Gender Differences in Crime. Media, Crime and Gender (PDF)

Academic Paper from the year 2017 in the subject Sociology - Law, Delinquency, Abnormal Behavior, grade: 74.00, University of Malta (Faculty for Social Wellbeing), course: B.A. (Hons) Social Wellbeing Studies, language: English, abstract: When it comes to crime, males and females are different. The types of crimes that they commit differ from each other and even the level of aggressiveness. But what causes these differences? And what type of crime differences are there? Also, does the media help promote crime? The aim of this paper is to try and answer these questions and specify the gender differences found in crime. Furthermore, theories that can help explain these differences will be analysed.

It is a well-known fact that males have higher rates of offending than their female counterparts. Indeed, Jones states that females have lower arrest rates than males for virtually all crime categories except prostitution. This is accurate for every historical period and for all racial and ethnic groups, in all countries where data is available. Male offenders occupy over 90 % of the prison population whereas females occupy less than 10 % of the prison cells.

Although several researchers argue that female offending is increasing at a faster, higher rate than that compared to males, men are still at a majority for registered crime. Consequently, many people tend to believe that males are natural-born criminals, but to which extent is this true? Like various other experts, Abrahams mentioned that there are certain biological differences which influence these results. In fact, there are arguments in which experts say that it is due to biological differences that males end up committing more crime.