates as many victims may incorrectly believe that they will lose their children as a result of intervention from social service agents.

Victims and the Criminal Justice System (3 of 5)
Victim Blaming
Blame shifted to the victim.
A just world outlook.
Negative consequences of victim blaming.
Diffusing the responsibility of crime.
Mallicoat, Women, Gender, and Crime Core Concepts, 4e. © 2024 SAGE Publishing.
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2.3. Assess the impact of victim blaming on reporting rates and help seeking behaviors.

Victim Blaming
Victim blaming: shifting the blame of rape from the offender to the victim; by doing so, the confrontation of the realities of victimization is avoided.
It often influences reporting practices and help-seeking behaviors by victims.
A just world outlook:
The process of victim blaming is linked to a belief in a just world.
The concept of a just world posits that society has a need to believe that people deserve whatever comes to them.
If a bad thing happens to someone, then that person must be at fault for the victimization because of who he or she is and what he or she does.
A just world outlook gives a sense of peace to many individuals.
Negative consequences of victim blaming:
Victim blaming assumes that people are able to change the environment in which they live,
Victim blaming assumes that only “innocent” victims are true victims, and
Victim blaming creates a false sense of security about the risks of crime.
Diffusing the responsibility of crime:
Victim blaming allows society to diffuse the responsibility of crime between the victim and the offender.
The victim is blamed for every crime and the blame is shifted away from the perpetrator.
the victim is held responsible.
Victim blaming enables people to make sense of the victimization.
The process of victim blaming allows people to separate themselves from the victimized and this allows people to feel safe in the world.

Victims and the Criminal Justice System (4 of 5)
Victim Blaming
Just world hypothesis.
Can be disproportionately gendered.
Role of victim characteristics.
Impact of racial, ethnic differences.
Mallicoat, Women, Gender, and Crime Core Concepts, 4e. © 2024 SAGE Publishing.
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2.3. Assess the impact of victim blaming on reporting rates and help seeking behaviors.

Victim Blaming
Just world hypothesis:
Society has a need to believe that people deserve whatever comes to them.
This paradigm is linked to patterns of victim blaming.
Under the just world hypothesis, the victim begins to assume responsibility for alleged assault in the eyes of the public.
This can impact future reporting trends, because victims may be less likely to report their own victimizations due to victim blaming.
A belief in the just world hypothesis also leads to an increased support of rape myths.
Can be disproportionately gendered:
Victim blaming can be disproportionately gendered and directed toward women as they are represented in many forms of victimization such as rape, sexual assault, and intimate partner violence.
Men are more likely to blame women victims in cases of rape and sexual assault.
Victim blaming is more prevalent among older individuals and those with lower levels of education or lower socioeconomic status.
Role of victim characteristics:
Victim characteristics can also impact how much blame is attributed to the victim.
For example, victims who violate traditional gender roles or who are intoxicated are more likely to experience victim blaming.
Some victims do not physically fight back against their attacker.
Impact of racial, ethnic differences:
Women of color are more likely to be victims of violent crimes.
White victims of crime are more likely to be focused by media accounts.
Women of color are more likely to be portrayed negatively when their cases were noted by the press.
They are blamed for their victimization based on where they lived, what activities they engaged in, and who they spent time with.
Cases involving white women were more likely to focus on the sensationalism of stranger danger and their tragic victimization.
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Victims and the Criminal Justice System (5 of 5)
Victim Blaming
Linked to low reporting rates.
Internalization of victim blaming.
Secondary victimization.
Rape myth acceptance.
Mallicoat, Women, Gender, and Crime Core Concepts, 4e. © 2024 SAGE Publishing.
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2.3. Assess the impact of victim blaming on reporting rates and help seeking behaviors.

Victim Blaming
Linked to low reporting rates:
Victims are often met with blame and refusals to help when they reach out to law enforcement, community agencies, and family or peer networks in search of support and assistance.
These experiences have a negative effect on the recovery of crime victims.
The media can also perpetuate victim blaming, particularly in cases involving celebrities.
Internalization of victim blaming:
Victims are often blamed by those closest to them, such as friends and family.
Victim blaming can even be internalized whereby victims engage in self-doubt and feel shame for allowing themselves to become a victim.
Victim blaming can also inhibit how victims recover from their trauma.
Secondary victimization:
The idea that victims become more traumatized after the primary victimization.
It can stem from victim blaming or from the process of collecting evidence (physical or testimonial).
For those cases that progress beyond the law enforcement investigative process, few have charges filed by prosecutors, and only rarely is a conviction secured.
Rape myth acceptance:
False beliefs that are seen as justifiable causes for sexual aggression against women.
The acceptance of rape myths by jurors can ultimately affect the decision-making process.
Victim blaming can also occur by police and related justice professionals in cases of intimate partner violence, particularly in cases where a victim returns to her abuser.
The experience of secondary victimization can have significant consequences of reporting, because victims would not have reported the crime if they had known what was in store for them.
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Fear of Victimization (1 of 3)
Distorted portrayal of crime.
News increases fear of crime.
Fear of victimization.
Contribution of gendered socialization.
Mallicoat, Women, Gender, and Crime Core Concepts, 4e. © 2024 SAGE Publishing.
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2.4. Explain how gender contributes to the fear of victimization.

Fear of Victimization
Distorted portrayal of crime by media:
Most Americans only view the images of crime that are generated by the portrayal of victims and offenders in mass media outlets.
These images present a distorted view of the criminal justice system.
This leads to the overexaggeration of violent crime in society.
News increases fear of crime:
Regardless of actual crime rates, gender, or a personal history of victimization, the fear about crime in individuals increase with the increase in their consumption of local and national television news.
In addition to the portrayal of crime within the news, stories of crime, criminals, and criminal justice have been a major staple of television entertainment programming.
These images present a distorted view of the reality of crime, because they generally present crime as graphic, random, and violent incidents.
Fear of victimization:
A gendered experience where women experience higher rates of fear of crime compared to men.
This idea is based on the distorted portrayal of the criminal justice system by the media.
Contribution of gendered socialization:
Girls are socialized differently than their men peers.
From a young age, girls are often taught about fear, because parents are more likely to demonstrate concern for the safety of their daughters.
This fear results in a relative lack of freedom for girls, in addition to an increase in the parental supervision of girls.
These practices, can affect their confidence levels in regarding the world around them.
The sense of fear can be transferred from the parent to the young woman adult as a result of the gendered socialization experienced throughout her life.

Fear of Victimization (2 of 3)
Levels of fear of victimization.
Fear of sexually based crimes among women.
“Shadow of sexual assault” thesis.
Sexual assault seen in literature.
Mallicoat, Women, Gender, and Crime Core Concepts, 4e. © 2024 SAGE Publishing.
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2.4. Explain how gender contributes to the fear of victimization.

Fear of Victimization
Levels of fear of victimization:
Gender plays a role in feelings of vulnerability, which can translate to fears about victimization.
The fear of crime for women is not necessarily related to the actual levels of crime.
Women are less likely to be victimized than men, yet they report overall higher levels of fear of crime than their men counterparts.
These high levels of overall fear of victimization may be perpetuated by a specific fear of crime for women: rape and sexual assault.
Fear of sexually based crimes among women:
Rape is the crime that generates the highest levels of fear for women.
These levels of fear are validated by crime statistics, because women make up the majority of victims for sexually based crimes.
Shadow of sexual assault” thesis:
Women experience a greater fear of crime in general, because they believe that any crime could ultimately become a sexually based victimization.
Even when women engage in measures to keep themselves safe, their fear of sexual assault appears to increase rather than decrease.
This sense of vulnerability is portrayed by movies as being victimized by strangers.
Most women are victimized by people known to them.
Research indicates that many women fail to see acquaintance rape as something that could impact them personally.
Sexual assault seen in literature:
While the fear of sexual assault is a common theme in the literature, scholars indicate that fears about crime can involve acts other than sexual assault.
Fear of physical harm is a stronger predictor of fear about crime for women over the fear of sexual assault.

Fear of Victimization (3 of 3)
Difference of fear by race and ethnicity.
Hate crime victimization: LGBT community.
Negative consequences of fear.
Reflection of fears in society.
Mallicoat, Women, Gender, and Crime Core Concepts, 4e. © 2024 SAGE Publishing.
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2.4. Explain how gender contributes to the fear of victimization.

Fear of Victimization
Difference of fear by race and ethnicity:
Diverse populations are more likely to be victimized over the course of their lives compared to their white counterparts.
The concern of racially motivated-related victimization is a driving force for experiences of fear amongst diverse populations.
The events of 9/11 have increased fears of victimization for both bias-related crimes as well as general victimization within the Arab-American community.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Asian-American community have experienced increased vulnerability and fears of victimization.
Hate crime victimization: LGBT community:
In a survey of hate crime victimization among the LGBT community, researchers noted that one-third (33.6%) of the participants had been victimized as a result of their sexuality.
LGBT individuals are likely to experience multiple victimizations.
It has been found that LGBT men and women tend to have similar fears about crime and victimization.
Gay men experience similar forms of marginalization and vulnerability to that of heterosexual women.
Women who identify as lesbian may find these fears enhanced by their gender as well as sexual identity.
Fear about crime is also linked to prior experiences of victimization.
Those who experience greater levels of privilege (identifying as gay/lesbian or men) noted lower levels of fear when compared to individuals with more marginalized identities (queer and transgender).
Negative consequences of fear:
Due to fear of crime, individuals are more likely to isolate themselves from society.
Fear reflects potential victimization and a threat regarding the potential loss of control a victim experiences as a result of being victimized.
Fear of crime can affect one’s feelings of self-worth and self-esteem.
Potential victims experience feelings of vulnerability and increased anxiety.
Reflection of fears in society:
Increase of security measures in public transit agencies such as the presence of personnel, the use of video cameras in stations, and improving service reliability.
Fear impacts policy practices within the criminal justice system.
Agents of criminal justice increase police patrols, while district attorneys pursue tough-on-crime stances in their prosecution of criminal cases.
Politicians create and implement tough-on-crime legislation and target perceived crimes of danger, such as the war on drugs.
Inaccurate data on crime rates or misunderstanding about community supervision of offenders and recidivism rates can raise public’s concern.

Theories on Victimization (1 of 6)
Early perspectives on victimology.
Benjamin Mendelsohn.
Benjamin Mendelson’s typology.
Mallicoat, Women, Gender, and Crime Core Concepts, 4e. © 2024 SAGE Publishing.
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2.5. Discuss the different theories on victimization.

Theories on Victimization
Early perspectives on victimology:
To understand the victim experience, social science researchers began to investigate the characteristics of crime victims and the response by society to these victims.
The field of victimology places the victim at the center of the discussion.
Early perspectives on victimology focused on how victims, either knowingly or unconsciously, can be at fault for their victimization, based on their personal life events and decision-making processes.
Mendelsohn, Benjamin: distinguished categories of victims based on the responsibility of the victim and the degree to which the victim had the power to make decisions that could alter his or her likelihood of victimization.
Benjamin Mendelson’s typology:
It was a typology of victimization that distinguished different types of victims based on relative responsibility in their own victimization.
In his typology, victims have the power to make decisions that can alter their likelihood of victimization.

Theories on Victimization (2 of 6)
Mendelsohn’s theory of victimology.
Hans von Hentig.
Hans von Hentig’s typology of victims.
Mallicoat, Women, Gender, and Crime Core Concepts, 4e. © 2024 SAGE Publishing.
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2.5. Discuss the different theories on victimization.

Theories on Victimization
Mendelsohn’s theory of victimology:
The typology is based on six categories of victims:
Innocent victim:
No responsibility for the crime attributed to victim.
Example: Institutionalized victims, the mentally ill, children, or those who are attacked while unconscious.
Victim with minor guilt:
Victim precipitates crime with carelessness/ignorance.
Example: Victim lost in the “wrong part of town.”
Voluntary victim:
Victim and offender equally responsible for crime.
This victim shares the responsibility with the offender by deliberately placing himself or herself in harm’s way.
Example: Victim pays prostitute for sex; then prostitute robs victim.
Victim who is more guilty than the offender:
Victim who provokes or induces another to commit crime.
Example: Burning bed syndrome in which victim is killed by the domestic partner he abused for years.
Victim who alone is guilty:
Victim who is solely responsible for his or her own victimization.
They engaged in an act that was likely to lead to injury on their part.
Example: An attacker who is killed in self-defense; suicide bomber killed by detonation of explosives.
Imaginary victim:
Victim mistakenly believes he or she has been victimized.
Example: Mentally ill person who reports imagined victimization as real event.
von Hentig, Hans: His theory of victimization highlights 13 categories of victims and focuses on how personal factors such as biological, social, and psychological characteristics influence risk factors for victimization.
Hans von Hentig’s typology of victims:
The categories include the young, the woman, the old, the mentally defective and deranged, immigrants, people of color, dull normals, the depressed, the acquisitive, the wanton, the lonesome or heartbroken, the tormentor, and the blocked, exempted, or fighting.
His typology includes only a single category for women.
While von Hentig’s category of mentally defective was designed to capture the vulnerability of the mentally ill victim, he also referenced the intoxicated individual within this context.
Women who engage in either consensual acts of intoxication or who are subjected to substances unknown to them can be at risk for alcohol- or drug-facilitated sexual assault.
Immigration status can play a key role for women victims as many abusers use a woman’s illegal immigration status as a threat to ensure compliance.
Von Hentig also discusses how race and ethnicity can affect the victim experience and how these factors affect the criminal justice system at every stage.

Theories on Victimization (3 of 6)
Routine Activities Theory
Convergence of three components.
Victims and guardians exist together.
Crimes due to demographic differences.
Role of gender in victimization risk.
Mallicoat, Women, Gender, and Crime Core Concepts, 4e. © 2024 SAGE Publishing.
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2.5. Discuss the different theories on victimization.

Routine Activities Theory
Routine activities theory:
It was created to discuss the risk of victimization in property crimes.
It suggests that the likelihood of a criminal act or the likelihood of victimization occurs when an offender, a potential victim, and the absence of a guardian that would deter said offender from making contact with the victim are combined.
Convergence of three components:
The likelihood of a criminal act and victimization occurs with the convergence of three essential components:
Someone who is interested in pursuing a criminal action (offender),
A potential victim (target) “available” to be victimized, and
The absence of someone or something (guardian) that would deter the offender from making contact with the available victim.
Victims and guardians exist together:
The name of the routine activities theory is derived from a belief that victims and guardians exist within the normal, everyday patterns of life.
Lifestyle changes during the second half of the 20th century created additional opportunities for the victim and offender to come into contact with each other as a result of changes to daily routines and activities.
Cohen and Felson’s theory was created to discuss the risk of victimization in property crimes.
If individuals were at work, or out enjoying events, they were less likely to be at home to guard their property against potential victimization, and burglary was more likely to result.
Crimes due to demographic differences:
Routine activities theory has been used to understand a variety of different forms of crime, particularly related to demographic differences in victimization.
Women of color experience more risk of victimization when riding public transportation, and neighborhood factors can affect the odds of women’s victimization.
Women are more likely to experience robbery at grocery stores and parking lots/garages, but less likely to experience crimes such as simple assault in the same locations.
Role of gender in victimization risk:
Men are more likely to experience increased risks of violent victimization because they go out at night.
Women have an increased risk of theft based on increased shopping activities.
Students who identify as LGBTQ and engage in illicit drug use and binge drinking are at an increased risk for sexual victimization and stalking.
Non-monosexual women are at increased risks of stalking, compared to both heterosexual women and gay men.

Theories on Victimization (4 of 6)
Routine Activities Theory
Victimization due to cybercrimes.
Criticism by feminist criminologists.
Lifestyle theory.
Mallicoat, Women, Gender, and Crime Core Concepts, 4e. © 2024 SAGE Publishing.
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2.5. Discuss the different theories on victimization.

Routine Activities Theory
Victimization due to cybercrimes:
Even though boys engage in risky online behaviors, girls are at a greater risk for cyber-bullying.
The use of digital medias such as social networking and texting can place youth at risk of cyber dating abuse.
The risk of victimization increases with the amount of time that they spend online.
Amongst college-aged individuals there were no gender differences in victimization.
Women and non-whites are engaged in more acts of cyber aggression towards their partners compared to men and whites.
Criticism by feminist criminologists:
They disagree with the theory’s original premise that men are more vulnerable to the risks of victimization than women.
In cases of intimate partner abuse and sexual assault, the guardians who is supposed to protect victims may be the ones most likely to victimize women.
Women who engage in recreational substance use are considered to be a suitable target by men who are motivated to engage in certain offending patterns.
Since majority of sexual assaults on college campuses are perpetrated by someone known to the victim, the concept of self-protective factors may not protect against offenders.
Perceptions of being a “good” girl can also lead women to believe they are at a reduced risk for victimization.
In case of sexual assaults, the blame is mostly shifted from the perpetrator to the victim.
Lifestyle theory:
It is developed to explore the risks of victimization from personal crimes and seeks to relate the patterns of one’s everyday activities to the potential for victimization.
People who engage in risky lifestyle choices place themselves at risk for victimization.
Increased exposure to criminal activity and motivated offenders may increase the risk for criminal opportunity and victimization.
Nonviolent deviant behaviors, mental health status, age, and substance use can also place people at potential victimization.
Gender also plays a role in how these factors influence victimization risk.

Theories on Victimization (5 of 6)
Routine Activities Theory
Combination of lifestyle, routine theories.
Factors that increase risk of revictimization.

Mallicoat, Women, Gender, and Crime Core Concepts, 4e. © 2024 SAGE Publishing.
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2.5. Discuss the different theories on victimization.

Routine Activities Theory
Combination of lifestyle, routine theories:
The two perspectives of lifestyle theory and routine activities are combined to investigate victimization risks in general.
It is used to explain the risks of sexual assault of women on college campuses.
Young women in the university setting who engage in risky lifestyle decision-making processes and have routine activity patterns are at an increased risk for sexual victimization.
Factors that increase risk of revictimization:
When women continue to engage in lifestyle and routine-related behaviors.
College students who experience depression.

Theories on Victimization (6 of 6)
Feminist Pathways Perspective
Feminist pathways perspective research.
Better understanding of offending women.
Cycle of victimization and offending.
Mallicoat, Women, Gender, and Crime Core Concepts, 4e. © 2024 SAGE Publishing.
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2.5. Discuss the different theories on victimization.

Feminist Pathways Perspective
Feminist pathways perspective: Provides best understanding of how women find themselves caught in a cycle that begins with victimization and leads to offending.
Feminist pathways perspective research:
It relates how events (and traumas) affect the likelihood of women and girls to engage in crime.
Researchers have identified a cycle of violence for women offenders that often begins with their own victimization and results with their involvement in offending behavior.
Better understanding of offending women:
Research on women’s and girls’ pathways provides substantial evidence for the link between victimization and offending.
Incarcerated girls are three to four times more likely to have been abused compared to their men counterparts.
In California, 92% of delinquent girls reported having been subjected to at least one form of abuse, including emotional (88%), physical (81%), or sexual (56%) abuse.
A history of abuse leads to certain types of delinquency, such as running away and school failures.
The effects of sexual assault are related to drug and alcohol addiction and mental health traumas, such as post-traumatic stress disorder and a negative self-identity.
Cycle of victimization and offending: Explains how young girls often run away from home in an attempt to escape from an abusive situation, usually ending up as offenders themselves.

Mallicoat, Women, Gender, and Crime Core Concepts, Second Edition
Chapter 1: Women, Gender, and Crime: Introduction

Introduction
Gendered justice.
Gendered experiences of victimization.
Criticism of traditional approaches.
Women in men-dominated occupations.
Mallicoat, Women, Gender, and Crime Core Concepts, 4e. © 2024 SAGE Publishing.
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Introduction
Gendered justice:
It is also referred to as injustice.
It is the discrimination of individuals based on their gender.
This idea is often seen in the criminal justice system where the needs and unique experiences of women go unmet because of the fact that the theories of offending have come from the perspective of men.
Gendered experiences of victimization:
Women are the major victims for specific types of crimes, particularly when men are the primary offender.
Gendered experiences of victimization is evident in crimes such as rape, sexual assault, intimate partner abuse, and stalking.
Criticism of traditional approaches:
The traditional systems designed to help victims often ignore women sufferings in disproportionate ways.
Women’s needs as offenders are ignored because they face a variety of unique circumstances and experiences that are absent from the men offending population.
Traditional approaches in criminological theory and practice have been criticized for their failure to understand the lives and experiences of women.
Women in men-dominated occupations:
The employment of women in the criminal justice system has been limited.
Women in these occupations often faced a hyper-masculine culture that challenged the introduction of women.
Women continue to struggle for equality in a world where the effects of the “glass ceiling” continue to pervade a system that presents itself as one interested in the notion of justice.

The Influence of Feminism on Studies of Women, Gender, and Crime (1 of 3)
Feminism.
Difference between sex and gender.
Advances in study of women, crime.
Expansion of second wave of feminism.

Mallicoat, Women, Gender, and Crime Core Concepts, 4e. © 2024 SAGE Publishing.
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1.2. Identify the influence of feminism on criminology.

The Influence of Feminism on Studies of Women, Gender, and Crime
Feminism:
A series of social and political movements (also referred to as the three waves of feminism) that advocated for women’s rights and gender equality.
It plays a key role in understanding how the criminal justice system responds to women and women’s issues.
Difference between sex and gender:
Sex refers to the biological or physiological characteristics of what makes someone men or women.
The term sex can often be used to talk about the segregation of men and women in jails or prison.
Gender refers to the identification of masculine and feminine traits, which are socially constructed terms.
For example, in early theories of criminology, women offenders were often characterized as masculine.
It was believed by scholars that women offenders were more like men than women.
Advances in study of women, crime:
Advances seen throughout the 20th and 21st centuries.
The 1960s and 1970s shed light on several significant issues that impacted many different groups in society.
The momentum of social change as represented by the civil rights and women’s movements had significant impacts for society.
Expansion of second wave of feminism:
The second wave expanded beyond women’s suffrage and the right to vote to topics such as sexuality, legal inequalities, and reproductive rights.
Criminology scholars began to think differently about women and offending.
Prior to this time, women were largely forgotten in research about crime and criminal behavior.
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The Influence of Feminism on Studies of Women, Gender, and Crime (2 of 3)
Work by liberal feminists.
Focus of third-wave feminism.
Think differently about women offenders.

Mallicoat, Women, Gender, and Crime Core Concepts, 4e. © 2024 SAGE Publishing.
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1.2. Identify the influence of feminism on criminology.

The Influence of Feminism on Studies of Women, Gender, and Crime
Work by liberal feminists:
Some of the first feminist criminologists gained attention during the 1960s and 1970s.
The majority of these scholars were focused primarily on looking at issues of equality and difference between men and women in terms of offending and responses by the criminal justice system.
These liberal feminists focused only on gender and did not include discussions that reflected a multicultural identity.
Such a focus resulted in a narrow view of the women that were involved in crime and how the system responded to their offending.
Focus of third-wave feminism:
Third-wave feminism addresses the multiple, diverse perspectives of women, such as race, ethnicity, nationality, and sexuality.
Feminist criminologists began to talk about the nature of the women offender and began to ask questions about the lives of women involved in the criminal justice system such as:
Who is she?
Why does she engage in crime?
How is she different from the men offender, and how should the criminal justice system respond to her?
Think differently about women offenders:
Feminist criminologists began to encourage the criminal justice system to think differently about women offenders.
Feminism also encouraged new conversations about women victimization.
The efforts of second- and third-wave feminism brought increased attention to women who were victims of crime.
How do women experience victimization?
How does the system respond to women who have been victims of a crime?
How have criminal justice systems and policies responded to the victimization of women?
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The Influence of Feminism on Studies of Women, Gender, and Crime (3 of 3)
Greater participation in the workforce.
Feminist criminology.
Black feminist criminology.

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1.2. Identify the influence of feminism on criminology.

The Influence of Feminism on Studies of Women, Gender, and Crime
Greater participation in the workforce:
Scholars were faced with questions regarding how gender impacts the way in which women work within the police department, correctional agencies, and the legal system.
What issues do women face within the context of these occupations?
How has the participation of women in these fields affected the experiences of women who are victims and offenders?
Feminist criminology:
Developed as a reaction against traditional criminology, which failed to address women and girls in research.
It reflects several of the themes of gender roles and socialization that resulted from the second wave of feminism.
Black feminist criminology: It looks at how the relationship between race, gender, and other issues of oppression create multiple marginalities for women of color.
5

Women, Gender, and Crime
(1 of 4)
Women as Victims of Violence
Women compose majority of victims.
Criticism by criminal justice system, society.
Needs of victimized women.
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1.1. Define how sex and gender impact victims, offenders, and workers in the criminal justice system.

Women as Victims of Violence
Women compose majority of victims:
Victimization is something that many women are intimately familiar with.
While men are more likely to be a victim of a crime, women compose the majority of victims of certain forms of violent crime.
Women are most likely to be victimized by someone they know.
Criticism by criminal justice system, society:
When women seek help from the criminal justice system, charges are not always filed or are often reduced through plea bargains, resulting in offenders receiving limited sanctions for their criminal behavior.
Because of the sensitive nature of these offenses, victims can find their own lives put on trial to be criticized by the criminal justice system and society as a whole.
Needs of victimized women:
Women who experience victimization have a number of needs, particularly in cases of violent and personal victimization experiences.
The emotional violence can be equally significant to physical damage and traumatic for victims to deal with.
The high needs of many victims, coupled with an increased demand for services, means that the availability of resources by agencies such as domestic violence shelters and rape crisis centers are often limited.

Women, Gender, and Crime
(2 of 4)
Women Who Offend
Gender gap in offending.
Domination in certain crimes.
Socially proscribed gender roles.
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1.1. Define how sex and gender impact victims, offenders, and workers in the criminal justice system.

Women Who Offend
Gender gap:
Refers to the differences in men and women offending for different types of offenses.
Research shows that the gender gap is larger in cases of serious or violent crimes, while the gap is narrower for crimes such as property and drug related offenses.
Domination in certain crimes:
Prostitution, often called a victimless crime, is an offense where the majority of arrests involve women.
Status offenses: Another category where girls are overrepresented.
They are acts that are considered criminal only because of the offender’s age.
For example, the consumption of alcohol is considered illegal only if we are under a designated age.
Socially proscribed gender roles:
The socially proscribed gender roles for women behavior is violated when women engage in crime.
Therefore, women may be punished for violating the law as well as violating the socially proscribed gender roles.
As more women have come to the attention of criminal justice officials, and as policies and practices for handling these cases have shifted, more women are being sent to prison rather than being supervised in the community.
There is a greater demand on reentry programming and services for women.
The collateral consequences in the incarceration of women are far reaching, because the identity as an ex-offender can threaten a woman’s chances for success long after she has served her sentence.
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Women, Gender, and Crime
(3 of 4)
The Intersection of Victimization and Offending
Offending due to prior victimization.
Relationship continues as a cycle.

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1.1. Define how sex and gender impact victims, offenders, and workers in the criminal justice system.

The Intersection of Victimization and Offending
Offending due to prior victimization:
One of the greatest contributions of feminist criminology is the acknowledgment of the relationship between victimization and offending.
History of victimization of women is a common factor for many women offenders.
Majority of women in prison have experienced some form of abuse, physical, psychological, or sexual, and in many cases, are victims of long-term multiple acts of violence.
Relationship continues as a cycle:
Not only is there a strong relationship that leads from victimization to offending but the relationship between these two variables continues also as a vicious cycle.
For example:
A young girl who is sexually abused by a family member runs away from home.
Rather than return to her abusive environment, she ends up selling her body as a way to provide food, clothing, and shelter.
In order to cope with physical and sexual violence with dangerous clients and pimps, she may turn to alcohol and drugs to numb the pain of the abuse.
When confronted by the criminal justice system, she receives little if any assistance to address the multiple issues.
In addition, her criminal identity makes it difficult to find valid employment, receive housing and food benefits, or have access to educational opportunities that could improve her situation.
Ultimately, it makes it difficult to find a healthy and sustainable life on her own.

Women, Gender, and Crime
(4 of 4)
Women and Work in the Criminal Justice System
Women who work in the system.
1960s and 1970s social movements.
Sex and gender-based challenges.
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1.1. Define how sex and gender impact victims, offenders, and workers in the criminal justice system.

Women and Work in the Criminal Justice System
Women who work in the system:
It is important to consider how issues of sex and gender impact the work environment.
The experiences of women as police and correctional officers, victim advocates, probation and parole case managers, and lawyers and judges provide valuable insight on how sex and gender differences affect women.
1960s and 1970s social movements:
The social movements of the 1960s and 1970s also increased the access to opportunities for work within the walls of criminal justice for women.
Prior to this era of social change, even when women were present, their duties were significantly limited compared to those of their men counterparts, and their opportunities for advancement were essentially nonexistent.
Sex and gender-based challenges:
These challenges are directly related to their status as women, such as on-the-job sexual harassment, work-family balance, maternity, and motherhood.
Research reflects on how women manage the roles, duties, and responsibilities of their positions within a historically masculine environment.
The experience of womanhood can impact the work environment, both personally and culturally.

Data Sources on Women as Victims and Offenders (1 of 7)
Study of crime using datasets.
Uniform Crime Reports (UCR).
UCR assesses crime changes.

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1.3. Discuss data sources for female offending and victimization rates.

Data Sources on Women as Victims and Offenders
Study of crime using datasets:
there is no one dataset that tells us everything that we want to know about crime, we can learn something from each source because they each represent different points of view.
Datasets vary based on the type of information collected (quantitative and/or qualitative), who manages the dataset (such as government agencies, professional scholar, community organization), and the purpose for the data collection.
Each dataset represents a picture of crime for a specific population, region, and time frame, or stage, of the criminal justice system.
Uniform Crime Reports (UCR):
An annual collection of reported crime data from police departments.
It is compiled by the Federal Bureau of Investigation by collecting and publishing the arrest data from over 17,000 police agencies in the United States.
These statistics are published annually and present the rates and volume of crime by offense type, based on arrests made by police.
The dataset includes a number of demographic variables to evaluate these crime statistics, including age, gender, race/ethnicity, location (state), and region (metropolitan, suburban, or rural).
UCR assesses crime changes:
The UCR data allow us to compare how crime changes over time, because it allows for the comparison of arrest data for a variety of crimes over a specific time frame or from one year to the next.
Data from the UCR findings are typically reported to the greater society through news media outlets and that form the basis for headline stories that proclaim the rising and falling rates of crime.

Data Sources on Women as Victims and Offenders (2 of 7)
UCR data contains reported crimes.
Victimization experiences underreported.
UCR collects data on certain crimes.
Revised definition of rape: FBI.

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1.3. Discuss data sources for female offending and victimization rates.

Data Sources on Women as Victims and Offenders
UCR data contains reported crimes:
The data are dependent on both what police know about criminal activity and how they use their discretion in these cases.
Police cannot make an arrest if they are not a witness to a crime or are not called to deal with an offender.
Arrests are the key variable for UCR data, meaning that unreported crimes are not recognized in these statistics.
Victimization experiences underreported: Many of the victimization experiences of women, such as intimate partner abuse and sexual assault, are significantly underreported and therefore do not appear within the UCR data.
UCR collects data on certain crimes:
The classification of crime is organized into two different types of crime: Part 1 offenses and Part 2 offenses.
Part 1 offenses, known as index crimes, include eight different offenses: aggravated assault, forcible rape, murder, robbery, arson, burglary, larceny-theft, and motor vehicle theft.
However, these categories may have limited definitions that fail to capture the true extent of arrests made for these crimes.
Historically, the UCR defined forcible rape as “the carnal knowledge of a woman forcibly and against her will.”
The definition failed to capture the magnitude of sexual assaults, which may not involve women victims or may involve other sexual acts beyond vaginal penetration.
Revised definition of rape: FBI:
In January 2012, the FBI announced a revised definition for the crime of rape to include “the penetration, no matter how slight, of the vagina or anus with any body part or object, or oral penetration by a sex organ of another person, without the consent of the victim.”
The new law allows for both men and women to be identified as victims or offenders.
It also allows the UCR to include cases where the victim either was unable or unwilling to consent to sexual activity.
The new definition removes the requirement of force. As a result of these changes, the category of rape will now capture a greater diversity of sexual assaults.
With this change in how these sexually based offenses are counted, it is not possible to compare data on the number of these cases prior to 2012.

Data Sources on Women as Victims and Offenders (3 of 7)
Incomplete reporting of crimes.
Alterations with organization of data.
Fluctuation in participation by agencies.
National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS).

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1.3. Discuss data sources for female offending and victimization rates.

Data Sources on Women as Victims and Offenders
Incomplete reporting of crimes:
The reporting of the crimes to the UCR is incomplete, because only the most serious crime is reported in cases where multiple crimes are committed during a single criminal event.
Several different offenses may occur within the context of a single crime incident.
For example, a crime involving physical battery, rape, and murder is reported to the UCR as murder.
As a result, the understanding of the prevalence of physical battery and rape is incomplete.
Alterations with organization of data:
The reporting of these data is organized annually, which can alter our understanding of crime as police agencies respond to cases.
For example, a homicide that is committed in one calendar year may not be solved with an arrest and conviction until the following calendar year.
This might initially be read as an “unsolved crime” in the first year but as an arrest in the subsequent year.
Fluctuation in participation by agencies:
The participation by agencies in reporting to the UCR has fluctuated over time.
Many states today have laws that direct law enforcement agencies to comply with UCR data collection.
The analyzers of crime trends over time need to take into consideration the number of agencies involved in the reporting of crime data.
Failure to take estimated population for each year into account could result in a flawed analysis of crime patterns over time.
National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS):
An incident-based system of crimes reported to the police.
The system is administered by the Federal Bureau of Investigation as part of the annual Uniform Crime Reports.
The NIBRS catalog involves data on 22 offenses categories and includes 46 specific crimes known as Group A offenses.
It also collects data on 11 lesser offenses (Group B offenses).
NIBRS abolished the hierarchy rule that was part of the UCR, which involve more than one specific offense to be counted and not just the most serious event.
NIBRS data are collected on both completed as well as attempted crimes.

Data Sources on Women as Victims and Offenders (4 of 7)
Slow transition of agencies to NIBRS.
National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS).
Dark figure of crime.
Data on crime rates: NCVS.

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1.3. Discuss data sources for female offending and victimization rates.

Data Sources on Women as Victims and Offenders
Slow transition of agencies to NIBRS:
As of October 31, 2020, 43 states were NIBRS certified and 8,742 agencies representing 48.9% of the population are reporting their data to NIBRS.
This is in comparison to more than 18,000 agencies who are eligible to report data to the UCR nationwide.
It is also limited to reported crimes.
While NIBRS was slated to be fully implemented with all agencies reporting to it by January 1, 2021, it is currently unknown as to whether this transition has been completed.
National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS):
Gathers additional data about crimes to help fill in the gap between reported and unreported crime.
It is also known as dark figure of crime.
It represents the largest victimization study conducted in the United States.
National-level victimization data were first collected as part of the Quarterly Household Survey conducted by the Census Bureau.
These efforts later evolved into the National Crime Survey (NCS), which was designed to supplement the data from UCR and provide data on crime from the victims’ perspective.
The NCS was transferred to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, where the bureau began to evaluate the survey instrument and the data collection process.
Following an extensive redesign process, the NCS was renamed the National Crime Victimization Survey in 1991
Dark figure of crime: crimes that are not reported to the police and therefore not represented in official crime statistics, such as the Uniform Crime Reports and the National Incident-Based Reporting System.
The NCVS gathers additional data about crimes committed and gives criminologists a greater understanding of the types of crimes committed and characteristics of the victims.
Based on these survey findings, the Bureau of Justice Statistics make generalizations to the population regarding the prevalence of victimization in the United States.
Data on crime rates: NCVS:
A crime rate compares the number of occurrences of a particular crime to the size of the total population.
The NCVS presents its findings in relation to how many instances of the crime per 1,000 people.
Regardless of changes to the population, crime rates make it easy to understand trends in criminal activity and victimization over time.
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Data Sources on Women as Victims and Offenders (5 of 7)
Victimizations not reported to police.
National Violence Against Women Survey (NVAWS).
National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey (NISVS).

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1.3. Discuss data sources for female offending and victimization rates.

Data Sources on Women as Victims and Offenders
Victimizations not reported to police:
NCVS data also highlights that many victims do not report their victimizations to the police.
With only 40.9% of victims reporting violent crime and 32.5% of victims reporting property crime, the NCVS provides valuable insight about the dark figure of crime that varies by offense.
National Violence Against Women Survey (NVAWS):
A telephone survey of 8,000 men and 8,000 women in the United States (English and Spanish speaking) that was conducted by the Centers for Policy Research to measure the prevalence of violence against women.
It is the first comprehensive data assessment of violence against women for the crimes of intimate partner abuse, stalking, and sexual assault.
National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey (NISVS):
An annual survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention designed to measure the prevalence of intimate partner violence, sexual violence, and stalking.
It is also conducted by the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control.
It reports victimization from a variety of crimes, including sexual assault, intimate partner abuse, and stalking.
These findings are then used to create estimates about the extent of crime throughout the United States.

Data Sources on Women as Victims and Offenders (6 of 7)
Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).
Bundeskriminalamt (BKA) statistics.
UN-CTS.

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1.3. Discuss data sources for female offending and victimization rates.

Data Sources on Women as Victims and Offenders
Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS):
ABS collects data on arrested individuals throughout Australia.
The ABS data cycle runs from July 1 to June 30.
In its 2019-2020 cycle, there were 374,645 individuals aged 10 and older processed by the police for eight different offenses (homicide, assault, sexual assault, robbery, kidnapping, unlawful entry with intent, motor vehicle theft, and other theft).
Bundeskriminalamt (BKA) statistics:
It is produced by Federal Criminal Police Office of Germany.
The Bundeskriminalamt (BKA) statistics include data for all crimes handled by the police.
In 2019, of the 5,436,401 crimes reported to the police, 3,124,161 were considered “cleared” or solved.
Violent crime represents only 3.3% of crime in Germany.
The largest crime category is theft and represents 33.5% of all criminal offenses.
Out of 2,019,211 suspects, only 25% are women.
Men are also more likely to be victims (59.1%).
United Nations Survey of Crime Trends and Operations of Criminal Justice Systems:
UN-CTS compiles crime data from a variety of different sources, including the World Health Organization, Eurostat, and national police organizations from individual countries.
Their data indicate that there were 42,106 global victims of homicide reported to the police in 2017 across 31 countries.
90.6% of victims were men.
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Data Sources on Women as Victims and Offenders (7 of 7)
Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW).
Data sources as part of research.

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1.3. Discuss data sources for female offending and victimization rates.

Data Sources on Women as Victims and Offenders
Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW):
It is administered to a random sample of households and is designed to develop estimates about the rate of crime and victimization in England and Wales.
It first began as part of the British Crime Survey in 1984 and included data from Scotland and Northern Ireland.
The CSEW attempts to shed light on the dark figure of crime by capturing victimizations that may not be reported to the police.
In 2013, the Crime Survey for England and Wales estimated that there were approximately 11.7 million incidents of victimization.
Approximately half of these crimes (5.7 million) were reported to the police.
Data sources as part of research:
These data typically focus on a particular crime within a particular region.
The data can be either quantitative or qualitative (or both) and represent either a snapshot in time or follow a group of individuals over a range of time (longitudinal studies).
While the findings of these studies are often not generalizable to the masses, they provide valuable insight about victimization and offending.

The Contributions of Feminist Methodology to Research on Women, Gender, and Crime (1 of 2)
Criticisms of traditional criminology.
Influence of feminism.
Feminist research methods.
Qualitative nature of feminist methods.

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1.4. Explain the contributions of feminist methodologies for understanding issues about women, gender, and crime.

The Contributions of Feminist Methodology to Research on Women, Gender, and Crime
Criticisms of traditional criminology:
Traditional perspectives on crime fail to recognize the intricate details of what it means to be a woman in society.
The feminist movement has had a significant effect on how we understand women and their relationships with crime.
The methods by which we conduct research on gender have also evolved.
Influence of feminism:
The influence of feminism can alter the ways in which we conduct research, evaluate data, and make conclusions based on the findings yielded from the research experience.
By incorporating a feminist perspective to the research environment, scholars are able to present a deeper understanding of the realities of women’s lives by placing women and women’s issues at the center of the research process.
Feminist research methods:
Process of gathering research that involves placing gender at the center of the conversation, giving women a voice, and changing the relationship between the researcher and the subject to one of care and concern versus objectivity.
From the conceptualization of the research question to a discussion of which methods of data collection will be utilized and how the data will be analyzed, feminist methods engage in practices that are contrary to the traditional research paradigms.
The use of feminist methods requires a paradigm shift from what is traditionally known as research.
Feminist methodology does not dictate that the gender of the research participant or researcher be a woman.
The philosophy of this method refers to the types of data a researcher is seeking and the process by which data are obtained.
Qualitative nature of feminist methods:
They allow for emotions and values to be present as part of the research process.
Some feminist methodologists have criticized the process by which data are often quantified, while others argue that quantitative data have a role to play within a feminist context.
The influence of feminism allows for researchers to collect data from a subject that is theoretically important for their research versus data that are easily categorized.

The Contributions of Feminist Methodology to Research on Women, Gender, and Crime (2 of 2)
Five basic principles.
Study of women in criminal justice system.
Yield of quantitative methods.
Tools applicable in criminological topics.

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1.4. Explain the contributions of feminist methodologies for understanding issues about women, gender, and crime.

The Contributions of Feminist Methodology to Research on Women, Gender, and Crime
Five basic principles:
Acknowledging the influence of gender in society as a whole (and inclusive of the research process);
Challenging the traditional relationship between the researcher and the subject and its link to scientific research and the validity of findings;
Engaging in consciousness raising about the realities of women’s lives as part of the methodological process;
Empowering women within a patriarchal society through their participation in research; and
An awareness by the researcher of the ethical costs of the research process and a need to protect their subjects.
Study of women in criminal justice system:
Feminist methodologies allows researchers to explore the issues that women face as victims and offenders.
It also provides the opportunity for the researchers to delve into their topics.
For example, a simple survey question might inquire about whether an incarcerated woman has ever been victimized.
Traditional methods may underestimate the extent and nature of the victimization because the women may not understand the question or identify their experiences in this way.
Feminist methodologies allow not only for the exploration of these issues at a deeper level, but they also allow for scholars to develop an understanding of the multifaceted effects of these experiences.
Yield of quantitative methods:
Despite large employment of qualitative tactics, the use of feminist methods does not exclude the use of quantitative methods.
Quantitative methods can yield valuable data on the experiences of women such as information on the presence of gender discrimination, such as the sexual harassment among women in policing.
Legislators often make use of quantitative data and statistics when developing policies.
Researchers who study issues of women and crime can benefit from the lessons of feminist methodologies in their use of both quantitative and qualitative methods.
Tools applicable in criminological topics:
Feminist methods are not limited to issues of gender.
By recognizing from the outset, the class, racial, and gendered structures of oppression, this method gives voice to the larger structural processes that shape the unnoticed experiences.
This method provides a framework for building trust with participants who may be unsure about the research process and creates opportunities for understanding individuals and groups.
18

WOMEN, GENDER, AND CRIME

Introduction

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

• Define how sex and gender impact victims, offenders, and workers in the criminal
justice system.

• Identify the influence of feminism on criminology.

• Discuss data sources for female offending and victimization rates.

• Explain the contributions of feminist methodologies for understanding issues about
women, gender, and crime.

Since the creation of the American criminal justice system, the experiences of women either
have been reduced to a cursory glance or have been completely absent. Gendered justice,
or rather injustice, has prevailed in every aspect of the system. The unique experiences of
women have historically been ignored at every turn—for victims, for offenders, and even
for women who have worked within its walls. Indeed, the criminal justice system is a gen-
dered experience.

Yet the participation of women in the system is growing in every realm. Women make
up a majority of the victims for certain types of crimes, particularly when men are the pri-
mary offenders. These gendered experiences of victimization appear in crimes such as rape,
sexual assault, intimate partner abuse, and stalking, to name a few. Although women suffer
in disproportionate ways in these cases, their cries for help have traditionally been ignored by
a system that many in society perceive is designed to help victims. Women’s needs as offend-
ers are also ignored because they face a variety of unique circumstances and experiences that
are absent from the male offending population. Traditional approaches in criminological
theory and practice have been criticized by feminist scholars for their failure to understand
the lives and experiences of women (Belknap, 2007). Likewise, the employment of women
in the criminal justice system has been limited because women were traditionally shut out of
many of these male-dominated occupations. As women began to enter these occupations, they
were faced with a hypermasculine culture that challenged the introduction of women at every
turn. Although the participation of women in these traditionally male-dominated fields has

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2 Women, Gender, and Crime

increased significantly, women continue to struggle for equality in a world where the effects of
the “glass ceiling” pervade a system that presents itself as one interested in the notion of justice
(Martin, 1991).

In setting the context for the book, this chapter begins with a review of the influence of fem-
inism on the study of crime. Following an introduction of how gender impacts victimization,
offending, and employment experiences in the criminal justice system, the chapter presents a
review of the different data sources and statistics within these topics. The chapter concludes
with a discussion on the research methods used to investigate issues of female victimization,
offending, and work in criminal justice–related fields.

THE INFLUENCE OF FEMINISM ON STUDIES
OF WOMEN, GENDER, AND CRIME

As a student, you may wonder what feminism has to do with the topic of women and crime.
Feminism plays a key role in understanding how the criminal justice system responds to women
and women’s issues. In doing so, it is first important that we identify what is meant by the
term woman. Is “woman” a category of sex or gender? Sometimes, these two words are used
interchangeably. However, sex and gender are two different terms. Sex refers to the biological
or physiological characteristics that make someone male or female. Therefore, we might use
the term sex to talk about the segregation of men and women in jails or prison. In comparison,
the term gender refers to the identification of masculine and feminine traits, which are socially
constructed terms. For example, in early theories of criminology, female offenders were often
characterized as masculine, and many of those scholars believed that female offenders were more
like men than women. Although sex and gender are two separate terms, the notions of sex and
gender are interrelated in the study of women and crime. Throughout this book, you will see
examples of how sex and gender both play important roles in the lives of women in the criminal
justice system.

The study of women and crime has seen incredible advances throughout the 20th and 21st
centuries. Many of these changes are a result of the social and political efforts of feminism. The
1960s and 1970s shed light on several significant issues that impacted many different groups in
society, including women. The momentum of social change as represented by the civil rights
and women’s movements had significant impacts for society, and the criminal justice system
was no stranger in these discussions. Here, the second wave of feminism expanded beyond the
focus of the original activists (who were concerned exclusively with women’s suffrage) to top-
ics such as sexuality, legal inequalities, and reproductive rights. It was during this time that
criminology scholars began to think differently about women and offending. Prior to this time,
women were largely forgotten in research about crime and criminal behavior. When they were
mentioned, they were relegated to a brief footnote or discussed in stereotypical and sexist ways.
Given that there were few female criminologists (as well as proportionally few female offenders
compared to the number of male offenders), it is not surprising that women were omitted in this
early research about criminal behavior.

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Chapter 1 • Women, Gender, and Crime 3

Some of the first feminist criminologists gained attention during the 1960s and 1970s.
The majority of these scholars were focused primarily on issues of equality and difference
between men and women in terms of offending and responses by the criminal justice system.
Unfortunately, these liberal feminists focused only on gender and did not include discussions
that reflected a multicultural identity. Such a focus resulted in a narrow view of the women who
were involved in crime and how the system responded to their offending. As Burgess-Proctor
(2006) notes,

By asserting that women universally suffer the effects of patriarchy, the dominance
approach rests on the dubious assumption that all women, by virtue of their shared gen-
der, have a common “experience” in the first place. . . . It assumes that all women are
oppressed by all men in exactly the same ways or that there is one unified experience of
dominance experienced by women. (p. 34)

While second-wave feminism focused on the works by these white liberal feminists,
third-wave feminism addresses the multiple, diverse perspectives of women, such as race, eth-
nicity, nationality, and sexuality. With these new perspectives in hand, feminist criminologists
began to talk in earnest about the nature of the female offender and began to ask questions
about the lives of women involved in the criminal justice system. Who is she? Why does she
engage in crime? And, perhaps most important, how is she different from the male offender, and
how should the criminal justice system respond to her?

As feminist criminologists began to encourage the criminal justice system to think dif-
ferently about female offenders, feminism also encouraged new conversations about female
victimization. The efforts of second- and third-wave feminism brought increased attention
to women who were victims of crime. How do women experience victimization? How does
the system respond to women who have been victims of a crime? How have criminal justice
systems and policies responded to the victimization of women? Indeed, there are many
crimes that are inherently gendered that have historically been ignored by the criminal
justice system.

Feminism also brought a greater participation in the workforce in general, and the field of
criminal justice was no exception. Scholars were faced with questions regarding how gender
impacts the way in which women work within the police department, correctional agencies, and
the legal system. What issues do women face in these occupations? How has the participation of
women in these fields affected the experiences of women who are victims and offenders?

Today, scholars in criminology, criminal justice, and related fields explore these issues in
depth in an attempt to shed light on the population of women in the criminal justice system.
Although significant gains have been made in the field of feminist criminology, scholars within
this realm have suggested that “without the rise of feminisms, scholarly concerns with issues
such as rape, domestic assault, and sex work—let alone recent emphases on intersectionality and
overlapping biases of race, class, sexualities, and gender—would arguably never have happened”
(Chancer, 2016, p. 308). Consider the rise of black feminist criminology, which looks at how the
relationship between race, gender, and other issues of oppression create multiple marginalities
for women of color (Potter, 2015).

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4 Women, Gender, and Crime

SPOTLIGHT ON WOMEN AS CRIMINAL JUSTICE ACADEMICS

Like many other fields, the academy has historically been a male-dominated profession.
Yet the number of women faculty has grown significantly over the past four decades. This
is also true in the academic study of crime and the criminal justice system. Criminal justice
and criminology rank as one of the top 10 disciplines for undergraduate degrees. with more
than 61,000 graduates in 2018–2019 (U.S. Department ot Education, 2020). Although the dis-
ciplines of criminology and criminal justice first emerged in the early 20th century, it wasn’t
until the 1970s that feminist scholars and scholarship began to emerge and make their mark
on the academy.

As a national organization, the American Society of Criminology dates back to 1941. The
founding members of the organization were all male (ASC, n.d.). It was not until 1975 that
the annual conference showcased a panel on women and crime. Even with the growing

PHOTO 1.1 The icon of Lady Justice represents many of the ideal goals of the justice system,
including fairness, justice, and equality.

©iStockphoto.com/PatrickPoendl

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Chapter 1 • Women, Gender, and Crime

interest in female crime and victimization, not to mention an increase in the number of
female scholars, the majority of the association members questioned whether gender was
a valuable variable to study. In response to these challenges, a small group of female schol-
ars combined their efforts to lobby for more panels on the study of women and crime. In
1984, the Division on Women and Crime was instituted as an official branch of the American
Society of Criminology. Today, women are 49% of the members of the organization (Fahmy
& Young, 2017). Although we see nationally that more men complete bachelor degrees in
criminal justice (.90 females for every 1 male), graduate study has seen an increased rep-
resentation of women, with 1.17 women completing a master’s degree, and 1.48 female
Ph.D.s for every 1 male in the field. Unfortunately, this growth has not resulted in increased
diversity in the field: Black Americans make up 14% of master’s degrees in criminal jus-
tice and 7% of doctorates, and Latina/o/x comprise 11% of master’s and only 5% of Ph.Ds
(Updegrove et al., 2018).

Although much of the work of feminist criminology is done by female scholars, there are
also men who investigate issues of gender and crime. At the same time, there are female
scholars whose work does not look at issues of gender. Over the past decade, a body of
work has looked at the productivity of criminologists and, in particular, how female schol-
ars compare to male scholars. Scholarly productivity is a key measure in the decisions to
hire, retain, tenure, and promote faculty. Men publish more than women, but the gender
gap in publishing is reduced when we take into account the length of time in the academy
because the men generally report a longer career history (Snell et al., 2009). Even when
we look at co-authored publications, men are listed as authors in 90% of all mainstream
journal articles in criminology and criminal justice (Eigenberg & Whalley, 2015). Men are
also less likely to serve as a co-author when the lead author is female (Crow & Smykla,
2014). Meanwhile, female academics are much more likely to co-author research with their
male counterparts—90% of women compared to 56.3% of men (Fahmy & Young, 2017).
Research by female authors is also less likely to be cited, and this phenomenon also has
race and ethnicity effects. White men are most likely to have their work cited in subsequent
research (77.1%) compared to white women (12.4%), while both men and women of color
rarely find their research referenced by others (men of color = 1.3%; women of color = 0.7%;
Kim & Hawkins, 2013). Recent social media hashtags such as #citeasista and #womenin-
academia have been used to support women’s scholarship across the academic community
to help shift these trends. Specific journals such as Women and Criminal Justice and Feminist
Criminology have also provided platforms for increased visibility of female authors as well as
scholarship using a feminist framework (Posey et al., 2020).

In addition, we have seen an increase in the number of LGBTQIA+ scholars and scholar-
ship. The subfield of queer criminology stands in opposition to its heteronormative parent
and offers insight on the unique issues that LGBTQIA+ communities face within the criminal
justice and legal systems (Buist & Lenning, 2016). Queer criminology has seen significant
growth over the past two decades and includes research on topics such as same-sex inti-
mate partner violence (Messinger, 2017), queer male experiences with the police (Meyer,
2019), the lives of queer gang members (Panfil, 2017), queer and transgendered youth in the
juvenile justice system (Hunt & Moodie-Mills, 2012), and transgendered women in prison
(Jenness, 2021). In 2021, the Division of Queer Criminology was established within the
American Society of Criminology to support academics in teaching, research, and policy-
making within the field.

Although feminist scholars have made a significant impact on the study of crime over
the past 40 years, there are still several areas where additional progress is needed. Just as
feminist criminology rose out of a fight against the maleness of the discipline, criminology

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6 Women, Gender, and Crime

continues to struggle with its whiteness. Scholars such as Richie (1996), Burgess-Proctor
(2006), Potter (2015), and Ritchie (2018) discuss the need for intersectional scholarship to
examine the relationships between crime and race, ethnicity, gender, and class, not only
to represent diverse voices and experiences but to highlight how systems of oppression
shape the experiences of those who experience both the criminal justice system and the
academy. The emerging subfield of survivor criminology gives voice to the intersectionali-
ties of marginalization, which is not isolated from the experiences of trauma, but rather is
a lived reality that is complex, layered, and nuanced (Cook, Williams, Lamphere, Mallicoat,
& Ackerman, 2022).

WOMEN, GENDER, AND CRIME

How does the criminal justice system respond to issues of gender? Although there have been
significant gains and improvements in the treatment of women as victims, offenders, and
workers in the criminal justice system and related fields, there is still work to be done in each
of these areas.

Women as Victims of Violence
The experience of victimization is something that many women are intimately familiar with.
Men are more likely to be the victim of most crime, but women are the majority of victims of
certain forms of violent crime. In addition, women are most likely to be victimized by someone
they know. In many cases, when they do seek help from the criminal justice system, charges
are not always filed or are often reduced through plea bargains, resulting in offenders receiving
limited (if any) sanctions for their criminal behavior. Because of the sensitive nature of interper-
sonal violence cases, victims can find their own lives put on trial to be criticized by the criminal
justice system and society as a whole. Based on these circumstances, it is no surprise that many
women have had little faith in the criminal justice system. You’ll learn more about the experi-
ence of victimization in Chapter 2.

Women who experience victimization have a number of needs, particularly in cases of vio-
lent and personal victimization experiences. These cases can involve significant physical damage;
however, the emotional violence can be equally, if not more, traumatic for victims to deal with.
Although significant gains have been made by the criminal justice system, the high needs of many
victims, coupled with an increased demand for services, means that resources such as domestic
violence shelters and rape crisis centers are often unavailable. You’ll learn more about the experi-
ence of women in crimes such as rape, sexual assault, intimate partner violence, and stalking in
Chapters 3 and 4, while Chapter 5 highlights issues of victimization of women around the globe.

Women Who Offend
How do female offenders compare to male offenders? When scholars look at the similarities and
differences between the patterns of male and female offending, they are investigating the gender
gap. What does this research tell us? We know that men are the majority of offenders for most

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Chapter 1 • Women, Gender, and Crime 7

of the crime categories, with a few exceptions. Gender gap research tells us that the difference
between male and female offending is larger in cases of serious or violent crimes, while the gap
is narrower for crimes such as property and drug-related offenses (Steffensmeier & Allan, 1996).

Although men are more likely to engage in criminal acts, women offenders dominate
certain categories of criminal behavior. One example of this phenomenon is prostitution,
a so-called victimless crime in which the majority of arrests involve women. Similarly, girls
are overrepresented in status offenses—acts that are considered criminal only because of the
offender’s age. For example, the consumption of alcohol is illegal only if you are under a des-
ignated age (generally 21 in the United States). Chapter 8 highlights different offense types
and how gender is viewed in relation to these offenses. A review of these behaviors and offend-
ers indicates that most female offenders share a common foundation—one of economic need,
addiction, and abuse.

Gender also impacts the way that the criminal justice system responds to offenders. Much
of this attention comes from social expectations about how women “should” behave. When
women engage in crime (particularly violent crimes), this also violates the socially prescribed
gender roles for female behavior. As a result, women in these cases may be punished not only for
violating the law but also for violating the socially prescribed gender roles. In Chapter 9, you’ll
learn more about how women can be treated differently by the criminal justice system as a result
of their gender. As more women have come to the attention of criminal justice officials, and as
policies and practices for handling these cases have shifted, more women are being sent to prison
rather than being supervised in the community. This means that there is a greater demand on
reentry programming and services for women. These collateral consequences in the incarcera-
tion of women are far reaching because the identity as an ex-offender can threaten a woman’s
chances for success long after she has served her sentence.

The Intersection of Victimization and Offending
One of the greatest contributions of feminist criminology is the acknowledgment of the rela-
tionship between victimization and offending. Research has consistently illustrated that a his-
tory of victimization of women is a common factor for many women offenders. Indeed, a review
of the literature finds that an overwhelming majority of women in prison have experienced
some form of abuse—physical, psychological, or sexual—and in many cases, they are victims of
long-term multiple acts of violence. Moreover, not only is there a strong relationship that leads
from victimization to offending, but the relationship between these two variables continues
also as a vicious cycle. For example, a young girl who is sexually abused by a family member
runs away from home. Rather than return to her abusive environment, she ends up selling her
body as a way to obtain food, clothing, and shelter because she has few skills to legitimately
support herself. As a result of her interactions with potentially dangerous clients and pimps, she
continues to endure physical and sexual violence and may turn to substances such as alcohol
and drugs to numb the pain of the abuse. When confronted by the criminal justice system, she
receives little if any assistance to address the multiple issues that she faces as a result of her life
experiences. In addition, her criminal identity now makes it increasingly difficult to find valid
employment, receive housing and food benefits, or have access to educational opportunities that

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8 Women, Gender, and Crime

could improve her situation. Ultimately, she ends up in a world where finding a healthy and sus-
tainable life on her own is a difficult goal to attain. You will learn more about these challenges
in Chapters 10 and 11 and how the criminal justice system punishes women for these crimes.

Women and Work in the Criminal Justice System
Much of the study of women and crime focuses on victimization and offending, but it is impor-
tant to consider how sex and gender impact the work environment, particularly for those who
work in the justice system. Here, the experiences of women as police and correctional officers,
victim advocates, probation and parole case managers, and lawyers and judges provide valuable
insight into how sex and gender differences affect women. Just as the social movements of the
1960s and 1970s increased the attention on female offenders and victims of crime, the access to
opportunities for work within the walls of criminal justice expanded for women. Prior to this
era of social change, few women were granted access to work in these occupations. Even when
women were present, their duties were significantly limited compared to those of their male
counterparts, and their opportunities for advancement were essentially nonexistent. In addi-
tion, these primarily male workforces resented the presence of women in “their” world. Gender
also has a significant effect for fields that are connected to criminal justice. One example of this
is found in the field of victim services, which has typically been viewed as women’s work.

Women continue to face a number of sex- and gender-based challenges directly related to
their status as women, such as on-the-job sexual harassment, work-family balance, maternity,
and motherhood. In addition, research reflects on how women manage the roles, duties, and
responsibilities of their positions in a historically masculine environment. The experience of
womanhood can impact the work environment, both personally and culturally. You’ll learn
more about these issues in Chapters 12 and 13 of this book.

DATA SOURCES ON WOMEN AS VICTIMS AND OFFENDERS

To develop an understanding of how often women engage in offending behaviors or the fre-
quency of victimizations of women, it is important to look at how information about crime is
gathered. Although there is no one dataset that tells us everything that we want to know about
crime, we can learn something from each source because they each represent different points
of view. Datasets vary based on the type of information collected (quantitative and/or qualita-
tive), who manages the dataset (such as government agencies, professional scholars, community
organizations), and the purpose for the data collection. Finally, each dataset represents a picture
of crime for a specific population, region, and time frame or stage of the criminal justice system.

The Uniform Crime Reports (UCR) represents one of the largest datasets on crime in the
United States. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is charged with collecting and publish-
ing the arrest data from more than 17,000 police agencies in the United States. These statistics are
published annually and present the rates and volume of crime by offense type, based on arrests made
by police. The dataset includes a number of demographic variables to evaluate these crime statistics,
including age, gender, race/ethnicity, location (state), and region (metropolitan, suburban, or rural).1

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Chapter 1 • Women, Gender, and Crime 9

UCR data give us a general understanding of the extent of crime in the United States and
are often viewed as the most accurate assessment of crime. In addition, the UCR data allow
us to study how crime changes over time because we can compare arrest data for a variety of
crimes over a specific period (e.g., 2009–2019) or from one year to the next. Generally speak-
ing, it is data from the UCR findings that are typically reported to the greater society through
news media outlets and that form the basis for headlines that proclaim the rising and falling
rates of crime.

A review of arrest data from the UCR indicates that overall arrests of women (including
juveniles) decreased 15.1% between 2010 and 2019. During the same period, the number of
arrests of men declined 23.1%. Such results might lead us to question why the percentage
is larger for men than for women. To understand this issue, we need to take a deeper look.
Figure 1.1 and Table 1.1 illustrate the UCR data on arrest trends for men and women for 2010
and 2019. In 2010, the UCR shows that women made up 25.8% of all arrests (7,595,396 total
number of arrests, with women accounting for 1,962,100 arrests). In contrast, 2019 UCR data
indicate that 6,000,327 arrests were made, and women accounted for 27.8% of these arrests
(1,666,578; Crime in the United States 2019 [CIUS], 2019). Note that the number of arrests
involving women decreased by more than a quarter of a million (295,522), but the total number
of arrests over the decade decreased by more than 1.5 million. This change shows that although

PHOTO 1.2 Most official crime statistics, such as the Uniform Crime Reports, are based on arrest data.

©Thinkstock Images

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10 Women, Gender, and Crime

arrests of both men and women decreased, the male arrests decreased at a greater rate than that
of women between 2010 and 2019.

When assessing trends in crime data, it is important to consider the time period of evalu-
ation because this can alter the results. Both the 10-year and 1-year overall arrest trends dem-
onstrate a decrease for both women and men, yet the percentage changes for men and women
are significantly closer between 2018 and 2019. Figure 1.2 and Table 1.2 demonstrate the arrest
trends for these 2 years. The proportion of arrests involving men fell 3.8%, while the proportion
for women decreased 3.4%, indicating that the proportion of men arrested is similar to that of
women between these 2 years. Although this gives us a picture of overall crime trends, we see the
picture differently when we look at the trends for specific crime categories. Here, a deeper look
at the data shows that violent crime decreased at a similar proportion for both men (1.0%) and
women (0.7%) while property crime declined more for men (4.1%) compared to a 2.4% decline
for women.

Although the UCR data can illustrate important trends in crime, the reporting of UCR data
as the true extent of crime is flawed for the majority of the crime categories (with the exception
of homicide), even though these data represent arrest statistics from approximately 95% of the
U.S. population. Here, it is important to take several issues into consideration. First, the UCR
data represent statistics on only those crimes that are reported to the police. As a result, the
data are dependent on both what police know about criminal activity and how they use their
discretion in these cases. If the police are not a witness to a crime or are not called to deal with
an offender, they cannot make an arrest. Arrests are the key variable for UCR data. This means
that unreported crimes are not recognized in these statistics. Sadly, many of the victimiza-
tion experiences of women, such as intimate partner abuse and sexual assault, are significantly
underreported and therefore do not appear in the UCR data.

5,633,296

4,333,749

1,962,10

1,666,578

1,000,000

2,000,000

3,000,000

4,000,000

5,000,000

6,000,000

7,000,000

9102010

Men Women

N
u

m
b

er
o

f
A

rr
es

FIGURE 1.1 ■ 10-Year UCR Arrest Trends

Source: CIUS (2019).

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Chapter 1 • Women, Gender, and Crime 11

TABLE 1.1 ■ 10-Year UCR Arrest Trends

Men Women

2010

2019

Change 2010 2019
%

Change

All arrests 5,633,296 4,333,749 -23.1 1,962,100 1,666,578 -15.1

Violent crime 258,262 233,368 -9.6 62,202 62,053 -0.2

Homicide 5,320 5,461 +2.7 699 771 +10.3

Rape* 11,862 13,909 – 137 465 –

Robbery 53,345 38,294 -28.2 7,805 7,321 -6.2

Aggravated assault 187,735 175,704 -6.4 53,561 53,496 -0.1

Property crime 606,362 427,740 -29.5 376,437 264,181 -29.8

Burglary 145,7891 81,600 -44.0 28,687 21,690 –

24.4

Larceny-theft 422,355 304,860 -27.8 339,320 229,976 -3

2.2

Motor vehicle theft 32,468 37,001 +14.0 7,241 11,328 +56.4

Arson 5,758 4,279 -25.7 1,189 1,187 -0.2

Source: CIUS (2019, Table 33).

Note: 8,891 agencies reporting; 2019 estimated population 196,355,871; 2010 estimated population 185,356,420.

*The 2010 rape figures are based on the legacy definition, and the 2019 rape figures are aggregate totals based on
both the legacy and revised UCR reporting definition. For this reason, the percentage change is not provided.

Note: Most recent data available at time of publication.

1,000,000

2,000,000

3,000,000

4,000,000

5,000,000

6,000,000

2018

4,729,317 4,548,8

1,778,079 1,718,016

2019

Men Women

N
u

m
b

er
o

f
A

rr
es

FIGURE 1.2 ■ 1-Year UCR Arrest Trends

Source: CIUS (2019).

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12 Women, Gender, and Crime

Second, the UCR collects data only on certain types of crime (versus all forms of crime).
Crime is classified as either Part 1 offenses or Part 2 offenses. Part 1 offenses, known as index
crimes, include eight different offenses: aggravated assault, forcible rape, murder, robbery, arson,
burglary, larceny-theft, and motor vehicle theft. However, these categories may have limited
definitions that fail to capture the true extent of arrests made for these crimes. Consider the
category of rape. Historically, the UCR defined forcible rape as “the carnal knowledge of a
female forcibly and against her will” (CIUS, 2012, para. 1). Although the UCR also collects
data on attempted rape by force or threat of force within this category, the definition failed to
capture the magnitude of sexual assaults, which may not involve female victims or may involve
other sexual acts beyond vaginal penetration. In January 2012, the FBI announced a revised
definition for the crime of rape to include “the penetration, no matter how slight, of the vagina
or anus with any body part or object, or oral penetration by a sex organ of another person,
without the consent of the victim” (FBI, 2012a, para. 1). This new definition went into effect
in January 2013. Not only does the new law allow both males and females to be identified as
victims or offenders but it also allows the UCR to include cases where the victim was unable
or unwilling to consent to sexual activity (e.g., in cases involving intoxication). In addition,

TABLE 1.2 ■ 1-Year UCR Arrest Trends

Men Women

2018 2019
%

Change 2018 2019
%

Change

All arrests 4,729,317 4,548,810 -3.8 1,778,079 1,718,016 -3.4

Violent crime 263,504 260,887 -1.0 69,776 69,312 -0.7

Homicide 6,089 6,125 +0.6 877 817 -6.8

Rape 15,513 15,083 -2.8 430 467 +8.6

Robbery 46,410 44,182 -4.8 8,431 8,206 -2.7

Aggravated
assault

195,492 195,497 0% 60,038 59,822 -0.4

Property
crime

471,286 452,028 -4.1 280,544 273,906 -2.4

Burglary 92,398 86,895 -6.0 23,140 22,796 -1.5

Larceny-theft 329,965 319,015 -3.3 242,836 237,342 -2.3

Motor vehicle
theft

44,183 41,491 -6.1 13,209 12,504 -5.3

Arson 4,740 4,627 -2.4 1,359 1,264 -7.0

Source: CIUS (2019, Table 37).

Note: 9,752 agencies reporting; 2019 estimated population 208,476,526; 2018 estimated population 207,708,086.

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Chapter 1 • Women, Gender, and Crime 13

the new definition removes the requirement of force. As a result of these changes, the category
of rape captures a greater diversity of sexual assaults. This new definition is more in line with
the variety of laws related to rape and sexual assault that exist for each state. With this change
in how these sexual offenses are counted, it is not currently possible to compare data on the
number of these cases prior to 2012. Over time, these changes will help present a more accurate
picture of the prevalence of rape and sexual assault in society.

Third, the reporting of the crimes to the UCR is incomplete because only the most serious
crime is reported in cases where multiple crimes are committed during a single criminal event.
These findings skew the understanding of the prevalence of crime because several different
offenses may occur within the context of a single crime incident. For example, a crime involving
physical battery, rape, and murder is reported to the UCR by the most serious crime, murder. As
a result, the understanding of the prevalence of physical battery and rape is incomplete.

Fourth, the reporting of these data is organized annually, which can alter our understand-
ing of crime as police agencies respond to cases. For example, a homicide that is committed in
one calendar year may not be solved with an arrest and conviction until the following calendar
year. This might initially be read as an “unsolved crime” in the first year but as an arrest in the
subsequent year.

Finally, the participation by agencies in reporting to the UCR has f luctuated over time.
Although there are no federal laws requiring agencies to report their crime data, many states
today have laws that direct law enforcement agencies to comply with UCR data collection.
For example, notice how there were 9,752 agencies that reported data in 2018 and 2019, but
only 8,891 agencies that reported their arrest data in both 2010 and 2019. This means that
the analyzers of crime trends over time need to take into consideration the number of agen-
cies involved in the reporting of crime data. We must also take into account the estimated
population for each year. Failure to do so could result in a f lawed analysis of crime patterns
over time.

These f laws in UCR data can have significant implications for the understanding of
crime data. Most of us get our information about crime from news headlines or other media
reports. These 30-second clips about crime rates do little to explain the intricate nature of
UCR data definitions and collection practices. Indeed, when the UCR was first assigned
to the FBI, early scholars commented, “In light of the somewhat questionable source of the
data, the Department of Justice might do more harm than good by issuing the Reports”
(Robison, 1966, p. 1033).

In an effort to develop a better understanding of the extent of offending, the National
Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) was implemented in 1988. Rather than compile
monthly summary reports on crime data in their jurisdictions, agencies now forward data to
the FBI for every crime incident. The NIBRS catalog involves data on 22 offenses categories
and includes 46 specific crimes known as Group A offenses. Data on 11 lesser offenses (Group B
offenses) are also collected. In addition to an increased diversity in the types of crimes that data
are collected on, the NIBRS abolished the hierarchy rule that was part of the UCR. This means
that cases that involve more than one specific offense will now count all the different offenses
that are reported and not just the most serious event. In addition, NIBRS data are collected on
attempted as well as completed crimes.

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14 Women, Gender, and Crime

Overall, NIBRS allows for a more comprehensive understanding of crime in terms of the
types of crimes that we collect information about and the data that is collected on these offenses.
In 2019, NIBRS data noted that 61.7% of offenders were male and 25.4% were female (gender
was unknown in 12.9% of cases). NIBRS also tells us that half of victims in these crimes were
women (51%). Just half of victims knew the perpetrator(s) but did not have a familial relation-
ship to them (50.4%), and an additional 24.4% of victims were related to the offender (NIBRS,
2020a). Figure 1.3 and Table 1.3 show the NIBRS arrest data for men and women in 2019.
Comparing these two sources of data, we find similar results in the number of arrests for women
and men. Although UCR data shows that women made up 27.8% of all arrests in 2019, NIBRS
data notes that 25.4% of all arrests involved women. Similarities are also noted when we can
compare like-defined categories. For example, women make up 12.4% of all homicide arrests in
the UCR. In NIBRS, they make up 12.2% of arrests. In cases of larceny-theft, UCR data notes
that women are 43% of all arrests. In NIBRS, women are 27.4% of arrests. One explanations for
this discrepancy is that NIBRS collects data on unknown sex (which accounts for 24.6% of all
larceny-theft arrests) whereas the UCR only collects data for males and females.

However, the transition of agencies to the NIBRS has been slow. As of October 31, 2020,
43 states were NIBRS certified and 8,742 agencies representing 48.9% of the population are
reporting their data to NIBRS. This is in comparison to more than 18,000 agencies who are
eligible to report data to the UCR nationwide. Although the NIBRS is an improvement over the
UCR, this system still carries over a fatal flaw from the UCR in that both are limited to reported
crimes. In spite of this, it is hoped that the improvements in official crime data collection will
allow an increased understanding of the extent of female offending patterns. NIBRS was slated
to be fully implemented with all agencies reporting to it by January 1, 2021, but it is currently
not known whether this transition has been completed.

Male Female Unknown

Sex

P
er

ce
n

ta
g

e
o

f
C

ri
m

es
C

o
m

m
it

te
d

61.7

25.4

27.3

23.5

27.3

2.2

24.4

1.1

100

Total Crimes Against
Property

Crimes Against
Persons

Crimes Against
Society

70.4

52.2

71.6

12.9

FIGURE 1.3 ■ NIBRS 2019 Data by Sex

Source: NIBRS (2019).

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Chapter 1 • Women, Gender, and Crime 15

TABLE 1.3 ■ NIBRS 2019 Data by Sex

Offense Category
Total

Offenders1

Sex

Male % Female %
Unknown

Sex %

Total 6,543,257 4,034,643 61.7 1,662,913 25.4 845,701 12.9

Crimes Against
Persons

1,795,462 1,264,513 70.4 490,958 27.3 39,991 2.2

Assault Offenses 1,644,158 1,130,332 68.7 478,332 29.1 35,494 2.2

Homicide Offenses 8,739 6,887 78.8 1,069 12.2 783 9.0

Human Trafficking
Offenses

1,385 1,069 77.2 266 19.2 50 3.6

Kidnapping/
Abduction

26,000 21,195 81.5 4,371 16.8 434 1.7

Sex Offenses 115,180 105,030 91.2 6,920 6.0 3,230 2.8

Crimes Against
Property

3,240,716 1,690,492 52.2 760,669 23.5 789,555 24.4

Arson 11,391 7,026 61.7 1,975 17.3 2,390 21.0

Bribery 636 450 70.8 176 27.7 10 1.6

Burglary/Breaking
& Entering

325,415 174,429 53.6 41,554 12.8 109,432 33.6

Counterfeiting/
Forgery

97,141 52,558 54.1 31,060 32.0 13,523 13.9

Destruction/
Damage/Vandalism

547,245 301,703 55.1 105,435 19.3 140,107 25.6

Embezzlement 25,567 12,610 49.3 12,372 48.4 585 2.3

Extortion/Blackmail 4,088 2,019 49.4 1,119 27.4 950 23.2

Fraud Offenses 308,954 146,127 47.3 89,652 29.0 73,175 23.7

Larceny/Theft
Offenses

1,505,641 723,399 48.0 412,155 27.4 370,087 24.6

Motor Vehicle Theft 201,613 101,267 50.2 31,898 15.8 68,448 34.0

Robbery 138,408 114,245 82.5 16,155 11.7 8,008 5.8

Stolen Property
Offenses

74,617 54,659 73.3 17,118 22.9 2,840 3.8

(Continued)
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16 Women, Gender, and Crime

In contrast to the limitations of the UCR and NIBRS datasets, the National Crime
Victimization Survey (NCVS) represents the largest victimization study conducted in the
United States. National-level victimization data were first collected in 1971–1972 as part of the
Quarterly Household Survey conducted by the Census Bureau. In 1972, these efforts evolved
into the National Crime Survey (NCS), which was designed to supplement the data from
UCR and provide data on crime from the victims’ perspective. The NCS was transferred to the
Bureau of Justice Statistics in 1979, where the bureau began to evaluate the survey instrument
and the data collection process. Following an extensive redesign process, the NCS was renamed
the National Crime Victimization Survey in 1991.

The greatest achievement of the NCVS lies in its attempt to fill the gap between reported
and unreported crime, often described as the dark figure of crime. The NCVS gathers addi-
tional data about crimes committed and gives criminologists a greater understanding of the
types of crimes committed and characteristics of the victims. In 2019, the NCVS interviewed
249,008 individuals aged 12 and older in 155,076 households. Based on these survey findings,
the Bureau of Justice Statistics makes generalizations to the population regarding the preva-
lence of victimization in the United States (Morgan & Turman, 2020).

In addition to reporting the numbers of criminal victimizations, the NCVS presents data on
the rates of crime. You may ask yourself, “What is a crime rate?” A crime rate compares the num-
ber of occurrences of a particular crime to the size of the total population. The NCVS crime rates

Offense Category
Total

Offenders1

Sex

Male % Female %
Unknown

Sex %

Crimes Against
Society

1,507,079 1,079,638 71.6 411,286 27.3 16,155 1.1

Animal Cruelty 9,453 5,173 54.7 3,480 36.8 800 8.5

Drug/Narcotic
Offenses

1,302,614 920,182 70.6 374,602 28.8 7,830 0.6

Gambling Offenses 1,874 1,315 70.2 471 25.1 88 4.7

Pornography/
Obscene Material

19,406 13,768 70.9 4,312 22.2 1,326 6.8

Prostitution
Offenses

13,015 6,015 46.2 6,931 53.3 69 0.5

Weapon Law
Violations

160,717 133,185 82.9 21,490 13.4 6,042 3.8

Source: NIBRS (2019).

1Offenders are counted once for each offense type to which they are connected. Neither the offender data nor the
offense data for the 2,054,435 incidents reported with unknown offenders were used in constructing this table.

TABLE 1.3 ■ NIBRS 2019 Data by Sex (Continued)

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Chapter 1 • Women, Gender, and Crime 17

are the number of instances of crime per 1,000 people. Crime rates make it easy to understand
trends in criminal activity and victimization over time, regardless of changes to the population.

According to the NCVS, the rate of violent victimization of women in 2002 was 30.7 per
1,000 people. By 2015, the crime rate had fallen to 21.1. By 2019, it was 20.8. Table 1.4 high-
lights the rates of crime for 2019 for violent victimization. NCVS data also highlights that many
victims do not report their victimizations to the police. With only 40.9% of victims report-
ing violent crime and 32.5% of victims reporting property crime, the NCVS provides valuable
insight about the dark figure of crime that is missing in official crime statistics. This dark figure
of crime varies by offense. For example, 60.5% of cases of aggravated assault were reported,
but victims reported only 38.4% of simple assault cases. Similar patterns are observed in cases
involving property crimes: 79.5% of motor vehicle thefts were reported, yet other thefts were
only reported 26.8% of the time (Morgan & Truman, 2020).

Just as the UCR/NIBRS is not the only data source on offending, the NCVS is not the
only national-level data source on victimization. A number of different studies investigate vic-
tims of crime and how the justice system responds to their victimization. One example of this
type of survey is the National Violence Against Women Survey (NVAWS). The NVAWS con-
sisted of a random sample of 8,000 women over the age of 18. The NVAWS was first adminis-
tered between November 1995 and May 1996 and represented one of the first comprehensive
data assessments of violence against women for the crimes of intimate partner abuse, stalk-
ing, and sexual assault. Another example is the National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence
Survey (NISVS), which is conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and
the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control. In 2010, the NISVS included data from
16,507 interviews. The NISVS reports victimization from a variety of crimes, including sexual
assault, intimate partner abuse, and stalking. These findings are then used to create estimates
about the extent of crime throughout the United States. Figure 1.4 highlights the lifetime preva-
lence of rape by race and ethnicity based on data from the NISVS. These results demonstrate
that about 1 in 5 white (18.8%) and Black (22%) women and 1 in 7 (14.6%) Hispanic women
in the United States have been raped at some point in their lifetime. By breaking up these data

TABLE 1.4 ■ NCVS Crime Rates by Sex: 2019

Violent victimization
rate*

Violent victimizations
reported to police rate

Total 21.0 8.6

Sex:

Male 21.2 7.5

Female 20.8 9.6

Source: Morgan & Truman (2020).

*Includes rape or sexual assault, robbery, aggravated assault, and simple assault. Includes threatened, attempted
and completed events. Rates are per 1,000 persons age 12 and older.

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18 Women, Gender, and Crime

based on race and ethnicity, we can highlight how the risk of rape is even greater among the
American Indian/Alaska Native population, where more than 1 in 4 (26.9%) women experi-
ence rape in their lifetime. Unfortunately, we do not know much about how race and ethnicity
impact rates of male rape from these data, only to say that fewer than 1 in 50 (2%) white men
are impacted by the crime of rape in their lifetime (Black et al., 2011). Figure 1.5 presents the
findings from this study for the crime of sexual assault. Here, we can see that not only are these
crimes much more prevalent but also there are differences for both men and women by race/eth-
nicity. Studies such as these provide valuable data for understanding the experiences of victims
(both men and women) that may not be reflected by the NCVS or UCR data.

Other countries also collect data that shed light on the nature of crime and victimiza-
tion. The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) collects data on arrested individuals throughout
Australia. Unlike the UCR, which collects data on a calendar year basis, the ABS data cycle
runs from July 1 to June 30. In its 2019–2020 cycle, there were 374,645 individuals aged 10 and
older processed by the police for eight different offenses (homicide, assault, sexual assault, rob-
bery, kidnapping, unlawful entry with intent, motor vehicle theft, and other theft; Australian
Bureau of Statistics, 2021). Another example of an official source of crime statistics is the annual
report produced by the Bundeskriminalamt (Federal Criminal Police Office of Germany). The
Bundeskriminalamt (BKA) statistics include data for all crimes handled by the police. In 2019,
of the 5,436,401 crimes reported to the police, 3,124,161 were considered “cleared” or solved.
Violent crime represents only 3.3% of crime in Germany. The largest crime category is theft and
represents 33.5% of all criminal offenses. Men are much more likely to be considered a suspect
by the police in these criminal activities—out of 2,019,211 suspects, only 25% are women. Men
are also more likely to be victims (59.1%; BKA, 2019). Australia’s and Germany’s crime statisti-
cal agencies are just two examples of official foreign data sources on criminal offending at the
country level. Because of the differences in laws and reporting practices, it is difficult to com-
pare such statistics at a global level. However, there have been attempts to collect basic informa-
tion on recorded crime across several jurisdictions. The United Nations Survey of Crime Trends
and Operations of Criminal Justice Systems (UN-CTS) compiles crime data from a variety
of different sources, including the World Health Organization, Eurostat, and national police
organizations from individual countries (to name a few). Their data indicate that there were
42,106 global victims of homicide reported to the police in 2017 across 31 countries, and 90.6%
of victims were male (UNODC, 2021).

Similar to the NCVS, the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) is administered
to a random sample of households and is designed to develop estimates about the rate of crime
and victimization in England and Wales. The CSEW began as part of the British Crime Survey
in 1984 and included data from Scotland and Northern Ireland. Today, those jurisdictions
carry out their own victimization surveys though the design and intent of their data collec-
tions are similar. With the most recent data capturing January to December 2021, it is the
only national-level survey currently available that collected data during the COVID-19 pan-
demic. Like the NCVS, the CSEW attempts to shed light on the dark figure of crime by cap-
turing victimizations that may not be reported to the police. In 2021, the CSEW estimated
that there were approximately 12.8 million incidents of victimization. Approximately half of

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Chapter 1 • Women, Gender, and Crime 19

these crimes (6 million) were reported to the police. Although many categories of crime saw
decreases during periods of lockdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic, offenses such as fraud and
cybercrimes increased significantly. In addition, crimes of violence and sexual offenses exceeded
pre-pandemic levels during the latter half of 2021 (Office for National Statistics, 2022).

Finally, there are sources that collect data as part of criminological research. These data typ-
ically focus on a particular crime within a particular region. The data can be either quantitative

15 15

22
19

0
Hispanic Asian/

Pacific
Islander

American
Indian/
Alaska
Native

Multiracial

Women Men

WhiteBlack

FIGURE 1.4 ■ National Intimate Partner and Sexual
Violence Survey: Lifetime Prevalence of Rape of Men and
Women by Race/Ethnicity

Source: Black et al. (2011).

Hispanic Black Asian/
Pacific
Islander

hitW e American
Indian/
Alaska
Native

Multiracial

Women Men

36
40

47 49

23
29

16
2021

FIGURE 1.5 ■ National Intimate Partner and Sexual
Violence Survey: Lifetime Prevalence of Sexual Assault of
Men and Women by Race/Ethnicity

Source: Black et al. (2011).

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20 Women, Gender, and Crime

or qualitative (or both) and represent either a snapshot in time or follow a group of individuals
over a range of time (longitudinal studies). Although the findings of these studies are often not
generalizable to the masses, they provide valuable insight about victimization and offending.
Throughout this text, you’ll be exposed to a number of these studies, in the chapters and in the
highlighted readings.

In summary, official crime statistics offer only one perspective on the extent of crime in
society. Although the UCR and NCVS data and other international data sources provide a
wealth of statistics about crime, their results are limited. Using these official data programs,
combined with self-report studies and victimization surveys, scholars can investigate issues of
gender and crime in a variety of different ways. Each source of data has its strengths and weak-
nesses in terms of the types of data that are collected and the methods that are utilized, but
together they provide a wealth of information that is invaluable in understanding the complex
nature of gender and crime.

THE CONTRIBUTIONS OF FEMINIST METHODOLOGY
TO RESEARCH ON WOMEN, GENDER, AND CRIME

One of the criticisms of mainstream criminology (and a central theme of feminist criminol-
ogy) is that traditional perspectives on crime fail to recognize the intricate details of what it
means to be a woman in society. The feminist movement has had a significant effect on how
we understand women and their relationships with crime. As a result, the methods by which we
conduct research on gender have also evolved. Many scholars who do research on gender engage
in quantitative methods of research and analysis, yet this is not the only approach, particularly
when dealing with sensitive issues. Here, the influence of feminism can alter the ways in which
we conduct research, evaluate data, and draw conclusions based on the findings yielded from
the research experience. By incorporating a feminist perspective in the research environment,
scholars are able to present a deeper understanding of the realities of women’s lives by placing
women and women’s issues at the center of the research process.

The concept of giving women a voice, particularly in situations where they have been histor-
ically silenced, is a strong influence on feminist research methods. Many of the research studies
in this book draw on feminist research methods. From the conceptualization of the research
question to a discussion of which methods of data collection will be utilized and how the data
will be analyzed, feminist methods engage in practices that are contrary to the traditional
research paradigms. The scientific method focuses on objectivity and the collection of data is
detached from the human condition, while feminist methods require a paradigm shift from
what is traditionally known as research. Although many of the researchers who first engaged in
research through a feminist lens were women, feminist methodology does not dictate that the
gender of the research participant or researcher be female. Rather, the philosophy of this method
refers to the types of data a researcher is seeking and the process by which data are obtained
(Westervelt & Cook, 2007). Feminist methods are largely qualitative and allow emotions and
values to be present as part of the research process. Although some feminist methodologists have
criticized the process by which data are often quantified because it does not enable the intricate

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Chapter 1 • Women, Gender, and Crime 21

nature and quality of women’s lives to be easily documented, others argue that quantitative data
have a role to play within a feminist context. Regardless of the approach, the influence of femi-
nism allows researchers to collect data from a subject that is theoretically important for their
research versus data that are easily categorized (Hessy-Biber, 2004; Reinharz, 1992).

There is no single method of research that is identified as the feminist method. Rather, the
concept of feminist methodology refers to the process by which data are gathered and the relationship
between the researcher and the subject. This process involves five basic principles: (1) acknowledging
the influence of gender in society as a whole (and inclusive of the research process); (2) challeng-
ing the traditional relationship between the researcher and the subject and its link to scientific
research and the validity of findings; (3) engaging in consciousness raising about the realities of
women’s lives as part of the methodological process; (4) empowering women within a patriarchal
society through their participation in research; and (5) an awareness by the researcher of the ethi-
cal costs of the research process and a need to protect their subjects (Cook & Fonow, 1986).

For many researchers who study women in the criminal justice system, the use of feminist
methodologies is particularly beneficial. Not only does it allow researchers to explore in depth
the issues that women face as victims and offenders, but it also provides the opportunity for the
researchers to delve into their topics in a way that traditional methods fail to explore, such as the
context of women’s lives and their experiences in offending and victimization. For example, a
simple survey question might inquire whether an incarcerated woman has ever been victimized.
We know that scholarship on incarcerated women has consistently documented the relationship
between early life victimizations and participation in crime in their adolescent and adult lives.
Yet traditional methods may underestimate the extent and nature of the victimization because
the women may not understand the question or identify their experiences in this way. Feminist
methodologies allow the exploration of these issues at a deeper level, and also they allow scholars
to develop an understanding of the multifaceted effects of these experiences.

Although many feminist researchers mainly employ qualitative tactics, it is important to note
that the use of feminist methods does not exclude the use of quantitative methods. In fact, quan-
titative methods can yield valuable data on the experiences of women (Westmarland, 2001). For
example, survey data can yield information on gender discrimination, such as the sexual harass-
ment of women in policing. In addition, quantitative data and statistics are often useful for legisla-
tors when developing policies. Reinharz (1992) provides the example of the use of statistics in the
development of sexual harassment policies whereby quantitative data “encouraged the establish-
ment of sexual harassment committees in universities and . . . eventually provided legal redress for
individuals” (p. 80). Indeed, researchers who study issues of women and crime can benefit from
the lessons of feminist methodologies in their use of both quantitative and qualitative methods.

Finally, feminist methods are not limited to issues of gender. Rather, feminist methodolo-
gies employ tools that are applicable across criminological topics. By recognizing from the out-
set the class, racial, and gendered structures of oppression that may be at work in women’s lives,
this method gives voice to the larger structural processes that shape the experiences that often go
unseen and unheard by others. Thus, this method provides a framework for building trust with
those participants who may be unsure about the research process and creates opportunities for
understanding individuals and groups who may very well be inaccessible when approached in
any other way (Westervelt & Cook, 2007, p. 35).

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22 Women, Gender, and Crime

CONCLUSION

The feminist movement has had a significant effect on the experience of women in the
criminal justice system—from victims to offenders to workers. Today, the efforts of the
pioneers of feminist criminology have led to an increased understanding of what leads a
woman to engage in crime and the effects of her life experiences on her offending patterns,
as well as the challenges in her return to the community. In addition, the victim experience
has changed for many women in that their voices are beginning to be heard by a system
that either blamed them for their victimization or ignored them entirely in years past. The
feminist movement has also shed light on what it means to be a woman working within the
criminal justice system and the challenges that she faces every day as a woman in this field.
Although women have experienced significant progress over the last century, there are still
many challenges that they continue to face as offenders, victims, and workers within the
world of criminal justice.

SUMMARY

• The terms sex and gender are often used interchangeably, but they have different implications
for research on women and crime.

• Women are significantly more likely to be victimized by someone they know and are
overrepresented in crimes such as sexual assault and intimate partner violence.

• Feminist criminologists have identified a significant link between victimization and
offending.

• Many criminal justice occupations are male dominated and reflect gendered assumptions
about women and work within these realms.

• Data from the Uniform Crime Reports (UCR) and National Incident-Based Reporting
System (NIBRS) often fail to identify much of female victimization because crimes of rape,
sexual assault, and intimate partner abuse go largely underreported.

• Victimization studies, such as the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS), help
illuminate the dark figure of crime by collecting data on crimes that are not reported to
police.

• Self-report studies, such as the National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey
(NISVS), provide estimates of the prevalence of rape, sexual assault, intimate partner
abuse, and stalking in the United States.

• Feminist research methods give women a voice in the research process and influence how
data on gender are collected.Do n
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Chapter 1 • Women, Gender, and Crime 23

KEY TERMS

Dark figure of crime (p. 16)
Feminism (p. 2)
Feminist criminology (p. 3)
Feminist research methods (p. 20)
Gender gap (p. 7)
Gendered justice (p. 1)
National Crime Victimization Survey

(NCVS) (p. 16)

National Incident-Based Reporting System
(NIBRS) (p. 13)

National Intimate Partner and Sexual
Violence Survey (NISVS) (p. 17)

National Violence Against Women Survey
(NVAWS) (p. 17)

Uniform Crime Reports (UCR) (p. 8)

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1. What impact has feminism had on the study of women and crime?

2. Discuss how the Uniform Crime Reports (UCR) and the National Incident-Based
Reporting System (NIBRS) represent the measure of female offending and victimization
in society.

3. How do datasets such as the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS), the National
Violence Against Women Survey (NVAWS), and National Intimate Partner and Sexual
Violence Survey (NISVS) investigate issues of violence against women?

4. How do feminist research methods inform studies on women and crime?

CHAPTER ACTIVITIES

1. Have students conduct a visual presentation of women in the criminal justice system
from both the historical and contemporary viewpoints using photographs or other visual
media. The groups should discuss their selections as well as explain the implications of
how women are portrayed in these roles.

2. Have students reflect on the influences of feminism in the study of female crime. To do
so, instructors might ask: What contributions have feminists made, both theoretical and
applied? What impact have the contributions of feminism had on criminology?

3. Have students locate an empirical research article in a journal such as Feminist
Criminology or Gender and Society on female offenders or female victims. Students can
summarize their article and present the major findings in class. Alternatively, have
students locate a journal abstract on a topic that addresses female offenders or female
victims and share the abstract in class. This will help the class hear a variety of topics but Do n
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24 Women, Gender, and Crime

will take less class time and will require less of the students, who may not yet be ready to
read a research article.

4. Have students work in groups to develop a list of challenges researchers face when
attempting to study female offenders and female victims. Students can work together to
make a list of 5–10 ways to overcome these challenges.

5. Have students visit the National Institute of Corrections website or the Bureau of Justice
Statistics website and find a published report on female offenders. Students should prepare
a list of three major findings and share these findings in class.

WEB RESOURCES

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: http://www.cdc.gov

Crime in the United States 2019: https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2019/crime-in-the-u.s.-2019

National Crime Victimization Survey: https://www.icpsr.umich.edu/web/pages/NACJD/NCVS/index.
html

National Incident-Based Reporting System: https://ucr.fbi.gov/nibrs/2019

Uniform Crime Reports: http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/ucr

United Nations Survey of Crime Trends and Operations of Criminal Justice Systems: https://www.unodc
.org/unodc/en/data-and-analysis/statistics/data.html

NOTES

1. Up-to-date statistical reports on crime data from the Uniform Crime Reports can be accessed
at http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/ucr.htm

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2 THEORIES OF VICTIMIZATION

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

• Discuss the role of victims in the criminal justice system.

• Identify the rights that victims have in the criminal justice process.

• Assess the impact of victim blaming on reporting rates and help-seeking behaviors.

• Explain how gender contributes to the fear of victimization.

• Discuss the different theories on victimization.

This chapter is divided into three topics. The chapter begins with a review of the victim experi-
ence in the criminal justice system, highlighting the experience of help seeking by victims and
the practice of victim blaming. The chapter then turns to a discussion of victimization and
focuses on how fear about victimization is a gendered experience. The chapter concludes with
a discussion of theories that seek to understand the victim experience and place it within the
larger context of the criminal justice system and society in general.

VICTIMS AND THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM

Why do victims seek out the criminal justice system? Do they desire justice? What does jus-
tice mean for victims of crime? Is it retribution? Reparation? Something else? Victims play an
important role in the criminal justice process—indeed, without a victim who is willing to give
evidence, many cases would fail to progress through the system at all. However, many victims
who seek out the criminal justice system for support following their victimization are often sadly
disappointed in their experiences. In many cases, human victims of crime are reduced to a tool
of the justice system or a piece of evidence in a criminal case. As a result, many of these victims
express frustration over a system that seems to do little to represent their needs and concerns; vic-
tims can even be further traumatized based on their experiences with the criminal justice system.

As a result of increased pressure to support the needs of victims, many prosecutors’ offices
established victim-assistance programs during the mid-1970s to provide support to victims
as their cases moved through the criminal justice process. In some jurisdictions, nonprofit

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Copyright ©2023 by Sage.
This work may not be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means without express written permission of the publisher.

26 Women, Gender, and Crime

domestic violence and rape crisis agencies also began to provide support for victims during this
time (Perona et al., 2006; U.S. Department of Justice, 1998). Community agencies such as rape
crisis centers developed in response to the perceived need for sexual assault prevention efforts, a
desire for increased community awareness, and a wish to ameliorate the pain that the victims of
crime often experience (Parsons & Bergin, 2010).

In response to a backlash against the rights of criminal defendants as guaranteed by the U.S.
Constitution, citizens and legislatures increased their efforts to establish rights for victims in the
criminal justice process, and several federal laws were passed. These laws increase the voice of
victims throughout the process, ensure training for officials who deal with victims, and provide
funding for therapeutic resources for victims. Some of these focus on victims of a specific crime.
For example, the Violence Against Women Act provides support for criminal justice researchers
studying issues related to intimate partner violence. You’ll learn more about this important leg-
islation in Chapter 3. Other federal legislation provides protections for all crime victims, such as
the Crime Victims’ Rights Act of 2004. Although attempts to pass an amendment to the U.S.
Constitution on victims’ rights have been unsuccessful, each of the 50 states includes references
to the rights of victims in criminal cases. Table 2.1 illustrates some of the core rights of victims
that are included in many state laws and constitutions.

Much of what we know about victims comes from official crime datasets or research studies
on samples of victimized populations. A comparison between official crime data (arrest rates)
and victimization data indicates that many victims do not report their crime to law enforce-
ment, which affects society’s understanding regarding the realities of crime. According to the
Bureau of Justice’s National Crime Victimization Survey, only about half of all victims surveyed
reported their victimization to law enforcement (Hart & Rennison, 2003). Victims of serious
violent crime are generally more likely to report these crimes compared to property offenses.
Robbery was the crime most likely to be reported (66%), followed by aggravated assault (57%).
Women are generally more likely to report crimes to law enforcement than men; however,
cases of personal violence are significantly underreported among female victims (Patterson &
Campbell, 2010). For example, the NCVS indicates that only 42% of rapes and sexual assaults
are reported, and the Chicago Women’s Health Risk Study showed that only 43% of women
who experience violent acts from a current or former intimate partner contacted the police
(Davies et al., 2007). Certainly, the relationship between the victim and offender is a strong
predictor in reporting rates because women who are victimized by someone known to them are
less likely to report than women who are victimized by a stranger (Resnick et al., 2000).

There are many reasons why victims might choose not to report their victimization to the
police. Some victims feel embarrassed by the crime. Still others may decide not to report a crime
to the police out of the belief that nothing could be done. In many cases, people do not report
their crime because they believe that the crime was not serious enough to make a big deal over it,
while others believe it is a personal matter.

However, a failure to report does not mean that victims do not seek out assistance for issues
related to their victimization experience. Several studies on sexual assault and intimate partner
violence indicate that victims often seek help from personal resources outside of law enforce-
ment, such as family and friends, and many seek assistance through formal mental health ser-
vices following a victimization experience (Kaukinen, 2004). Although many victims may be

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Chapter 2 • Theories of Victimization 27

reluctant to engage in formal help seeking, research suggests that victims who receive positive
support from informal social networks, such as friends and family, are subsequently more likely
to seek out formal services, such as law enforcement and therapeutic resources. In these cases,
informal networks act as a support system for seeking professional help and for making an offi-
cial crime report (Davies et al., 2007; Starzynski et al., 2007).

TABLE 2.1 ■ Core Rights of Victims

The core rights for victims of crime include

• the right to attend criminal justice proceedings;

• the right to apply for compensation;

• the right to be heard and participate in criminal justice proceedings;

• the right to be informed of proceedings and events in the criminal justice process, of legal rights and
remedies, and of available services;

• the right to protection from intimidation and harassment;

• the right to restitution from the offender;

• the right to prompt return of personal property seized as evidence;

• the right to a speedy trial; and

• the right to enforcement of these rights.

Source: VictimLaw (n.d.).

PHOTO 2.1 Much of the victimization that women experience involves offenders known to them. In many cases,
their relationship with an offender leads many victims to not report the crime to the police.

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28 Women, Gender, and Crime

The literature on barriers to help seeking indicates that fears of retaliation can affect a vic-
tim’s decision to make a report to the police. This is particularly true for victims of intimate
partner violence where research indicates that violence can indeed increase following police
intervention (Dugan et al., 2003). The presence of children in domestic violence situations also
affects reporting rates as many victims may incorrectly believe that they will lose their children
as a result of intervention from social service agents.

SPOTLIGHT ON VICTIM RIGHTS IN MEXICO

Although there are laws protecting crime victims for each U.S. state and at the federal level,
such is not the case in many other regions of the world. Victimization is often a stigmatizing
experience, leading many crime victims to suffer in silence. This is further compounded by
the fact that in many countries, crime victims do not have any legal rights and agencies to
support the needs of victims are limited.

Consider the hundreds, if not thousands, of victims of femicide in the Mexican state of
Chihuahua, near the U.S. border. Since the mid-1990s, young women have been murdered in
and around these border towns, which have become synonymous with high levels of violence
and narcotics trafficking. Their bodies are discovered days, weeks, and months following
their disappearance and are typically abandoned in vacant lots in Ciudad Juárez and the sur-
rounding areas; some women are never found. Many of these cases involve significant acts
of sexual torture, including rape and the slashing of the breasts and genitals of the female
victims (Newton, 2003). Many of these women had traveled to these border towns from their
villages in search of work in the maquiladoras— factories that assemble or manufacture
products, which are then returned to the United States duty free under the North American
Free Trade Agreement.

In describing the murders of these women, several commentaries have pointed to a
clash between the traditional roles for women, a machista (chauvinistic) culture, and the
rise of women’s independence as an explanation for the violence. According to a 2003 report
by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), the crimes against women in
Ciudad Juárez have received international attention because of the extreme levels of vio-
lence in the murders and the belief that these killings may have been the result of a serial
killer. However, their research indicates that these cases of femicide are not the result of a
single serial killer but are part of a larger social issue related to a pattern of gender-based
discrimination where the violence against women is not considered to be a serious issue.
Given the relationship with gender in these cases, any official response to address these
crimes must consider the larger social context of crimes against women and the accessibil-
ity of justice for women in these cases.

Although the Mexican government created a victims’ services fund designed to provide
monetary compensation to the families of the women and girls who have been murdered in
Juárez, the program is poorly organized, and few families have been able to access the funds
(Calderon Gamboa, 2007). Meanwhile, nonprofit organizations such as Justicia para Nuestras
Hijas (Justice for Our Daughters) work to combat the myths and victim blaming surrounding
these cases through public education. They also provide legal assistance and therapeutic
support services for victims of crime. The organization also works to document these cases
of femicide and lobby the government for support and legal change (Villagran, n.d).

The grassroots movement for victims in Mexico has continued to grow. Although groups
are united in an effort to end violence in their communities, provide support for victims, and

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Chapter 2 • Theories of Victimization 29

call attention to a failing justice system, there are significant debates within these efforts
on how to accomplish these goals. In January 2013, the Mexican government passed the
General Law of Victims. However, the law was heavily criticized and many groups did not feel
that the law went far enough to meet the needs of victims. The law was first revised in May
2013 and incorporated a number of provisions for victims, including a national registry of vic-
tims, a governmental victim services agency, and a victim assistance fund (Villagran, n.d.).
At the same time, the judicial system was working through several reforms to their process.
In 2017, Mexico’s Congress passed the General Law on Disappearances, which establishes a
National Search System (Sistema Nacional de Búsqueda) as well as a Commission to support
the efforts to search for missing individuals (WOLA, 2017). In the words of Ernesto Canales,
the cofounder of RENACE, “what is needed is an integral reform of the system . . . we cannot
think that by augmenting the rights of victims and leaving the current system in place we’ll
be protecting [victims]” (Villagran, n.d., p. 138). Although progress has been made in these
areas, there is still significant work to be done.

Victim Blaming
Reporting practices and help-seeking behaviors by victims are also influenced by the potential
for victim blaming. Victim blaming occurs when the responsibility for the crime is shifted to
the victim.

Why do we blame the victim? The process of victim blaming is linked to a belief in a just
world. The concept of a just world posits that people deserve whatever comes to them—bad
things happen to bad people, and good things happen to good people (Lerner, 1980). Under
these assumptions, if a bad thing happens to someone, then that person must be at fault because
of who he or she is and what he or she does. A just world outlook gives a sense of peace to many
individuals. Imagining a world where crime victims must have done something foolish, danger-
ous, or careless allows members of society to distinguish themselves from this identity of victim-
hood—”I would never do that, so therefore I must be safe from harm”—and allows individuals
to shield themselves from feelings of vulnerability and powerlessness when it comes to potential
acts of violence. There are several negative consequences stemming from this condition: (1)
Victim blaming assumes that people are able to change the environment in which they live, (2)
victim blaming assumes that only “innocent” victims are true victims, and (3) victim blaming
creates a false sense of security about the risks of crime.

Given the nature of victimization patterns in society, few meet the criteria of a culturally
ideal victim. For example, the battered woman is asked, “Why do you stay?”; the rape victim is
asked, “What were you wearing?”; the assault victim is asked, “Why didn’t you fight back?”; the
burglary victim is asked, “Why didn’t you lock the door?”; and the woman who puts herself in
harm’s way is asked, “What were you thinking?” Each of these scenarios shifts the blame away
from the perpetrator and assigns responsibility to the victim. Victim blaming enables people to
make sense of the victimization. In many cases, the process of victim blaming allows people to
separate themselves from those who have been victimized—”I would never have put myself in
that situation”—and this belief allows people to feel safe in the world.

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30 Women, Gender, and Crime

What are the implications of the just world hypothesis in the criminal justice system?
Consider the crime of sexual assault. Under the just world hypothesis, victim blaming occurs
in subtle ways in typical cases and may be more obvious in high-profile cases. For example, in
the case against Bill Cosby, 60 women came forward to allege that he had sexually assaulted
them throughout his career. During his trial (which focused on the cases of two women: Andrea
Constand and Kelly Johnson), Cosby’s defense team consistently tried to undermine the allega-
tions by attacking the character of the women (Heldman, 2017). Similarly, Chanel Miller, who
was sexually assaulted at Stanford University, was criticized for attending an off-campus party
and for drinking. In articles about the case, online comments included “What was a college
grad doing at a frat?” and “Why would any woman get so drunk? I have never allowed myself
to get so drunk that I don’t know what I am doing” (Miller, 2019, pp. 37, 46). Under the just
world hypothesis, the victim begins to assume responsibility for the alleged assault in the eyes
of the public. This can impact future reporting trends because victims may be less likely to
report their victimizations after observing what happened in these cases. A belief in the just
world hypothesis also leads to an increased support of rape myths, which are statements about
the causes of rape that are generally untrue or false, but that assign blame to the victim, rather
than hold the offender accountable. For example, in one study, college males who viewed news-
paper articles in support of myths about rape were less likely to view nonconsensual sexual acts
as criminal compared to females in general or males who read neutral news accounts of sexual
assault (Franiuk et al., 2008).

Given that women tend to be disproportionately represented in many forms of victimization
such as rape, sexual assault, and intimate partner violence, victim blaming can be disproportion-
ately gendered and directed toward women (Eigenberg & Garland, 2008). Research on victim
blaming finds that men are more likely to blame female victims in cases of rape and sexual assault
(Kohsin Wang & Rowley, 2007). Victim blaming is also more prevalent among older individ-
uals and those with lower levels of education or lower socioeconomic status (Gracia & Tomas,
2014). Victim characteristics can impact how much blame is attributed to the victim. For example,
victims who violate traditional gender roles or who are intoxicated are more likely to experience
victim blaming (Grubb & Turner, 2012). Attributions of responsibility are often levied against
victims who do not physically fight back against their attacker (Spears & Spohn, 1996).

Racial and ethnic differences also impact the public blaming of victims. Although women
of color are more likely to be victims of violent crimes, media accounts are more likely to focus
on white victims of crime. When their cases are noted by the press, women of color are more
likely to be portrayed negatively. They are more likely to be blamed for their victimization based
on where they lived, what activities they engaged in, and who they spent time with. Meanwhile,
cases involving white women were more likely to focus on the sensationalism of stranger danger
and their tragic victimization (Slakoff & Brennan, 2017).

Victim blaming has also been linked to the low reporting rates of crime. Here, victims
reach out to law enforcement, community agencies, and family or peer networks in search of
support and assistance and are often met with blame and refusals to help. These experiences
have a negative effect on the recovery of crime victims. The media can also perpetuate victim
blaming, particularly in cases involving celebrities. For example, reporting on the alleged sexual
assault by Kobe Bryant in 2003, the media used the term accuser, whereas accounts of sexual

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Chapter 2 • Theories of Victimization 31

assault generally use the term victim (Franiuk et al., 2008). Another example is the high-profile
assault of Janay Rice by her husband, Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice. In September
2014, a video of Mrs. Rice surfaced in which she was beaten unconscious by Mr. Rice. The
NFL initially suspended Rice for two games for his behavior and the Ravens later terminated
his contract. In addition to articles expressing outrage over the incident, there were also several
articles that questioned what Janay did to provoke her then-fiancé (now husband). Still oth-
ers asserted that Ray Rice may also be a victim. At a press conference on the incident, Janay
stated that she regretted “the role that she played in that night” (Weymouth, 2014; Giris, 2014;
Marcotte, 2014). In addition to the effects victim blaming has on the specific individuals, such
high-profile cases can also impact reporting rates. “I talked to specific survivors [of sexual
assault] that said, ‘I don’t want to report this because I saw what happened in the Kobe Bryant
case’” (Lopez, 2007, para. 8).

Victim blaming is not limited to high-profile cases that make news headlines. Victims
are often blamed by those closest to them, such as friends and family, who suggest that the
victim “should have known better.” Victim blaming can even be internalized when victims
engage in self-doubt and feel shame for allowing themselves to become a victim (Kohsuro Wang
& Rowley, 2007). Victim blaming can also inhibit how victims recover from their trauma
(Campbell et al., 2001).

The concept of secondary victimization refers to victims of crime feeling re-traumatized
by the official criminal justice system response to their victimization. Even when cases progress
beyond the investigation stage, few have charges filed by prosecutors, and only rarely is a convic-
tion secured. Indeed, the “ideal” case for the criminal justice system is one that represents ste-
reotypical notions of what rape looks like rather than the realities of this crime. The practice of
victim blaming through rape myth acceptance is an example of secondary victimization. Given
the nature of the criminal justice process, the acceptance of rape myths by jurors can ultimately
affect their decision-making process. Police and related justice professionals may also be guilty
of victim blaming in cases of intimate partner violence, particularly when the victim returns to
her abuser (DeJong et al., 2008). The experience of secondary victimization can have significant
consequences for reporting; many victims have indicated they would not have reported the
crime if they had known what was in store for them (Logan et al., 2005).

FEAR OF VICTIMIZATION

The majority of Americans have limited direct experience with the criminal justice system.
Most are left with images of crime that are generated by the portrayal of victims and offenders
in mass media outlets (Dowler, 2003). These images present a distorted view of the criminal
justice system, given the media’s policy that “if it bleeds, it leads.” This results in the exag-
geration of the amount of violent crime in society (Maguire, 1988; Potter & Kappeler, 2006;
Surette, 2003). Research indicates that as individuals increase their consumption of local and
national television news, their fears about crime increase, regardless of actual crime rates, gen-
der, or a personal history of victimization (Chiricos, Padgett, & Gertz, 2000). In addition to
the portrayal of crime in the news, stories of crime, criminals, and criminal justice have been a

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32 Women, Gender, and Crime

major staple of television entertainment programming. These images, too, present a distorted
view of the reality of crime because they generally present crime as graphic, random, and violent
(Gerbner & Gross, 1980).

Consider the following scenario:

Imagine yourself walking across a parking lot toward your car. It’s late and the parking lot
is poorly lit. You are alone. Standing near your car is a man who is watching you. Are you
afraid?

When this scenario is presented to groups, we find that men and women respond differ-
ently. When asked who is afraid, it is primarily women who raise their hands. Rarely do men
respond to this situation with fear. Research also notes that girls are more likely than boys to
indicate fears about victimization in situations that involve things such as poorly lit parking
lots and sidewalks, overgrown shrubbery, and groups loitering in public spaces (Fisher & May,
2009). This simple illustration demonstrates the fear of victimization that women experience in
their daily lives. As De Groof (2008) explains, “Fear of crime is, in other words, partly a result
of feelings of personal discomfort and uncertainty, which are projected onto the threat of crime
and victimization” (p. 281).

Why are girls more fearful in these types of situations? Much of this can be attributed to
how girls are socialized differently than their male peers. From a young age, girls are often
taught about fear because parents are more likely to demonstrate concern for the safety of their
daughters, compared to their sons (De Groof, 2008). This fear results in a relative lack of free-
dom for girls, in addition to an increase in the parental supervision of girls. These practices,
which are designed to protect young women, can significantly affect their confidence levels
regarding the world around them. Additionally, this sense of fear can be transferred from the
parent to the young female adult as a result of the gendered socialization that she has experi-
enced throughout her life.

Gender plays a role in feelings of vulnerability, which can translate to fears about victimiza-
tion. Research indicates that for women, the fear of crime is not necessarily related to the actual
levels of crime that they personally experience. Overall, women are less likely to be victimized
than men, yet they report overall higher levels of fear of crime than their male counterparts
(Fattah & Sacco, 1989). These high levels of fear of victimization may be perpetuated by a fear
of a specific crime: rape and sexual assault. Indeed, rape is the crime that generates the highest
levels of fear for women. These levels of fear are somewhat validated by crime statistics because
women make up the majority of victims for sexually based crimes (Warr, 1984, 1985). However,
research indicates that this fear of sexual victimization extends beyond fear of rape to fear of all
crimes, not just crimes of a sexual nature. The “shadow of sexual assault” thesis suggests that
women experience a greater fear of crime in general because they believe that any crime could
ultimately become a sexually based victimization (Fisher & Sloan, 2003). Yet even when women
engage in measures to keep themselves safe, their fear of sexual assault appears to increase rather
than decrease (Lane et al., 2009). This sense of vulnerability is portrayed by “movie of the week”
outlets that showcase storylines of women being victimized by a strange man who lurks in dark
alleys and behind bushes (Jones-Brown, 2007; Skolnick, 1966). Unfortunately, these popular

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Chapter 2 • Theories of Victimization 33

culture references to criminal victimization generally (and rape and sexual assault specifically)
paint a false picture of the realities of crime and victimization. Most women are victimized not
by strangers, as these films would indicate, but instead by people known to them (Black et al.,
2011). Indeed, research indicates that many women fail to see acquaintance rape as something
that could impact them personally (Pryor & Hughes, 2013). Although the fear of sexual assault
is a common theme in the literature, some scholars indicate that fears about crime can involve
acts other than sexual assault. Cook and Fox (2012) found that fear of physical harm is a stron-
ger predictor of fear about crime for women than the fear of sexual assault. Snedker (2012)
found similar evidence because the majority of women in her study expressed fears of being
robbed, not raped.

Fear of crime can also differ by race and ethnicity. As noted earlier, diverse populations are
more likely to be victimized over the course of their lives compared to their white counterparts.
Boateng and Adjekum-Boateng (2017) asked college students whether they experienced fear
during activities such as walking across campus, fear of being attacked on campus, and whether
they perceived campus as being more dangerous compared to off-campus environments. They
discovered that students of color registered higher levels of fear compared to white students.
Such fears were also intersectional, as white male students were the least fearful, compared to
all women and men of color. Although fear of victimization for many women is related to the
underlying fear of sexual assault, the concern of racially motivated victimization is a driving
force for experiences of fear among diverse populations. For example, there has been a signifi-
cant body of research highlighting how the events of 9/11 have increased fears of victimization
for both bias-related crimes as well as general victimization within the Arab American com-
munity (Wu et al., 2017). During the COVID-19 pandemic, levels of harassment and violence
increased as a result of the legitimization of xenophobia and racism by national leaders and the
media. As a result, members of the Asian American community have experienced increased vul-
nerability and fears of victimization (Gover et al., 2020). We have also seen increased incidents
of hate speech and acts of vandalism and violence against Asian-owned businesses (Tessler et al.,
2020).

Although there is a significant body of research on how demographics such as gender and
race can impact fear about crime, research is just beginning to look at how multiple margin-
alities can influence these fears. In a survey of hate crime victimization among the LGBTQ
community, researchers noted that one-third (33.6%) of the study’s participants had been vic-
timized as a result of their sexuality. Indeed, LGBTQ individuals are likely to experience mul-
tiple victimizations over the course of their lifetime (Burks et al., 2015). Unlike research using
samples of heterosexual men and women (which tend to find that women experience greater
fears about crime than men), research by Otis (2007) found that LGBTQ men and women
tend to have similar fears about crime and victimization. One explanation for this may be that
gay men experience similar forms of marginalization and vulnerability as heterosexual women,
particularly when it comes to fears about physical, emotional, and sexually based violence.
Meanwhile, women who identify as lesbian may find these fears enhanced not just by their
gender but through their sexual identity as well. Fear about crime among the LGBT population
is also linked to prior experiences of victimization. The events of the Pulse nightclub shooting

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34 Women, Gender, and Crime

in Orlando in June 2016 highlight how LGBTQ-related violence leads to increased fears about
crime. Their fears were not only for their own safety, but also a concern for others within their
community (Jackson, 2017). Research suggests that these experiences of fear are not universal,
as those who experience greater levels of privilege (identifying as gay/lesbian or male) noted
lower levels of fear compared to individuals with more marginalized identities (queer and trans-
gender; Stults et al., 2017).

The fear of crime and victimization has several negative consequences. Individuals who are
fearful of crime, particularly violent or sexual crimes, are more likely to isolate themselves from
society in general. This fear reflects not only the concern of potential victimization but also a
fear of the potential loss of control that a victim experiences as a result of being victimized. Fear
of crime can also be damaging to one’s feelings of self-worth and self-esteem. Here, potential
victims experience feelings of vulnerability and increased anxiety. Given the racial and gender
differences in experiences of fear, this can have disproportionate effects for specific subsets of
the population.

Fears of victimization are also reflected in societal actions (Clear & Frost, 2007). For
example, public transit agencies may increase security measures by hiring security personnel
and installing video cameras in stations, and improving service reliability (Yavuz & Welch,
2010). Fear also impacts policy in the criminal justice system. Agents of criminal justice can
respond to a community’s fear of crime by increasing police patrols, while district attorneys
pursue tough-on-crime stances in their prosecution of criminal cases. Politicians respond to
community concerns about violent crime by creating and implementing tough-on-crime leg-
islation, such as “three strikes” sentencing laws, and targeting perceived crimes of danger, such
as the war on drugs. Even though the public’s concern about crime may be very real, it can also
be inflamed by inaccurate data on crime rates or a misunderstanding about the community
supervision of offenders and recidivism rates. Unfortunately, “public policy is influenced more
by media misinformation and sensationalized high profile cases than by careful or thoughtful
analysis” (Frost & Phillips, 2011, p. 88).

THEORIES ON VICTIMIZATION

In an effort to understand the victim experience, social science researchers began to investigate
the characteristics of crime victims and the response by society to these victims. Criminology
focuses predominantly on the study of crime as a social phenomenon and the nature of offend-
ers, but the field of victimology places the victim at the center of the discussion. Early perspec-
tives on victimology focused on how victims, either knowingly or unconsciously, can be at fault
for their victimization, based on their personal life events and decision-making processes.

One of the early scholars in this field, Benjamin Mendelsohn (1956), developed a typology
of victimization based on the relative responsibility of the victims for their own victimization
(see Table 2.2). Embedded in his typology is the degree to which victims have the power to
make decisions that can alter their likelihood of victimization. As a result of his work, victimol-
ogy emerged as its own distinct field of study.

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Chapter 2 • Theories of Victimization 35

Mendelsohn’s theory of victimology is based on six categories of victims. The first category
is the innocent victim. This category is unique in Mendelsohn’s typology because it is the only
classification that does not have any responsibility for the crime attributed to the victim. As the
name suggests, an innocent victim is someone who is victimized by a random and unprecipi-
tated crime, such as a school shooting. Unlike the other categories in Mendelsohn’s typology,
the innocent victim is one with no responsibility for his victimization. In contrast, the other five
categories assign a degree of blame or responsibility to the victim. Mendelsohn’s second category
is the victim with minor guilt. In this case, victimization occurs as a result of one’s carelessness
or ignorance. The victim with minor guilt is someone who, if she had given better thought or
care to her safety, would not have been a victim of a crime. For instance, someone who was in the
wrong place at the wrong time or one who places herself in dangerous areas where she is at risk
for potential victimization is characterized as a victim with minor guilt. An example of this is a
victim who is walking alone down the street in a high-crime area and is robbed. Mendelsohn’s
third category is a victim who is equally as guilty as the offender. This victim is someone who
shares the responsibility of the crime with the offender by deliberately placing himself or herself
in harm’s way. An example of this classification is the individual who seeks out the services of a
sex worker, only to contract a sexually transmitted infection as a result of their interaction. The

TABLE 2.2 ■ Mendelsohn’s Categories of Victims

Category Definition Example

Innocent victim No responsibility for the crime attributed to
victim

Institutionalized victims,
the mentally ill, children, or
those who are attacked while
unconscious

Victim with minor
guilt

Victim precipitates crime with carelessness/
ignorance

Victim lost in the “wrong part
of town”

Voluntary victim Victim and offender equally responsible for
crime

Victim pays prostitute for sex;
then prostitute robs victim
(“rolling Johns”)

Victim who is more
guilty than the
offender

Victim who provokes or induces another to
commit crime

Burning bed syndrome: victim
is killed by the domestic partner
he abused for years

Victim who alone is
guilty

Victim who is solely responsible for his or
her own victimization

An attacker who is killed
in self-defense; suicide
bomber killed by detonation of
explosives

Imaginary victim Victim mistakenly believes he or she has
been victimized

Mentally ill person who reports
imagined victimization as real
event

Source: Adapted from Sengstock (1976).

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36 Women, Gender, and Crime

fourth category is the victim who is deemed “more guilty” than the offender. This is a “victim”
who provokes another to engage in criminal activity. An example of this category is an abuser
killed by the intimate partner he abused. The fifth category is a victim who is solely responsible
for the harm that comes to him or her. These individuals are considered to be the “most guilty”
of victims as they engaged in an act that was likely to lead to injury. Examples of the most
guilty victim include a suicide bomber who engages in an act that results in his or her death or a
would-be attacker who is killed by another in an act of self-defense. Mendelsohn’s final category
is the imaginary victim. This is an individual who, as a result of some mental disease or defect,
believes that he or she has been victimized by someone or something, when in reality this person
has not been victimized.

While Mendelsohn focused on the influence of guilt and responsibility of victims, Hans
von Hentig’s (1948) typology of victims looked at how personal factors, such as biological, psy-
chological, and social factors, influence risk of victimization. The categories in von Hentig’s
typology of victims include the young, the female, the old, the mentally defective and deranged,
immigrants, minorities, dull normals, the depressed, the acquisitive, the wanton, the lonesome
or heartbroken, the tormentor, and the blocked, exempted, or fighting.

Although von Hentig’s theory helped develop an understanding of victims in general, his
typology includes only a single category for females. However, experiences of female victimiza-
tion can fit within each of von Hentig’s other categories. For instance, young girls who run

PHOTO 2.2 Jennifer Smith, left, and Susie Allard, aunts of Jayme Closs, speak during a press conference on
Wednesday, Oct. 24, 2018 at the Barron County Justice Center in Barron, Wisconsin to update the case of missing
13-year-old Jayme Closs. Allard holds Jayme’s dog Molly.

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Chapter 2 • Theories of Victimization 37

away from home are easy targets for pimps who “save” girls from the dangers of the streets and
“protect” them from harm. The youth of these girls places them at a higher risk for violence and
prostitution activities under the guise of protection. Although von Hentig’s category of “men-
tally defective” was designed to capture the vulnerability of the mentally ill victim, he also ref-
erenced the intoxicated individual in this context. Under this category, women who engage in
either consensual acts of intoxication or who are subjected to substances unknown to them can
be at risk for alcohol- or drug-facilitated sexual assault. Likewise, consider von Hentig’s category
of “immigrants” and the way in which immigration status can also play a key role for women
victims. Many abusers use a woman’s illegal immigration status as a threat to ensure compli-
ance. In these cases, women may be forced to endure violence in their lives or are induced into
sexual slavery out of fear of deportation. Von Hentig also discusses how race and ethnicity can
affect the victim experience, and significant research has demonstrated how these factors affect
the criminal justice system at every stage.

SPOTLIGHT ON GENDER AND KIDNAPPING

Over the past decade, several stories of women who were kidnapped and held captive for
decades hit the national news. One of these cases involves three women who were held in a
dilapidated home in Cleveland, Ohio. Amanda Berry, Georgina “Gina” DeJesus, and Michelle
Knight were kidnapped by Ariel Castro, a 52-year-old man who had emigrated to the United
States as a child from Puerto Rico. Each of the women had accepted a ride from Castro, who
then abducted them and forced them into his basement where he kept the girls physically
restrained. Michelle Knight was his first victim and was 21 years old when she was taken on
August 22, 2002. His next victim, Amanda Berry, disappeared on April 21, 2003, just before
her 17th birthday. Finally, Gina DeJesus was abducted on April 2, 2004. She was only 14.
All three girls endured significant physical and sexual assaults throughout their captivity.
Michelle Knight reported that she suffered several miscarriages, and Amanda Berry gave
birth to a daughter fathered by Castro, born on Christmas Day 2006 (BBC, 2013). After a
decade in captivity, the women were rescued on May 6, 2013, after attracting the attention of
a neighbor who helped them escape (Steer, 2013).

Prosecutors originally considered charging Castro with aggravated murder (in the cases
of the forced miscarriages of Knight), but he ultimately pled guilty to 937 counts of kid-
napping, rape, and other crimes such as child endangerment and gross sexual imposition
(Krouse, 2013; Mahoney, 2013; Sheeran, 2013). Speaking at his sentencing hearing, Michelle
Knight told Castro, “I spent 11 years in hell, where your hell is just beginning” (DeLuca, 2013).
However, Castro served very little of his sentence before he hanged himself by a bedsheet
in his cell. Some might argue that Castro’s suicide cheated the justice system—”This man
couldn’t take, for even a month, a small portion of what he had dished out for more than a
decade” (Mungin & Alsup, 2013).

Another story with similar circumstances was that of Jaycee Dugard. Dugard was kid-
napped by husband and wife Phillip and Nancy Garrido when she was just 11 years old and
was held for 18 years. Dugard was abducted walking home from a school bus stop in South
Lake Tahoe. Phillip Garrido was a convicted sex offender who was on parole at the time of
Jaycee’s abduction. Much of her captivity was spent in makeshift tents or a shed behind
Garrido’s home. Even though parole agents visited the home 60 times, they never checked
the sheds in the yard. Meanwhile, Phillip Garrido sexually assaulted Jaycee on a regular

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38 Women, Gender, and Crime

basis and she gave birth to two daughters during this time. In August 2009, a visit by Phillip
and his daughters to U.C. Berkeley triggered an investigation by his parole officer. Ultimately,
Dugard told investigators who she was, which lead to the arrest of the Garridos, who eventu-
ally pled guilty to the crimes of kidnapping and rape. Phillip was sentenced to 431 years to
life and Nancy received 36 years to life. (Dooley et al., 2016; Egelko, 2016; Salonga, 2016).

In 2018, Jayme Closs was 13 years old when her parents were murdered in their Wisconsin
home by Jake Patterson. Patterson had initially spotted Closs as she was boarding her bus
for school. Even though he had never met Jayme or her parents, he made a plan to kidnap
her. He took a shotgun from his father, changed his license plate, and went to the Closs
home. He was deterred twice as there were people home, but on his third attempt, Patterson
walked up to the front of the family home and killed James Closs when he opened the door.
He murdered Denise Closs in front of her daughter and then forced the young girl into the
trunk of his car. The entire event last four minutes. She was held captive for 88 days in a cabin
located upstate approximately 70 miles from her home. During this time, Patterson would
force Jayme under his twin bed and block her exit whenever he left the cabin. Three months
after her abduction, she was able to escape the cabin and ran to a nearby road, where she
identified herself to a neighbor who called 911. The police apprehended Patterson a short
time later (Furber & Smith, 2019). He was convicted of the murders of James and Denise
Closs and the kidnapping of Jayme and was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole
plus 40 years (Holcombe, 2021).

Each of these events are examples of a rare phenomenon—stranger abductions.
According to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (2016), there are more
than 25,000 reports of missing children annually. In 2018, only 77 (less than 1%) of these
cases involved stranger abductions. Between 2005 and 2014, there were 8,015 incidents of
attempted abductions by strangers; 9,872 children were involved in these cases, all of whom
were recovered safely. Sixty-seven percent of these cases involved female victims and 21%
male victims (12% gender unknown). The vast majority of these cases involved male offend-
ers (94%).

Routine Activities Theory
Although early theories of victimization provided a foundation to understand the victim experi-
ence, modern victimization theories expand on those concepts to investigate the role of society
in victimization and to address how personal choices affect the victim experience. One of the
most influential perspectives in modern victimology is Cohen and Felson’s (1979) routine activ-
ities theory. Routine activities theory suggests that the likelihood of a criminal act (and, in turn,
the likelihood of victimization) occurs with the convergence of three essential components:
(1) someone who is interested in pursuing a criminal action (offender), (2) a potential victim
(target) “available” to be victimized, and (3) the absence of someone or something (guardian)
that would deter the offender from making contact with the available victim. The name of the
theory is derived from a belief that victims and guardians exist within the normal, everyday
patterns of life. Cohen and Felson posit that lifestyle changes during the second half of the 20th
century created additional opportunities for the victim and offender to come into contact with
each other as a result of changes to daily routines and activities. Cohen and Felson’s theory was
created to discuss the risk of victimization in property crimes. Here, if individuals were at work,

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Chapter 2 • Theories of Victimization 39

or out enjoying events in the community, they were less likely to be at home to guard their prop-
erty against potential victimization, and burglary was more likely to result.

Routine activities theory has been used to understand a variety of different forms of crime,
particularly related to demographic differences in victimization. For example, research on
routine activities theory demonstrates that minority women are more likely to experience vic-
timization when riding public transportation, and neighborhood factors can affect the odds
of women’s victimization (Like-Haislip & Miofsky, 2011). Women are also more likely to
experience robbery at grocery stores and parking lots/garages but are less likely to experience
crimes such as simple assault in the same locations (Savard, 2018). Gender can also mediate
the types of victimization risk. Men are more likely to experience increased risks of violent
victimization because they go out at night, and women have an increased risk of theft based
on increased shopping activities (Bunch et al., 2012). Students who identify as LGBTQ and
engage in risky behaviors such as illicit drug use and binge drinking are also at an increased risk
for sexual victimization and stalking, compared to cisgender males (Reyns & Scherer 2019).
Non-monosexual women are also at increased risks of stalking, compared to both heterosexual
women and gay men. Contrary to much of the literature on stalking, LGBTQ adults are most
likely stalked by people who are part of their daily lives (roommates, co-workers, and neighbors)
and not ex-intimates (Chan & Sheridan, 2019).

Routine activities theory has also been used to look at cybercrimes. Research by Navarro and
Jasinski (2013) indicates that girls are at a greater risk for cyber-bullying than boys, even though
boys engage in similar risky online behaviors. Among adolescents, the use of digital media such as
social networking and texting can place youth at risk of cyber-dating abuse. For example, youth
who engage in sexting with their boy/girlfriend are more likely to be involved in an abusive dating
relationship. The risk of victimization increases with the amount of time that they spend online
(Van Ouytsel et al., 2016). Among college-aged individuals there were no gender differences in
victimization. However, females and non-whites engaged in more acts of cyber-aggression toward
their partners compared to males and whites (Melander & Hughes, 2018).

Routine activities theory has been criticized by feminist criminologists, who disagree with
the theory’s original premise that men are more vulnerable to the risks of victimization than
women. Indeed, the guardians that Cohen and Felson (1979) suggest protect victims from
crime may instead be the ones most likely to victimize women, particularly in cases of intimate
partner abuse and sexual assault. For example, research by Schwartz et al. (2001) indicates that
women who engage in recreational substance use (such as alcohol or drugs) are considered to be
a suitable target by men who are motivated to engage in certain offending patterns. Attempts
by administrators to increase safety on college campuses by implementing protections, such as
escort patrols, lighted paths, and emergency beacons (modern-day guardians), may have little
effect on sexual assault rates on campus, given that many of these incidents take place behind
closed doors in college dormitories and student apartments. In addition, self-protective factors
(or self-guardians) may not be able to ward off a potential attacker, given that the overwhelm-
ing majority of sexual assaults on college campuses are perpetrated by someone known to the
victim (Mustaine & Tewksbury, 2002). Perceptions of being a “good” girl can also lead women
to believe they are at a reduced risk for victimization: “I’m not running around in tiny little

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40 Women, Gender, and Crime

dresses anymore” (Snedker, 2012, p. 86). During Snedker’s interviews with women in New
York City, another woman expressed a similar sentiment of recognizing potential risks of vic-
timization based on her patterns of behavior: “I’m not going to do anything stupid. If I’m com-
ing home really late drunk and I’m by myself, I might be more of a target” (p. 89). This scenario
highlights the perception that a shift in routine activities can reduce the risk of victimization.
Unfortunately, this adds to the myth that girls who dress provocatively or consume alcohol
somehow deserve to be sexually assaulted, which shifts the blame to the victim and not the
perpetrator.

Like routine activities theory, lifestyle theory seeks to relate the patterns of one’s every-
day activities to the potential for victimization. Whereas routine activities theory was initially
designed to explain victimization from property crimes, lifestyle theory was developed to
explore the risks of victimization from personal crimes. Research by Hindelang et al. (1978)
suggests that people who engage in risky lifestyle choices place themselves at risk of victim-
ization. One may increase the risk of criminal opportunity and victimization through both
an increased exposure to criminal activity and an increased exposure to motivated offenders.
However, crime is not the only lifestyle that can place people at risk for victimization; nonvio-
lent deviant behaviors, mental health status, age, and substance use increase the risk of victim-
ization. Gender also plays a role in how these factors influence victimization risk. For example,
males who engage in binge drinking have an increased risk of victimization while females
who abuse prescription drugs experience significantly higher odds of victimization than men
(Zaykowski & Gunter, 2013).

Given the similarities between the foundations of lifestyle theory and routine activities
theory, many researchers today combine the tenets of these two perspectives to investigate
victimization risks in general. These perspectives have been used to explain the risks of sexual
assault of women on college campuses. For example, young women in the university set-
ting who engage in risky lifestyle decision-making processes (such as the use of alcohol) and
have risky routine activity patterns (such as living alone or frequenting bars and clubs where
men are present and alcohol is readily available) are at an increased risk of sexual victimiza-
tion (Fisher et al., 2010). Although some research has noted that women who are victim-
ized may be at increased risk for revictimization if they continue to engage in lifestyle and
routine-related behaviors, college students who experience depression are also at increased
risk for retraumatization (Culatta et al., 2020).

Feminist Pathways Perspective
Feminist pathways perspective research draws on the historical context of women’s and girls’
lives to relate how events (and traumas) affect their likelihood to engage in crime. Researchers
have identified a cycle of violence for female offenders that often begins with their own victim-
ization and ends with their involvement in offending behavior. The feminist pathways per-
spective is discussed at length in Chapter 4, but the topic deserves a brief introduction as we
conclude our discussion on theories of victimization.

The feminist pathways approach may provide some of the best understanding about
female offending. Research on women’s and girls’ pathways to offending provide substantial

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Chapter 2 • Theories of Victimization 41

evidence for the link between victimization and offending because incarcerated girls are three
to four times more likely to have been abused compared to their male counterparts (Belknap
& Holsinger, 2006). A review of case files of delinquent girls in California indicates that 92%
of delinquent girls in California reported having been subjected to at least one form of abuse,
including emotional (88%), physical (81%), or sexual (56%) abuse (Acoca & Dedel, 1998b).
Particularly for young female offenders, a history of abuse leads to a propensity to engage in
certain types of delinquency, such as running away and school failures. The effects of sexual
assault are also related to drug and alcohol addiction and mental health traumas, such as
post-traumatic stress disorder and a negative self-identity (Raphael, 2005). In a cycle of victim-
ization and offending, young girls often run away from home in an attempt to escape from an
abusive situation. In many cases, girls were forced to return home by public agencies, such as the
police, courts, and social services—agencies designed to “help” victims of abuse. Unfortunately,
in their attempt to escape from an abusive situation, girls often fall into criminal behaviors as a
mechanism of survival.

Indeed, there are several ways to think about the victimization of women and girls. As
you move through the next three chapters in this text, consider how each of these theoretical
perspectives impact the victim experience for women and how the criminal justice system
responds to these cases. How would you improve the experience of women as victims? What
would you recommend to agents of criminal justice, such as the police? Finally, what remedies
exist to limit the victimization of women, and what can you as a member of society do to effect
change in this realm?

SUMMARY

• Not all victims report their crimes to the police, but they may seek support from other
sources.

• Victim assistance programs have emerged as a key response to the secondary victimization
often experienced by victims who come forward to the criminal justice system.

• Victim blaming has been linked to low reporting rates.

• Women experience higher rates of fear of crime than males.

• Gendered socialization and vulnerability to specific crime types such as rape may explain
the gendered fear of crime.

• Mendelsohn’s typology of victimization distinguishes different categories of victims based
on the responsibility of the victim and the degree to which victims have the power to make
decisions that can alter their likelihood of victimization.

• Von Hentig’s typology of victimization focuses on how personal factors, such as biological,
social, and psychological characteristics, influence risk of victimization.

• The just world hypothesis, which holds that people get what they deserve, is a form of
victim blaming.

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42 Women, Gender, and Crime

• Routine activities theory and lifestyle theory have been used to investigate the risk of sexual
assault of women.

• The feminist pathways perspective suggests a cycle of criminal justice involvement for
women whereby early victimization is sometimes a precursor to later criminal offending.

KEY TERMS

Core rights of victims (p. 26)
Cycle of victimization and offending (p. 41)
Fear of victimization (p. 32)
Feminist pathways perspective (p. 40)
Just world hypothesis (p. 30)
Lifestyle theory (p. 40)

Rape myth acceptance (p. 31)
Routine activities theory (p. 38)
Secondary victimization (p. 31)
Victim blaming (p. 29)

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1. How do early theories of victimization distinguish between different types of victims?
How might the criminal justice system use these typologies in making decisions about
which cases to pursue?

2. What types of help-seeking behaviors do female crime victims engage in? How are these
practices related to the reporting of crimes to law enforcement?

3. What effects does the practice of victim blaming have on future potential crime victims
and the criminal justice system?

4. In what ways do media outlets support or dispel rape myths and victim blaming? How is
this related to help-seeking behavior, official reporting, and revictimization?

5. How is fear of crime a gendered experience? What factors contribute to the differences in
male versus female fear of crime? Do official crime statistics support or dispel the basis for
these fear differences?

6. How might feminist criminologists critique modern-day victimization theories, such as
routine activities theory and lifestyle theory?

7. How have historical theories on female offending failed to understand the nature of
female offending?

8. What contributions has feminist criminology made in understanding the relationship
between gender and offending?Do n
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Chapter 2 • Theories of Victimization 43

CHAPTER ACTIVITIES

1. Many crimes go unreported to law enforcement. Have students spend some time
discussing this critically, having them consider several underreported crimes and why they
might not be reported. Consider having each group also deal with several intersecting
variables that impact underreporting, such as age, race, class, nationality, citizenship,
sexuality, and education. Have them present examples of their discussion to the class.

2. Have students develop a crime prevention program based on a theory covered in this
chapter. Students can present their programs to the class. (Examples of some different
crime prevention programs are found on the National Crime Prevention Council website:
https://www.ncpc.org/.)

3. The media is full of examples of victim blaming, especially around prominent rape cases.
Have students look through recent accounts in the news, pick a case, summarize the case,
and share examples of victim blaming in the cases. This can be done in groups and then
with the entire class.

4. To have students think more about “fear of victimization,” ask them how many times
during the day they feel fearful. Then, have them list the ways they keep themselves
safe during the day. Make a list of what they say. Discuss the gender, race, and class
implications of their contributions. A more developed assignment around this topic is
located in the journal Teaching Sociology: Hollander, J. A. (2000, July). Fear journals:
A strategy for teaching about the social consequences of gendered violence. Teaching
Sociology, 28, 192–205.

5. Have students choose a theory addressed in this section. Have students break into groups
according to their selected theories. The groups should discuss their selection and develop
a program for victim assistance based in the foundation of their theory.

WEB RESOURCES

Bureau of Justice Statistics: http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov

Feminist Criminology: http://fcx.sagepub.com

The National Center for Victims of Crime: http://www.ncvc.org

Office for Victims of Crime: https://www.ovc.gov

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