Crime and the Contemporary Woman: An Analysis of Changing Levels of Female Property Crime, 1960-75

Abstract

This report examines female property crime trends since 1960. Previous research on this issue has suffered because of a failure to specify the major questions on female property crime and because of inappropriate use of UCR arrest statistics. In this study, the central questions about female property crime are clarified and arrest rates are computed to determine the extent of change in female property crime since 1960. The effects of the women's movement on female property crime are also examined. I conclude that female levels of property crime are rising. But it is only for the offenses of larceny-theft and fraud lembezzlement that female levels are increasing at a faster pace than male levels. Moreover, absolute differences still exist and have generally increased so that female property crime levels continue to lag far behind those of males. The pattern of the data also suggests that the upward trend in female property crime is not due to the women's movement; that women are still typically nonviolent, petty property offenders; and that the new female is more of a social invention than an empirical reality. In recent years there has been a proliferation of popular and scientific writing on the extent to which patterns and levels of female crime have been changing, and the impact of the women's movement and changing sex roles on criminal behavior (Adler; Bruck; Rosenblatt and Greenland; Simon). A common theme of these writings is that the criminal activities of women are coming to resemble those of men in kind and degree as convergence in role expectations and access to illegitimate opportunities increases. Supposedly, women are committing more crimes, catching up with their male counterparts, and increasingly engaging in traditionally *I wish to thank several colleagues of the Pennsylvania State University for statistical advice and useful comments on this manuscript. They include Clifford Clogg, Gordon Dejong, Alvin Rosenthal, Renee Hoffman Steffensmeier, Shannon Stokes, and Rex Warland. Thanks are also due to two anonymous referees for helpful suggestions.