Women’s Offending: Trends, Issues and Theoretical Explanations

Women are being incarcerated in increasing numbers in Western countries, predominately for minor offences such as drug and property offences. Offending patterns of women relate to property, fraud, theft, deception, minor assaults and drug related crime. There is also a strong link between women’s socio-economic status, illicit drug (and alcohol) use. In addition a perception exists that women are becoming more violent as a result of being violently abused by others in the past. Early feminist theorists believed that the increase in women’s crime was related to women’s equality and liberation. If this is the case can we blame this increase on feminist theory and the increased equality of women? Or is the explanation more complex? This paper contends that it is not possible to consider the current trends in women’s offending in a vacuum - there needs to be theoretical explanations about what is happening. If we can’t explain why women offend, the logic (and thus success) of what we do may be accidental and haphazard rather than clearly planned.