Female Crime Statistics

There has always been a discrepancy between crime rates for males and females. The total prison population in England and Wales at 30 June 2015 was 86,000, which the proportion of females representing only 5% of the population (Ministry of Justice, 2016). To large extent I agree with the view since the huge disparity between male and female crime rates as the data shown above. Although some people argued that there is a significant increase in female criminality over the past thirty years, females still account for less than 15% of all arrests (Shover, et al. 1979). The following sections will examine the effect of under-reporting, the social visibility of offenders and other factors that affect on the view which crime is committed disproportionately

Young (2001) suggests official crime statistics, victim surveys, self-report surveys and other agencies as the four main ways to measure the crime in society. The Review of Crime Statistics for England and Wales (Home Office, 2000) noted two recognizable models of police recording practice: a prima facie model which faithfully records as crime the details of allegations made by the public and an evidential model which subjects complaints to some investigate selection prior to recording (Burrows et al., 2000). As a result, it is possible that many offences do not appear in the crime statistics as they may not be classified as an incident with respect to the models. Pollak (1950) highlights that females actually commit as many crimes as their male counterparts, but crimes committed by women went largely under-reported or hidden. For that reason, unreported crimes should be taken into consideration as these dark figures of crime are not included in the official crime count. As a consequence, the under-reporting contributes to the

Much male crime such as violent crimes involves clear victims and witness so that the rates of detection and conviction are relatively higher. On the contrary, female forms of crime may be less visible to the police, either because women were naturally more inclined toward deceit and concealment based on the biological differences in the sexes (Pollak, 1950) or because formal control agencies are less likely to police females. An ideological conception of both crime and criminals will be used by police as a guideline in their work. The more the idea of an association between males and crime become established, the more the process of criminalization begins to resemble a self-fulfilling prophecy (Smriti Bhosle, 2009). For instance, males will be regarded as the main potential offenders for profiling so that they are more likely to discover more male forms of crime which further ensures that the first picture they build up for target offenders is correct, resulting in continued profiling that targeted for males. Hence, police are more likely to pay attention to males criminal behaviour instead of females. However, recent technological developments such as CCTV, making it easier to both identify and deter offenders by increasing their social