Essay On Female Crime

R&R Assignment 1
Statistics show that female crimes have increased in the last thirty years. There are many different reasons why women crimes have increased. Biological, psychological, and sociological factors all contribute to why female crime occurs. Everyday in our society we see more female crimes trending on the news, on the internet, and even on Netflix. “Orange Is The new Black” is a television series that revolves around Piper Chapman, a woman in her thirties living in New York City, who is sentenced to 15 months in Litchfield Penitentiary, a minimum-security women federal prison in upstate New York. This chapter illustrates what crimes are usually committed by women and why they commit them.
Feminist criminology is a pretty new

area of research in the criminology field. This has helped us move toward a better understanding of female criminality and finding the criminogenic factors across the life of a woman who has had run ins with the law (Wormer and Bartollas). Women crimes include property crimes, prostitution, drug-related, robbery, murder and many more. One crime that is set apart by women is prostitution. “Described by some as the “oldest profession” for women, prostitution seemingly provides a lucrative environment for the exchange of sex for money between consenting adults” (Valandra, 2007). Women get into prostitution through drug abuse or through financial complications making it a means of income. When most people think of prostitution they think of “hookers” or “street walkers”. These are low end prostitutes that will also have sex in exchange for drugs. But the prostitution business is way bigger than that and has been for years. There are more expensive and profitable “escort service” businesses that are very pricey. These businesses have been raided and have been at a constant battle with law enforcement for years.
One case that I have found to be the most interesting was when Mary Kay LeTourneau a teacher in Seattle, who was 36 had sex with her student that was only 13. They claimed they were in love and she got pregnant with his baby while behind bars. This is one case that has been argued and debated about. Many criminologist and psychologists say that it is rape and that she should have been put behind bars longer. The man claims that even then it was consensual and when she was released from jail they got married when he was of age.The couple is still married though today after ten years and claim to still be in love.
A mental disorder that does occur in many female offenders is depression.

A huge psychological factor that is very crucial to a woman’s behavior is her childhood. Physical and sexual abuse in childhood and adult hood leads to many mental health problems. Almost over 70 percent of women in state institutions have mental health problems and 68 percent had prior childhood abuse incidents.
Sociology is the scientific study of social behavior, its origins, development, organization, and institutions. There are also many sociological explanations and theories to why why women demonstrate much delinquent behavior. The opportunity theory says that blocked opportunity in a society that values material success can lead to antisocial behavior. The most popular crimes in in the opportunity theory are economic crimes such as embezzlement.
Females that come from the inner city and have grown up in poverty tend to start a life of crime more so than women of the middle class. Women growing up in the city are exposed to more drugs, violence, and teen pregnancies at a much younger age. Growing up around this sort of problems, women may tend to get caught up in crime. Although, women in the middle class who commit crime, usually commit more “white collar” crime, like embezzlement or

gambling.
There are many reasons women commit crimes just like there are for men. Women are a lot different than men and at one time less than 10% were in jail. It will be interesting to see where statistics will go in the next twenty years. Hopefully more women will take the right path and not choose to live a life of crime.