THEME 9
FEMALE CRIME
De Hart, D.D. (2018) Women’s pathways to crime: A heuristic typology of offenders.
Criminal Justice and Behaviour, 45 (10): 1461-1482.
The value of the feminist pathways perspective on crime can be summarised as
follows:
• The focus is placed on the distinctive risks that girls and women face which
contribute to their entry into or escalation of criminal offending.
• It acknowledges that girls and women are differently exposed to, or respond in a
different manner, to risks for criminal behaviour compared to boys and men.
• The perspective concedes that gender-neutral factors such as education, criminal
history, and criminal networks are associated with both women’s and men’s crime
and recidivism.
• However, the perspective highlights that there also exists gender-specific factors
such as victimisation and mental health that play a more prominent role in the
criminal offending of women than that of men.
• It notes differences in criminal development not only between men and women,
but also within groups of women.
• The perspective has explanatory value with reference to the aetiology (causes)
and progression of women offending.
• The perspective has pragmatic applicability in terms of:
o addressing risks for women offending;
o identifying resource and programming needs for women; and
o responsivity to justice and service intervention for women.
The below are some of the most noteworthy contributions to the feminist pathways
perspective in Criminology:
• The feminist pathways perspective is based on research published in the late
1980s and early 1990s, when Chesney-Lind highlighted the inadequacy of major
Criminology delinquency theories to explain the behaviour of young women who are
in conflict with the criminal justice system. Chesney-Lind noted that society
criminalised the survival strategies of young girls, such as running away from abuse
at home and self-medicating with substances.
• Gilfus, in a qualitative analysis of the life histories of 20 incarcerated women,
elaborated on the themes of violence, neglect and loss in the backgrounds of female
offenders. She found that the marginalisation of women and girls from the
mainstream, pushed them into criminal subcultures. She highlighted the gendered
nature of women’s options within these criminal subcultures, pointing to the fact that
different pathways to crime exist for men and women.
• Daly used court reports and transcripts to identify subsets of cases based on
characteristics such as female offenders’ past victimisation, substance use and
criminal histories.
Rachel Tapson
, • Her qualitative analyses of 40 cases generated the following typology of
women offenders based on their pathways to felony court (note that the
pathways are organised from the most frequent to the least frequent):
o The most frequent pathway to court was labelled “harmed and harming
women.”
▪ Women grouped into this pathway experienced chaotic childhoods
characterised by physical and/or emotional abuse.
▪ Their histories of victimisation were linked to addiction, inability to cope
and behavioural acting out.
o “Street women” were the next most frequent pathway.
▪ They ran away from abusive households or were forced out of such
households.
▪ Women grouped into this pathway typically survived through making a
living on the street through prostitution, theft and drug dealing.
o The next most frequent group was labelled “battered women.”
▪ Although other women in the sample may have experienced intimate
partner violence (IPV), Daly was convinced that these women were
unlikely to have ended up in felony court had they not been involved with
abusive men.
o The next most frequent group was labelled “drug-connected women”.
▪ They were involved with drugs via their relationships with partners or
family members.
o The least frequent group was simply labelled “Others”
▪ comprised of women who committed crimes in response to immediate
economic circumstances or greed.
• Richie examined the role of racial and gendered marginalisation in women’s
pathways to crime. She included 37 black and white incarcerated women in her
study. Some of the women had experienced IPV while others had not. She isolated
the following six pathways which pushed or compelled black battered women to
commit crime:
- “Women held hostage” were in severely abusive relationships and were too
isolated and afraid to reach out for help. Several women who were arrested for
the death of one of their children comprised this group.
- “Projection and association” included women who directed violence at men other
than the batterer in a symbolic or projected retaliation for past abuse.
- “Sexual exploitation” included women who were involved in illegal sex work. The
women in this group perceived this source of income as their only viable option
after having been subjected to early or repeated incidents of child sexual
victimisation.
- “Fighting back” included women who directed acts of arson, property damage or
assaults toward their batterers.
- “Poverty” included women who committed economically motivated crimes. The
life histories of women in this group typically pointed to the fact that their partners
portrayed themselves as more vulnerable to law enforcement, which they used to
coerce women into committing crimes.
Rachel Tapson
, - “Addiction” included women arrested for drug crimes. For women in this group,
drug use was a means of connecting with their partners.
Richie identified the following elements of gender entrapment for black battered
women in the United States of America:
- Criminal activities as a response to violence or a threat thereof.
- Crimes as extensions of internalised gender roles and racial identity.
- Black women perceive their role as protectors of black men, who are
vulnerable to institutionalised racism.
- Some women turn themselves in to authorities as a strategy to avoid abuse.
• Simpson, Yahner and Dugan quantitatively tested factors represented in Daly’s
typology, using 351 jailed women awaiting trial or disposition. Their factor
analysis identified two distinct groups of “street women”, namely (i) a group
representing a high number of lifetime arrests, incarceration and felony
convictions; and (ii) a group representing strong links with criminal networks.
Among “harmed and harming” women the factor analysis revealed strong
associations with serious childhood abuse, violent victimisation and offensive
violence in adulthood, including both partner and non-partner violent incidents.
For “drug-connected” women a strong association was found with unemployment,
drug use, drug dealing and drug-involvement of partners, as well as use of
defensive violence against partners. Among “battered women” strong
associations were identified with violent victimisation, but not defensive violence.
These women sometimes co-offended with partners in property crimes unrelated
to substance use. Among the “other women” pathway a strong association was
identified with older women from two-parent homes with later ages of criminal
onset and sexual activity.
• Salisbury and Van Voorhis conducted path analyses using risk/needs
assessment data from 313 female probationers to predict recidivism. The following
three models were identified for repeat offending:
- A childhood-victimisation model wherein trauma impacted depression, anxiety and
substance abuse.
- A relational model wherein dysfunctional adult relationships contributed to adult
victimisation, low self-efficacy, depression, anxiety and substance abuse.
- A social capital model wherein deficits in self-efficacy, support and education
contributed to low employment, financial difficulties and imprisonment.
• Brennan, Breitenbach and Dieterich used a person-centred quantitative
approach to identify latent subgroups of girls and women with similar profiles based
on risk/needs assessment findings. The researchers highlighted the complexity of
grouping women offenders along dimensions such victimisation, mental health,
relationships, housing, and family background. They identified the following four
overarching groups of women in a sample of 718 soon-to-be released incarcerated
women (with two subgroups within each overarching group mainly distinguished by
their age and parenting status):
Rachel Tapson
