Explaining Increasing Female Crime in the later half of the 20th Century: The Liberationist Perspective
Last Updated on March 5, 2019 by Karl Thompson
Freda Adler proposed that the emancipation of women and increased economic opportunities for women lead to an increase in the female crime rate. Her basic idea was that as women attain social positions similar to men, and as the employment patterns of men and women become similar, so too do their related crimes. Adler claimed to have found a cross-national correlation between levels of women’s economic freedoms and their crime levels.
One evaluation of Adler is found in the Marginalistaion Thesis which states that women’s Liberation has indeed lead to increased job opportunities for women, but women are much more likely to be employed in part-time and/or low paid jobs which are unrewarding and insecure. This has led to the creation of a ‘pink collar ghetto’ – with women suffering higher levels of economic deprivation than men.
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women’s liberation thesis
A perspective that suggests that increases in women’s arrests are due to the expansion of criminal opportunities that they were offered. Developed by Freda Adler, the theory emerged in relation to the women’s movement in the United States in the 1960s, which resulted in expanded opportunities for women to participate in the workforce. As they gained opportunities for conventional employment, the theory argues, so too would they have more opportunities within unconventional employment (i.e. crime). This thesis has been used to support the notion that gang membership has allowed females to achiever a greater sense of liberation, empowerment, autonomy, and freedom.... ...
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Liberation/Emancipation, Economic Marginalization, or Less Chivalry. The Relevance of Three Theoretical Arguments to Female Crime Patterns in England and Wales, 1951-1980
1984, Criminology
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Gender difference is clearly visible in pattern of crime all over the world. The phenomenon of crime is dominated by males. The gap increases more going up the age, degree of escalation and urbanization. The crimes are usually committed by young urban males. The female criminals are very less in number and this number further declines as the age is increased. There is even less chances of female recidivists. Due to this the criminological research has been dedicated towards the study of male offenders only and the female criminality was discussed only after the beginning of 19th century. Many theories have been suggested to explain female deviance. The biological school associates criminality with the physiology of the offender, the psychological school with sexual drives and other emotions, the sociological school with social environment, upbringing and sex role of the offender and others with a combination of the factors. There is yet another group which associates it with the feminist liberation and in turn feminist base it in oppression, marginalisation and victimization of women. The statistical data shows a clear gender gap in deviance and males are also dominating those offenses which are associated with females. The gap increases when the age bar is increased. The women commit less acts of violence and almost negligible sexual offences. These Statistics are not beyond criticism as there is huge difference in actual victimization, reporting and convictions. The methodology of research is also subjective and different from one another. After the end of 19th century there has been huge increase in female offenders and many women have dominated some crimes which are thought to be masculine crimes like terrorism, serial killings, human and drug trafficking, mafia, gang wars, etc. It has been associated with greater opportunity, women's liberation movement, etc.
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Criminology, 1983
Gender difference is clearly visible in pattern of crime all over the world. The phenomenon of crime is dominated by males. The gap increases more going up the age, degree of escalation and urbanization. The crimes are usually committed by young urban males. The female criminals are very less in number and this number further declines as the age is increased. There are even less chances of female recidivists. Due to this the criminological research has been dedicated towards the study of male offenders only and the female criminality was discussed only after the beginning of 19th century. Many theories have been suggested to explain female deviance. The biological school associates criminality with the physiology of the offender, the psychological school with sexual drives and other emotions, the sociological school with social environment, upbringing and sex role of the offender and others with a combination of the factors. There is yet another group which associates it with the feminist liberation and in turn feminist base it in oppression, marginalisation and victimization of women. There is a strong need to integrate these varying theoretical perspectives to devise a holistic approach towards understanding the true nature and extant of female deviancy. The integrative approach is a recent trend in criminological research to study the phenomenon by combining multiple variables like societal control and pressures, mental and physical health, occupation, opportunities, economic status, etc. The statistical data shows a clear gender gap in deviance and males are also dominating those offenses which are associated with females. The gap increases when the age bar is increased. The women commit less acts of violence and almost negligible sexual offences. These Statistics are not beyond criticism as there is huge difference in actual victimization, reporting and convictions. The methodology of research is also subjective and different from one another. After the end of 19th century there has been huge increase in female offenders and many women have dominated some crimes which are thought to be masculine crimes like terrorism, serial killings, human and drug trafficking, mafia, gang wars, etc. It has been associated with greater opportunity, women's liberation movement, etc. In India, as anywhere else, there has been increasing instances of female offenders making their name in the criminal arena. Women have dominated many crime syndicates including terrorism, dacoity, money laundering, mafia, human and drug trafficking, etc.
Australian Journal of Social Issues, 1979
This study reconceptualizes and tests liberation and economic marginality hypothe-ses as complementary explanations for female offending patterns. Both explanations are relevant in explaining female crime, but need to be reframed as interacting forces not opposing theories. It is suggested that economic marginality is in part a conse-quence of liberation, where the expectation of women’s independence may not be con-sistent with their actual social circumstances. This study also assesses the explana-tory power of this model for both male and female conviction rates. Results from a pooled time series, least squares with dummy variables, cross-national analysis sup-ports this reformulated model. Although this model is a good predictor of female con-viction rates, it does not appear to be good a predictor of male conviction rates. Female conviction rates are significantly affected by male employment status, indi-cating that social conditions that are linked to female crime are a functio...
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Explaining Increasing Female Crime in the later half of the 20th Century: The Liberationist Perspective. Last Updated on March 5, 2019 by Karl Thompson. Freda Adler proposed that the emancipation of women and increased economic opportunities for women lead to an increase in the female crime rate.
women’s liberation thesis. A perspective that suggests that increases in women’s arrests are due to the expansion of criminal opportunities that they were offered. Developed by Freda Adler, the theory emerged in relation to the women’s movement in the United States in the 1960s, which resulted in expanded opportunities for women to ...
They seem to be involved in criminal activity through social, environmental, cultural, professional, background, and religious influences (Adler, 1975). The mechanisms of Adler’s theory are the following: (1) Females may not stray. from the acceptable dictated behavior defined by society; (2) As females gained more.
liberation on female crime are evaluated by examining the types of crimes committed by women, the role of employment in crime, women's association with men, and sex-role attitudes of female offenders.
In this paper, I propose a new theory that ascribes the increasing female crime share to unequal emancipatory advancement between women’s ideological aspirations and institutional means in modern times.
The popular notion that the women's movement is responsible for an increase female crime oversimplifies the concept of liberation. Distinctions are made be- tween women's traditionality or nontraditionality in various roles-societal, or interpersonal, and within the realm of the criminal act itself. Data derived from.
in Crime: The Rise of the New Female Criminal. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1975, 287 pp., $3.95. Reviewer: Anne K. Peters*. The force of the women's liberation movement, not surprisingly, has stirred several sociologists to publish research on the criminality of women (for instance, the book being reviewed here; Klein and.
This study explores the empirical grounds for bridging the gender gap between liberation theories of female crime by integrating selected concepts from strain and liberation theses to explain female delinquency and gender differences in delinquency.
Freda Adler’s ‘liberation thesis’ (Adler 1975) challenged this orthodoxy, casting a long shadow over the theorization of women’s deviance and criminality. She claimed that as women gained access to the world of work they would seek security and status ‘criminal as well as civil, through established male hierarchical channels’ (Adler 1975: 11).
Wherever the sociological “truth’’ may lie between these positions, it is clear that the researchers employed different methodologies to investigate the alleged relationship between women’s emancipation/liberation and female crime.