Female crime

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View of a Berlin Women's Prison (1931)

Women's crime refers to the entirety of criminal acts by persons of the female sex, including children and young people. The topic arouses particular interest in international criminology , because the crime statistics of all countries show significantly less crime among women than men. The proportion of women in the population of the Federal Republic of Germany is stable at over half, but the proportion of women among suspects is only a quarter and among prisoners only a twentieth. This discrepancy is even more pronounced in other countries. There are conflicting criminological explanations for this worldwide phenomenon. In a group of statements, the different levels of crime among women and men are disputed, claiming that women's crime is merely masked and is therefore not reflected in crime statistics. In the second line of argument, the differences are justified biologically, psychologically and sociologically. There is no generally accepted theory, which shows “that this branch of criminological research is still in its infancy”.

Criminal statistics statements

There is extensive evidence that men are more likely to be delinquent than women. According to police crime statistics , the difference is different in different areas of crime and increases with age. In the case of minor offenses in childhood, such as shoplifting , there is hardly any gender-specific difference. In the case of violent crimes, however, differences between boys and girls are shown right from the start. The differences are confirmed in dark field studies , but are smaller. However, if one considers the intentional, completed homicides against children under six years of age in the period from 1997 to 2006, women clearly predominate as perpetrators (56.5 percent).

Cell in a Berlin Women's Prison (1931)

In 2011, 538,044 female suspects were registered in Germany, which was 25.5 percent of all suspects, in 1993 the proportion was still 21.4 percent. The proportions of women between the ages of 12 and 16 are slightly above average. Still further, the gap is at the Inhaftierungszahlen on: March 31, 2011, Germany had 60,067 prisoners and preventive detention , of which 3,321 were women (5.5 percent).

These values ​​tend to be confirmed in an international comparison, there is no known society in which the proportion of women crime is higher than that of men. But from state to state and also within states there are significant differences in the statistical characteristics of female delinquency. The proportion in rural areas and in developing countries is still well below the average. In large cities, on the other hand, female crime is quantitatively similar to male crime, although the difference remains considerable. It is noticeable that female crime always increases relatively and absolutely in times of war.

Criminological attempts at interpretation

The criminological interpretation of female crime has two fundamental, opposing lines of argument. The first group of explanations questions the lower crime rate of women and is called the equal distribution thesis . In the second explanatory group, women are assumed to have a lower crime rate and are attributed to specific female characteristics . Gabriele Schmölzer points out that the contrary basic positions were often represented by the same authors. Both lines of argument go back to Cesare Lombroso , the founder of the so-called positive school of criminology , which is oriented towards criminal anthropology and who postulated the born criminal .

Equal distribution thesis

Lombroso wrote the first version of the equal distribution thesis in 1891 together with his son-in-law Guglielmo Ferrero , it is also known as the prostitution theory and was still represented in German specialist science by Helga Einsele in 1975 . It is assumed (without substantiating it) that female criminals and female prostitutes have comparable physical and mental capacities. The born criminal is thus a born prostitute . Consequently, both forms of deviance would have to be added, according to which there could no longer be any talk of a lower crime rate among women. The resulting assumption of equal distribution is now considered unscientific because, firstly, it assumes an equalization of different behaviors and, secondly, has never been statistically proven. In the context of drug- procuring crime, however, tendencies towards prostitution theory are recognized: Male drug addicts are more likely to commit crimes, while female drug addicts tend to switch to drug-related prostitution .

In a further attempt to explain, the masked character of female crime is emphasized . Women are inferior to men in physical strength and compensate for this with deceptions. That would be easy for them because of their fundamental falsehood . Women committed far more crimes than is known, but could hide them from law enforcement agencies. A variant of this line of argument is that women - as wives or lovers - often stand behind the crimes of their husbands and are the beneficiaries of them. There is a lack of empirical evidence for all claims about the masked character of female crime.

A third assumption of equal distribution is related to a gender-specific different criminalization and thus the labeling approach . It is referred to in the criminological literature as the chivalry thesis or cavalier thesis and states that the norm enforcers (police, public prosecutors, courts), who used to be almost exclusively men, act less rigidly towards women. This assumption has an impact on the controversial discussions about domestic violence .

Specific female characteristics

The biological explanatory approach also goes back to Lombroso, who founded two contrary lines of argument in a book, including the so-called weakness theory . Lombroso compared the mobile male sperm cells with the immobile female egg cells and concluded from this that women are fundamentally passive, which is accompanied by a tendency to accept the given order. In addition, there is a lack of intelligence and passion, which makes it almost impossible for women to commit crimes. This traditional theoretical approach was later replaced by the assumption of an innate lack of aggressiveness in women.

Role and socialization theory declarations of crime state that women are more oriented towards idealistic than materialistic values ​​in their behavior, assess the risk of sanctions higher than men, show greater compliance with norms and have better social support . In addition, a restriction of the room for maneuver is registered because even fully employed women feel stronger family obligations than men ( double yoke ).

This is where the emancipation thesis first formulated by the American criminologist Freda Adler comes in . It says that the crime rate of women will equalize that of men (especially violent crimes) the more women free themselves from the double yoke . This assumption is confirmed by the "alarming increase in the number of suspects among female adolescents", but it is doubted by the fact that the proportion of female crime in the 19th century was considerably higher than it is today.

Findings in applied criminology

The Applied Criminology is not concerned with the analysis of crime statistics, but analyzes with their specific method individual cases in the criminal justice process. In comparison, their results show that there are no structural differences between female and male crime. With continuous progress towards crime, test persons and test persons show massive abnormalities in childhood and adolescence, school refusal and completely unstructured leisure time behavior. They leave the parental home early, which usually means a deterioration in the social situation with orientation towards socially conspicuous peers. The neglect of social (including professional) duties is typical, which for women also includes childcare. A slight difference from male offenders is that the unstructured lifestyle of delinquent women is initially manifested in the domestic setting. As with men, delinquency from other social inconspicuousness arises from the elimination of everyday factors such as partnership (after divorce or death) or loss of job. The offenses are then the result of an attempt to maintain the standard of living.

literature

  • Cesare Lombroso and Guglielmo Ferrero: Woman as Criminal and Prostitute. Anthropological studies based on a presentation of the biology and psychology of normal women. Hamburg 1894 (Reprint 2008, ISBN 978-3-8364-3623-6 )
  • Freda Adler: Sisters in crime. The rise of the new female criminal. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1976, ISBN 978-0070004160 .
  • Freda Adler and Rita James Simon: The criminology of deviant women. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1979, ISBN 978-0395267196 .
  • Elsbeth Brökling: female crime . Presentation and criticism of criminological and sociological deviance theories. Attempt to redefine. Stuttgart: Enke, 1980, ISBN 3-432-91481-4 .
  • Kirsten Franke: Women and Crime. A critical analysis of criminological and sociological theories. Constance: UVK, 2000, ISBN 3-87940-748-7 .
  • Jutta Elz (Ed.): Perpetrators. Findings, analyzes, perspectives. Wiesbaden: Criminological Central Office, 2009, ISBN 978-3-926371-86-7 .
  • Karsten Uhl: The “criminal woman”. Gender, crime and punishment in the criminological discourse 1800–1945. LIT, Münster u. a. 2003, ISBN 3-8258-6593-2 .
  • Gaby Temme and Christine Künzel (eds.): Does criminal law have a gender? On the interpretation and significance of the gender category in criminal law discourses from the 18th century to the present day. Transcript, Bielefeld 2010, ISBN 978-3-8376-1384-1 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Johannes Feest : Woman crime. In: Kaiser / Kerner / Sack / Schellhoss (Ed.): Small Criminological Dictionary. 3. Edition. Heidelberg 1993, pp. 142-146, here p. 142.
  2. ↑ Federal Statistical Office: population by sex and citizenship , effective 5th August of 2019.
  3. ↑ Gabriele Schmölzer : Gender and criminality: For the criminological discussion of women's crime
  4. ↑ For Germany: Second Periodical Safety Report , 2006, p. 366.
  5. ^ Theresia Höynck, Ulrike Zähringer: Results of the KFN research project "Homicides on children". August 2012, accessed January 21, 2019 .
  6. ↑ See Police Criminal Statistics 2011 ( Memento from September 1, 2012 in the Internet Archive ), p. 34 (PDF; 4.80 MB).
  7. ↑ Cf. Federal Statistical Office: Judicial Administration of Prison - Demographic and criminological characteristics of prisoners as of March 31, the prison statistics are collected at the end of the first quarter of each year.
  8. ↑ See Johannes Feest: Frauenkriminalität. In: Kaiser / Kerner / Sack / Schellhoss (Ed.): Small Criminological Dictionary. 3. Edition. Heidelberg 1993, pp. 142-146, here p. 143 f.
  9. ↑ The following presentation is based mainly on Werner Maschke: Criminality of selected population groups , in Göppinger-Kriminologie , 6th edition, Munich 2008, pp. 366-418, as well as Hans-Dieter Schwind : Kriminologie. A practice-oriented introduction with examples , 18th edition, Heidelberg, 2008, pp. 78–84.
  10. ↑ See Schmölzer: Gender and criminality: on the criminological discussion of women's crime
  11. ^ First translation into German: The woman as a criminal and prostitute. Anthropological studies based on a presentation of the biology and psychology of normal women , Hamburg 1894
  12. ↑ Helga Einsele: Female crime and female prisoners , in: Rudolf Sieverts and Hans Joachim Schneider , (ed.) Handbook of Criminology ; Volume 3, 2nd edition, Berlin 1975, pp. 608-656, here p. 631.
  13. ↑ Cf. Werner Maschke: Criminality of Selected Population Groups , in Göppinger-Kriminologie , 6th edition, Munich 2008, p. 413.
  14. ↑ This is the unanimous assessment of Schwind ( Kriminologie. A practice-oriented introduction with examples , 2008, p. 80) and Maschke ( Criminality of selected population groups , 2008, p. 413).
  15. ↑ Cf. Werner Maschke: Criminality of Selected Population Groups , in Göppinger-Kriminologie , 6th edition, Munich 2008, p. 414.
  16. ↑ Woman as a criminal and prostitute
  17. ↑ See Schmölzer: Gender and criminality: on the criminological discussion of women's crime
  18. ↑ See Johannes Feest : Frauenkriminalität. In: Kaiser / Kerner / Sack / Schellhoss (eds.): Small Criminological Dictionary. Heidelberg ³1993, pp. 142–146, here p. 144.
  19. ↑ The following presentation is based on Petra Fischer-Jehle: Women in prison. An empirical study of the life development and delinquency of women in prison , Bonn 1991; and Michael Bock : Applied Kriminologie , in Göppinger-Kriminologie , 6th edition, Munich 2008, pp. 247–343.