Women And Crime Essay

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Recommended: Gender role of the 19th century

The purpose of this essay is to examine the issues and ideas concerning the early stereotypes of women and crime, as during the middle to late 19th century there became an increased interest in trying to come to some kind of explanation as to why people committed crime, for example looking into the biological and psychological issues. It was here that women weren’t necessarily seen to offend, but during very much of the late 19th century it came to light that women were being associated with particular types of crime, these mainly being prostitution and cruelty towards children, both of which were seen to go against their moral character within society. It was here that the issue around the idea of ‘baby-farming’ and women committing these types of crime came to the public-sphere and brought about a moral panic, and by using baby-farming as an example to explore, it becomes much clearer about the attitudes towards women and crime during this time.

Men and women led very much different lives, it was the idea that men belonged to the public sphere and women to the domestic sphere. It was at a time when men went to work to generate income for the family, socialised and held political power, whereas women on the other hand were confined to the home and left to raise the children, as well as doing the cooking and cleaning. Despite women’s roles mainly revolving around the home, their duties were important none the less and were considered as crucial for society by the Victorians, as demonstrated by Martin Wiener who states that a wife’s behaviour and character became more crucial than ever to the happiness and viability of the home . It was here in the nineteenth century that the ideal women was based on ‘Mary’- the ‘divine guide, p...

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...ng for baby-farming, both of these can be used to explore this issue further. Firstly it’s important to note here how these women were being represented, this is shown through Anette Ballinger’s description in which she puts it as the overall image presented is of a manipulative cunning and deceitful woman, as it was these women who were sinning against society and not conforming to the set standards. It was mainly perceived at this time that these baby-farmers were women who came from un-educated, working class backgrounds, and here it could be argued that their trials and end conclusion, that these women weren’t judged solely according to their crimes but also according to their conduct and behaviour as women, as it could be said that these women were looked upon and judged according to how they had acted against societies set standards of the ideal woman, rath

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