Gender, Crime, And the Criminal Law Defenses

Abstract

This chapter explains some of the gender disparity by analyzing the results of the "Biosocial Study," one of this country's largest longitudinal studies of biological, psychological, and sociological predictors of crime. The Biosocial Study also corresponded with some research and theory which had indicated gender differences in the prediction of crime. The chapter considers the consequences of these results with respect to whether there should be a gender-based standard for punishment or defenses. It uses loose definitions of the terms "biological" and "environmental" or "sociological," because of their close association with related terms, and with one another. The chapter discusses and critiques the tendency for the criminal law to view the more biologically-based defenses as manifestations of gender stereotypes and to explain the more culturally-constructed defenses in terms of supposed biological or psychological gender differences. Postwar views of female crime further emphasized sexuality and biological and sociological influences.