Female Criminality Research Articles

ОСОБЛИВОСТІ ПРОВЕДЕННЯ КОМПЕКСНИХ СУДОВИХ ПСИХОЛОГО-ПСИХІАТРИЧНИХ ЕКСПЕРТИЗ ЖІНОК У КРИМІНАЛЬНОМУ ПРОЦЕСІ

This Article is dedicated to researching the issue of female criminality, and namely, to conducting forensic expert evaluations of ability of women who committed violent crimes to realize the significance or their actions and (or) manage such actions. We present the results of analysis of 169 conclusions of forensic psychiatric expert evaluations and comprehensive forensic psychologic and psychiatric expert evaluations within criminal proceedings involving the mentioned category of persons (for the period of 2010-2016). This analysis has allowed to highlight typical mistakes in assigning forensic expert evaluations in various categories of crimes, including the crimes where the offender is dependent on the object of a criminal act. This article cites a structured medical criterion for incompetence or limited competence of mentioned females at the time of delict (based on the researched subjects). The structure of the medical criterion for incompetence includes mental disorders that annihilate the ability of a person to stay aware of her actions and manage such actions at the time of a criminal act due to psychotic symptoms and/or severe disorder of the behavior-regulating intellectual component. Meanwhile, the structure of the medical criterion for limited incompetence included cases where females were not capable of fully realizing their actions (or lack of thereof) and manage such actions due to explicit behavioral disorders. Such cases envisage that possible intellectual disorders were offset specifically by explicit disturbance of emotions and volition. It was discovered that despite females having mental disorders of varying origin and degree of severity (expert evaluations conducted in 2010-2016), only a small percentage of these women were considered “incompetent/of limited competency” based on the medical criterion. Taking this into account as well as severity of a delict, research of the psychological criterion of competence highlights, first and foremost, psychological peculiarities of female criminals and analysis of a crime situation. Based on the above-mentioned, we have defined the necessity of different approaches and opinions among psychologists (as forensic experts and psychodiagnostics experts) during expert evaluations depending on the object of a criminal act. In addition, in the course of a psychological expert evaluation of ability to be aware of one’s actions and manage such actions during a crime explicitly directed against life and health of a person, we shall necessitate a body of grounded evidence of presence or absence of not only a physiological affective state, but also other emotional states (frustrations, tension) at the time of a crime, while noting their possible influence on awareness and actions of a person at the moment of delict.

A Criminological Study of the Socioeconomic Factors of Criminality Among Pakistani Females

The concept of female criminality is complicated and exhibits itself with diversified attributes in various countries. In Pakistani society, women have been largely involved in brutal criminal acts with the change in social aspects, such as economic conditions, illiteracy, violence against women, family environment, customs and traditions; which indicates an alarming situation in the country. The deprivations, desires, burden, and lack of the respective needs turn a woman into a criminal in the expression to release an outburst. The findings reveal that education plays an important role in the socialization and character building of women. Most of the illiterate and young females who belonged to the urban background are involved in crime. Female criminals reported that they have committed a crime due to a financial problem, unemployment of the husband and the need of money for the upbringing of their children. These socioeconomic conditions made them compulsive to involve in criminality.

Ladies or Criminals: An Exploratory Study of Patterns of Female Criminality in the Republic of Macedonia

Ladies or Criminals: An Exploratory Study of Patterns of Female Criminality in the Republic of Macedonia

Sex and Drugs and Revolutionary Justice: Negotiating 'Female Criminality' in the Early Soviet Courtroom

Pavel A. Vasilyev – kandidat nauk (PhD) in Russian History, Postdoctoral Fellow, Polonsky Academy for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences, Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, Israel. Email: pavelv@vanleer.org.il
 This article builds on previous research on early Soviet female criminality, in particular the studies by Sharon A. Kowalsky and Dan Healey, that have demonstrated how Soviet courts and criminologists explained and handled crimes committed by females, revealing, in the process, profound ambiguities and contradictions in their attitudes towards women. However, unlike Kowalsky and Healey, I focus on an earlier period (1917–1922) and make extensive use of the under-researched archival collections of Petrograd’s local judicial institutions (People’s Courts), drawing on materials such as investigatory reports and court proceedings. Focusing on a 1919 criminal case from the Central State Archive of St. Petersburg (Tsentral’nyi gosudarstvennyi arkhiv Sankt-Peterburga, TsGA SPb) in particular, this paper argues that in the volatile setting of the early Soviet courtroom 'female criminality' was not a clear-cut concept, but rather a malleable product of intense negotiations that involved all legal actors and centered around the contested notions of female subjectivity, socialist ideology, and the material conditions of living. Employing quasi-theatrical language, I first introduce the protagonists and describe the background of this criminal case. Then, I look at the litigation strategies that the two main female defendants employed and the different ways in which they highlighted the material embeddedness of their emotions. Finally, I examine the expressions of remorse and reflect on their role in sentencing within the wider context of the ongoing Russian Civil War and the early Soviet legal reforms. By viewing 'female criminality' as a product of open-ended negotiations and by re-emphasizing the material conditions of revolutionary Petrograd, the article provides a new perspective on gender, crime and the administration of justice in that turbulent period.

‘I’ve got my eyes open and I can’t be crooked’: Race, female virtue and national identity in Terry and the Pirates

Abstract The Second World War-era US network radio programmes augmented nationalist propaganda by connecting American national identity to white patriarchal gender norms. Juvenile adventure radio serials like Terry and the Pirates (TATP) joined this effort and countered criticism of their negative influence on children by promoting their ability to teach young audiences socially sanctioned values like respect for established authority and cultural norms. Within this cultural and industrial context, characters like April Kane became ‘discursive “relay station[s]”’ through which wartime debates over women’s changing cultural and economic status were circulated, contested and produced. TATP tested April’s dedication to an idealized American way of life by pairing and contrasting her with queered and exoticized racial others, including sexually deviant female criminals and subservient foreign men. April passed this inquisition by identifying with Burma, the series’ other white heroine, and adhering to traditional feminine values like honesty, passivity and deference to white patriarchal authority. These comparisons reaffirmed a gendered hierarchy that prioritized white men and simultaneously diminished and divided white women and foreign men.

Kate Soffel's Life of Crime: A Gendered Journey from Warden's Wife to Criminal Actress

Kate Soffel's Life of CrimeA Gendered Journey from Warden's Wife to Criminal Actress Kristi Good (bio) Many residents of Pittsburgh are well acquainted with the story of the "Biddle Boys," Edward and John (Ed and Jack), who escaped from the Allegheny County Jail in winter 1902, with the help of the warden's wife, Kate Soffel. Their escape from the city and the ensuing horse-drawn sleigh chase across the snowy roads of Butler County thrilled newspaper readers across the country. The final confrontation between law enforcement and the "desperadoes," as journalists characterized them, was a bloody shoot-out that left the Biddles and Soffel on the brink of death. Soffel survived, but the public's excitement about her role in these events waned much more quickly than did their enthusiasm for the event itself. In Medea's Daughters: Forming and Performing the Woman Who Kills, Jennifer Jones posits, "Idealized 'woman' has traditionally been constructed as self-sacrificing, passive, and nurturing; therefore, when actual women become violent, some sense must be made of their actions if the myth of feminine passivity is to be maintained."1 Jones cites as a major influence the work of Ann Jones, who, in her book Women Who Kill, analyzed how various historical murder trials have perpetuated the subordination of women. Jones builds on this feminist analysis by exploring the dramatic texts that spring from these criminal events and legal proceedings and argues that dramatic representations of female criminality serve as similar historical documentation to "contain and control cultural anxiety" regarding the abnormality of the criminal woman.2 The jailbreak itself was a public spectacle that held the interest of the American people from coast to coast, and a popular true-crime melodrama [End Page 53] by Theodore Kremer quickly followed the newspaper headlines. A Desperate Chance detailed the sensational events of the Biddle jailbreak and debuted in the same year as the escape. Kremer's play functions as Jones suggests: a morality play that warns women of "the dangers of self-determination" and encourages them to "embrace their submissive status."3 But Kremer wrote his play before Soffel served her jail time, and her determination to cultivate a public life for herself post incarceration was not consistent with the narrative of passive femininity that the media, the courts, and Kremer had constructed to assure society that this unnatural, criminal woman was no longer a moral threat. While A Desperate Chance played across the country for years following the crime, Soffel's attempt to reclaim her life through a career in the theatre was met with opposition, particularly in her home region. This article serves as an act of feminist reclamation by documenting Soffel's involvement with the Biddles as well as her attempt to reenter society, a period heretofore unexamined in her life, and intervenes in the current historical narrative by painting her as a model not of submissive femininity but of feminist subversion. Peter Soffel and Kate Dietrich were married in the German Evangelical Protestant Church in Pittsburgh on December 9, 1886.4 They started a family within the first years of marriage and had four children. Aside from her duties as a mother, Soffel regularly ministered to men incarcerated at the Allegheny County Jail, where her husband was the warden. This was how she came into contact with Ed and Jack Biddle in 1901, as they sat waiting for their execution dates. The Biddles were sentenced to execution for fatally shooting a Mount Washington grocer named Thomas Kahney during a robbery in April 1901. Police profiled the Biddles and an accomplice named Walter Dorman, who were understood to be members of a group of robbers known as the Chloroform Gang. The day following the shooting in Mount Washington, police arrested Dorman and his common-law wife, Jennie Seebers, at their residence. At another house nearby, authorities arrested Jack Biddle on the ground floor before a shoot-out began upstairs. By the end of the skirmish, a police officer was killed, Ed Biddle was in custody but close to death, and a woman named Jessie Bodyne was arrested while trying to flee.5 The Biddles were the only two of...

Mapping Out Socio-Cultural Decadence on the Female Body: Sadeq Chubak's Gowhar in Sange-e Sabur

Mapping Out Socio-Cultural Decadence on the Female BodySadeq Chubak's Gowhar in Sange-e Sabur Claudia Yaghoobi (bio) introduction Sang-e Sabur (The Patient Stone, 1966) is Sadeq Chubak's last and arguably most acclaimed work. Sang-e Sabur is set in a collapsing house in Shiraz where Ahmad Aqa, Gowhar, Kakolzari, Jahansoltan, Belqeys, and Belqeys's opium-addicted and impotent husband live. Seyf ol-Qalam, an Indian doctor, and a moralist, who lives outside this house, desires to cleanse the world from venereal diseases through murdering pimps and prostitutes. The story is based on a series of actual murders, which occurred in Shiraz in the 1930s.1 It begins when Ahmad Aqa, a young schoolteacher who dreams of becoming a writer, gets concerned about Gowhar's disappearance. The divorced Gowhar supports her little son, Kakolzari, and her invalid ex-maid, Jahansoltan, through sigheh (temporary) marriage, which is considered prostitution by the other characters of the novel. Gowhar, however, was once permanently married to Hajji Esma'il. Although she was much younger than he, she was his favorite wife and seemed to be content in her marriage. But due to their jealousy, Gowhar's co-wives concocted a story of infidelity in regard to Kakolzari's birth and forced Hajji Esma'il to divorce Gowhar. Thereafter, Gowhar began practicing sigheh marriages to survive and provide for her family. Chubak wrote Sang-e Sabur during one of the most momentous and bewildering times in modern Iran in the 1960s. This was a time of fear, despair, and anxiety, and the shadow of this desperation can be felt in the literature of the period. In terms of gender relations, this was a time when outwardly women were given some prominence and rights, such as access to education, employment, or even in choosing their future spouses, but it was also a time of uncertainty. [End Page 206] According to Cyrus Schayegh, "the rapid sociocultural transformation of modern urban society and its debilitating effects on women … women's increasing integration into the work force and their presence in the public sphere … [were seen as factors undermining] their maternal role and instinct."2 On the one hand, most of these changes, such as the access to education and employment, were beneficial to women. On the other hand, however, these reforms were viewed as threats to the institutions of marriage, family, and motherhood. The dangers of modern life stood at the heart of the idea of female criminality, best known via prostitution. The female sexual drive was viewed as biologically constructed by maternal instinct; that is, it was believed that women who were mothers would not have become criminals due to their responsibilities toward their family. Hence there was a divide between the figure of aberrant criminal-prostitute-woman and the mother-woman.3 It was a time of apparent progress and modernization as envisaged by the nation, and yet also a precursor to the revolts that culminated in the Islamic revolution of 1979. Even though the setting of the story is believed to be the 1930s, Sang-e Sabur highlights anxieties and uncertainties still pertinent in the 1960s, particularly regarding gender relations. While these changes of urbanization and modernization began from the Constitutional period (1906–1911), they took a solid shape during the interwar period. Previous scholarship has investigated the socio-cultural and moral decadence of the time within Persian literature and in Sadeq Chubak's Sang-e Sabur. Examining Persian literature written by women, Farzaneh Milani's Veils and Words explores the divided male-female world of the time and the harsh and immoral socio-cultural measures taken toward women. Milani shows how women's bodies were confined and their voices silenced; yet women such as Forugh Farrokhzad broke their silences and moved away from tradition.4 Likewise, focusing on Sang-e Sabur, Liora Hendelman-Baavur's article "Grotesque Corporeality and Literary Aesthetics in Sadeq Chubak's The Patient Stone" discusses the ways in which oppressive religious, class, and gender systems of the time dictate the world of Sang-e Sabur. Hendelman-Baavur's focus is an examination of grotesque female bodily conditions within Sang-e Sabur.5 While Hendelman-Baavur and...

Mad, Bad or Sad? The Historical Persecution of Women and the Birth of Female Criminality

Throughout history the notion of the ‘female criminal’ has been something of a taboo, an almost morbid curiosity to male dominated societies. As such through misogynist crusades they have attempted to eradicate the world of any women who did not meet the criteria that society dictates. Women who were outspoken and passionate were condemned. Numerous methods were employed to keep women in their place. From the early persecution of witch-hunts in the 15th-17th century to the medicalization of their melancholy in the Victorian era, women were suppressed. Early criminologists ‘discovered’ the biological elements of female criminality and contemporary Criminal Justice System and the mainstream media perpetuated this image. In doing so the disdain from the general public towards criminal women has grown. Often the combination of public hatred and the media’s macabre portrayal creates something of a modern day witch-hunt against these women. Perhaps this is because events of the past ‘demonstrate’ women behaving badly or because of misogyny so deeply ingrained within out society that we cannot escape it. These beliefs that women are fundamentally, biologically evil have seeped into mainstream societal systems that aim to serve the people but instead persecute an entire sub-section of society.

ПСИХОСОЦІАЛЬНІ ОСОБЛИВОСТІ ЖІНОК, ЯКІ ВЧИНИЛИ НАСИЛЬНИЦЬКІ ЗЛОЧИНИ У СТАНІ АЛКОГОЛЬНОГО СП’ЯНІННЯ

This article is dedicated to the issue of female criminality; namely, individual characteristics and structure of violent crimes; and study of possible predictive factors of how such behavior is formed. Today we are able to examine other aspects of female behavior: violent criminal actions, which have earlier been more typical in males. Such changes are stipulated by the fact that women have been accepting more male roles, including consumption of psychoactive substances. The conducted research stipulates that a significant share of aggressive crimes among females are committed in the state of alcohol intoxication and are not always directed against their closest social circle. Crimes committed in the state of alcohol intoxication are characterized exclusively by the absence of any relationships with the victim of a crime; namely, socially dangerous actions committed in the course of joint consumption of alcoholic beverages. As a result of summarizing the psychological research data and materials of criminal proceedings (conclusions of forensic examinations), comparative analysis conducted in women in regards to their characteristics allowed to pinpoint their psychosocial characteristics, peculiarities in relationships with others, the most common type of response in conflict situations, and potential influence of mentioned factors on further criminal behavior. It was established that despite the absence of statistical difference in conditions of upbringing of women (deprivation of parental care, alcoholic parents, etc.), asocial forms of behavior in the past were mainly demonstrated by women who later on committed crimes in the state of alcohol intoxication. The research cites that low level of obtained education, as established, later on reflected such characteristics in women as low level of general knowledge, underdeveloped cognitive activity, which was manifested itself in low-level demands, primitiveness, practicality and narrowness of interests. In this research, we draw attention to characteristics of the victim for the purpose of a more profound analysis of how criminal behavior is formed in females. This analysis proved that one of the predictive factors of violent actions is influence of alcohol on a person. This, along with psychosocial characteristics of females, alters perception of conflicted relationships with others, hinders prediction of far-going consequences of one's own behavior and stipulates the manner of interaction with the environment. Through studying the crime structure and social interaction of females, we have presented an opinion on a crucial affect of alcohol on the behavior during a violation of law. This is especially obvious in how impulsive the choice of weapon is during the offense as well as in post-criminal behavior of offenders.

Verbal Disagreeing Strategies in Detective Conan Movie Series

This study is meant to investigate the ways of male and female criminals express types of verbal disagreeing strategies in Detective Conan movie series. To collect the data, 30 criminals (15 males, 15 females) were selected among hundreds of criminals appeared in the movie. The criminals were expected to disagree with 6 chosen interlocutors when they do debate over the accusation pointed to the criminals. The types of disagreeing strategies which help the researcher to analyze the disagreeing strategies in criminals are based on Muntigl and Turnbull taxonomy (in Behnam&Niroomand, 2011:208). Qualitative content analysis is chosen to examine the criminals’ disagreeing strategies. The results show that male criminals performed more disagreeing strategies by applying 56 disagreements, and female criminals applied 48 disagreements. From those disagreements, it is found new types of disagreeing strategies in addition to the types from the taxonomy of Muntigl and Turnbull (in Behnam & Niroomand, 2011:208)

The Criminological Construction of Female Mediumship in Early Twentieth-Century Germany

ABSTRACT During the early twentieth century, several prominent fraud trials that featured mediums as defendants captured public attention in Germany. Of particular note were the trials of the “flower medium” Anna Rothe in 1902 and the criminal-telepath Else Günther-Geffers in 1928, which were given substantial coverage in the German daily press. While these sensational trials focused the public on the question of the reality of mediumistic phenomena and psychical researchers on discovering the mechanism by which mediums achieved their supernormal feats, a small number of jurists and criminologists used such cases to explore the nature of female criminality. Among them was the criminologist Erich Wulffen, whose books Psychologie des Verbrechers (Psychology of the criminal) and Das Weib als Sexualverbrecherin (Woman as sexual criminal) used Rothe and Günther-Geffers as examples of a particular type of criminal: the hysterical female swindler.

Gender and Risk Assessment in Juvenile Offenders: A Meta-Analysis

Although young males are still the primary perpetrators of juvenile crime, the percentage of girls experiencing criminal justice system contact has risen. To identify effective interventions and address public concerns regarding juvenile crime, scholars and practitioners have assessed recidivism risk using tools such as the Youth Level of Service (YLS) Inventory. While the appropriateness of using gender-neutral tools to assess female criminality in adult correctional populations has been debated, mixed findings regarding juvenile risk-assessment tools have not provided definitive answers. To address these concerns, separate meta-analyses were conducted for male and female juvenile offenders. Specifically, mean effect sizes were compared to determine whether predictive validity varies by sex. Results largely indicate that the YLS/Case Management Inventory (CMI) works equally well for a variety of subgroups, including recidivism type, recidivism outcome, geographical location, and sample characteristics. The implications of these findings for theory, research, and correctional policy are discussed.

Assessing on Female Criminality: A Case Study of Varanasi District Jail

The paper is written with an objective of understanding female criminality with special reference to a case study of Varanasi District jail containing almost eightythree under trial and convicted prisoners. The aim of the paper is to compare the de- facto condition of women prisoners with the de- jure provisions mentioned in U.P. Jail manual. Since the jail manuals are framed in the light of Prison Act, 1894, several suggestions have been given for reformation in jail by making amendments in the provision of Prison Act, 1894 and Model Prison Act, 2003. The paper also attempts to compare the U.P. Jail manual with the provisions of Model Prison Act, 2003with special reference to women prisoners, so that viable suggestions can be made to improve and reform the condition of women prisoners.

Association between schizophrenia and violence among Chinese female offenders

Little is known about the association between schizophrenia and violence in women in China. This study aimed to examine the association between schizophrenia and violence in Chinese female offenders. Fifty-two schizophrenia patients were identified from the female offenders who received forensic psychiatric assessments in 2011 in Hunan province, China. Using a propensity score matching method, 104 matched controls without psychiatric disorders were selected from female criminals in Hunan province. Violent offences and homicides were verified and recorded. The percentages of violent offences and homicides were significantly higher in female offenders with schizophrenia than in controls (78.8% vs. 30.8%, P < 0.001; 44.2% vs. 18.3%, P = 0.001, respectively). Multivariate logistic regression analyses revealed that diagnosis of schizophrenia, younger age at first offence, living in rural area and a lower education level were independently and positively associated with violent offences, while having a diagnosis of schizophrenia and lower education level were associated with homicides. There appears to be an independent and positive association between schizophrenia and violent offence in Chinese female offenders. Effective preventive approaches on violence in female schizophrenia patients are warranted.

A study of the impact of child and adolescent abuse on personality disorders in adult women

IntroductionResearches on female offenders have indicated a high degree of psychiatric morbidity amongst women. Since the rates of female criminality are rising it would appear important to conduct the study of the relationship between criminal behaviour and psychiatric diagnoses in female offenders.ObjectivesThe main purpose of this investigation is to find out origins of crimes in women and to reveal the influence of child and adolescent maltreatment on personality disorders in adult women.MethodsClinical psychopathological, psychological, statistical.ResultsA cohort of 24 females with diagnosis of personality disorders was examined. All of them had committed crimes of violence. In the majority of the sample women had a previous history of psychiatric admissions (child psychiatric hospitals, adolescent units). The retrospective review revealed that the majority of women in their childhood were exposed to emotional, physical and sexual abuse in their families. Our results point that maltreatment may distort personality formation and social adjustment and contribute to behavior problems, negative relation to socialization and criminal behavior in adulthood.ConclusionThe study revealed that psychiatric disorders in childhood and adolescence are predictive of adult criminality in females. This findings may be used as prognostic indicators of development of aggression in female forensic patients.The study is supported by the Russian Fund of Fundamental Investigations 6-06-00314Disclosure of interestThe authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Female criminality in Russia: a research note from a penal colony

ABSTRACTThis article assesses various factors contributing to fluctuating rates of female crime in Russia between 1991 and present. The author uses existing data and modern scientific literature regarding female crime in Russia as a framework for the study. The goal of this article, based on empirical research, is to show trends and tendencies of female crime specifically. The study was done in March 2013 in the Russian penal colony of Vladivostok. A total of 212 women aged between 18 and 64 years were interviewed. Ultimately, the study’s findings will inform trends in female crime, and will contribute to the continued development of more effective crime prevention programmes in Russia.

An Exploratory Study of Female Psychopathy and Drug-Related Violent Crime.

There is a clear link between drugs and violence, and the extensive burden drug-related violence inflicts on society. However, drug-related violence is largely understudied, especially in female populations. The aim of the present study was to explore whether women convicted of drug-related violent crime differed on individual-level risk factors from women convicted of a nondrug-related violent crime and women convicted of nonviolent crimes. One hundred and twenty-five female inmates were classified using official criminal records. Multinomial logistic regression indicated inmates higher in antisocial psychopathic traits and low level of educational attainment were more likely to be in the drug-related violent crime group. In comparison, inmates higher in callous psychopathic traits were more likely to be in the nondrug-related violent crime group. Using official records of prison misconduct, a secondary aim tested whether prison violence increased the likelihood of being in either of the violent crime groups. Results show inmates who had committed violent misconducts over a 6-month period were more likely to be the nondrug-related violent crime group. Prison violence did not differentiate inmates in the nonviolent crime group from the drug-related violent crime group. These findings are the first to explore the relation between psychopathy and drug-related violent crime, and drug-related violent crime predicting future violent behavior in female criminals. This study demonstrates the heterogeneity in female violent behavior. Furthermore, psychopathy is not only shown to be an important risk factor for violence in women but also highlights that the dimensional construct is essential for understanding context-dependent violence.

Criminalizing Vulnerability

This article aims to uncover how, in attempting to ameliorate the vulnerability of children, the offence of ‘causing or allowing the death of the child’ criminalizes abused mothers. It explores how, in the courtroom, tropes of female criminality and constructs of the ‘bad’ mother are mobilized in ways that are both gendered and ‘classed’. The effect is to silence female defendants, deprive their actions of context, and deny them agency. This argument has implications for assessing the moral and legal culpability of abused women who fail to protect their children, because it shifts the focus onto how the abuser has exploited and exacerbated the vulnerability of both mother and child. This approach also challenges law’s preoccupation with scrutinizing (and punishing) women who do not adhere to a glorified, middle-class ideal of motherhood. More broadly, by focusing on the context of a woman’s alleged ‘failure’, there opens a space within legal discourse to refute the characterization of female criminality as being either ‘mad’ or bad, and of women who engage in criminal behaviour as being either ‘virgins’ or ‘whores’. Finally, in focusing on vulnerability as a universal and unavoidable part of the human experience, gendered assumptions of autonomy and the self/other dichotomy are challenged.

Gender and Crime in Russian History

An introduction is presented where in the editor discusses articles published in the issue on topics including history of crime and criminality in Russia, themes on gender and crime, and rise in female criminality.

Eu, Prisioneira de Mim: Análise da Influência da Violência de Gênero na Inserção da Mulher no Mundo do Crime

O presente artigo aborda a condição de mulheres em situação de prisão, sob uma diferente perspectiva, através da análise do contexto em torno da criminalidade feminina, e não apenas da visualização do ato criminoso em si. O desenvolvimento deste trabalho, construído a partir dos métodos: teórico bibliográfico e qualitativo, pauta-se em coletas de dados oriundas de dois projetos realizados na Delegacia Especializada de Proteção à Criança e ao Adolescente em Aracaju/SE e na Penitenciária Feminina da Capital Paulista. Busca-se com a análise dos citados projetos, demonstrar a influência da violência de gênero na inserção das mulheres no “mundo do crime”.