Crime Among Female Offenders Essay

685 Words2 Pages

Ghiselle Decruise
English 8
March

CRIME RATE INCREASE AMONG FEMALE OFFENDERS

Crimes committed by female offenders are rising at an alarming rate. “ Between 1985 and 2002, the overall number of delinquency cases for girls increased 92 percent.” “From 2000 to 2009, the number of women incarcerated in state or federal prisons rose by 21.6 percent.” The same reason that women have more opportunities in society than before also tend to engage in more crimes . Moreover, the court systems once lenient on how they treated and judged the female offenders have become more strict on the way they handle the crimes that they commit with harsher rulings. (The Future,1)
Female juveniles are observed to commit certain crimes more than others . Some of the crimes mostly committed by female juveniles are assault, theft, and alcohol/drug use. Out of these three crimes mentioned, assault was the most committed crime. " The female proportion of juvenile arrests for simple assault grew from 21% in 1980 to 37% in 2012." It is also documented that …show more content…

Some of these risk factors are mental illness, peer pressure especially among girls , females who come from dysfunctional and low income families , Sexually and physically abused females , early onset puberty, and neighborhood environment. "Twenty three percent of the women doing crimes have mental illnesses." The mentally ill are faced with many barriers such as delay treatment, misdiagnosed or untreated mental issues . As a result , the mentally ill are frequently arrested for various crimes . The economic decline and increased poverty is a major factor among women offenders. Women who are faced with such hardships lose their sense of responsibility of being a good citizen . These women have low self- esteem , are desperate and can easily be commit crimes or influenced by others to do so.(The

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