Buy essay on What are the implications of the current trend to ‘search for equivalence’ in women’s and men’s offending?

The United Kingdom has always been known as the country that gave birth to the suffragette movement and the struggle for female equality has always been one of the most discussed themes in the UK. It is not surprising that such a significant event as the suffragette movement and other equality organizations provided a he impact on the development of social, political and legal spheres of the country: “For years the United Kingdom had championed gender equality in public policy, in democratic institutions and through extensive anti-discrimination laws, but erasing disparity between the sexes was an “unfinished project” that the country’s officials were striving to complete through legislative reform and stronger women’s empowerment policies and programming, a parliamentary Under-Secretary and Minister for the East of England told the Women’s Anti-Discrimination Committee today” (Committee on Elimination of Discrimination against Women, 2008). This essay would examine the implications made due the current trend to “search for equivalence” in women’s and men’s offending. It is not surprising such a significant event as the struggle for equal rights for women (and it should be noted that it is lasting for more than hundred years already) has significantly impacted the criminal justice. There are a number of investigators who provided numerous researches dealing with the women’s and men’s offending and there has been developed principally different system of signifying the criminal activity for men and women separately. It is obvious that such a significant progress in criminology is closely connected with the fight for the gender equality. This essay would examine critically the other issues dealing with the gender equality in the sphere of criminology and their changes for the recent times.
History of the British Criminology. Brief Review of the Gender Question in the Past Compared to the Present.
It is a well known fact that for many years women were almost rightless in the United Kingdom (as well as in the whole world) and got to subject to the male power. That is why it is generally considered that women could not deal to the criminal activity and men are more subjected to the ill influence of the criminal world and this action move them to commit crime: “It is generally accepted that men commit more crime than women; a statistic that has led many to look for an explanation for such disparity between the sexes. One explanation has proposed that masculinity and crime are inherently linked, and apparent increases in female offending in recent years has led some to conclude that this must be the result of women’s increased masculinity” (Herrington & Nee, 2005, 1).

buy essay

This short paragraph would make a brief overview of the British criminology and gender question among them. It would be essential to mention that the United Kingdom criminology is closely connected with the names of such outstanding criminals like Jack the Ripper, Dr. Harold Shipman, Dennis Nilsen, Peter Sutcliffe, Jack the Stripper and many others we could hardly find three names of women, who listed their names in the British Criminal Chronicles. It is not surprising that during the history of British Criminology there could be hardly found a mention about women serial killers (probably Mary Ann Cotton is the most noticeable among the serial killers of the United Kingdom). The criminal activity in British detective stories often written by men is also mainly connected with the names of men, who written their names in the history of British Criminology and inspired a number of authors to create their outstanding novels. It goes without saying that among the most noticeable criminal figures of the United Kingdom we could hardly find women and it is not surprising: “Men outnumber women in all major crime categories. Between 85 and 95 per cent of offenders found guilty of burglary, robbery, drug offences, criminal damage or violence against the person are male. Although the number of offenders are relatively small, 98 per cent of people found guilty of, or cautioned for, sexual offences are male” (Office for National Statistics, 2004). Women did not seek for being noticeable figure in the Criminal society, such cases as Mary Ann Cotton are rather exceptions than the regular practice and according to the investigative data the majority of women are intended to participate in economical crimes: “Most female crime, according to any measure of female offending, is property crime, it is economic. Despite this, economic rationality, the dominant way of accounting for property crime generally, is the one explanation seldom offered when women enter the equation” (Davies, 1997). The historical observation of the statistical data shows that women participated in the criminal activity rarely then men. The peak of female “offending age” is observed nearly at the 15 for the male offenders its 18 and then the proportions are really slightly differentiate 56 percent for women and 59 percent for men at the age of 21 and higher. Theft is generally considered to be one of the most widely spread criminal activities as for men as well as for men and the statistical data of the recent years have signified a significant growth of female activity in this sphere: “Theft was the most commonly committed offence by both men and women in 2002. For indictable offences, 57 per cent of female offenders were found guilty of or cautioned for theft and handling stolen goods compared with 34 per cent of male offenders” (Office for National Statistics, 2004). It would be obvious to note that some contemporary investigators make a close connection between the growth of female criminal activity to the different feminist movement and struggle for the equal rights. Some investigators see the close connection of the women’s offending rising in the fact that among the European countries the United Kingdom is still observing significant differences in salaries of men and women and observation of the other rights. The crime is considered by some psychologists as certain attempt to realize themselves, as even in the sphere of British criminology women consider themselves to be mistreated: “Male offenders have been credited with the faculty of reasoning, women offenders have not. As with the popular stereotypes of women in society generally women offenders are portrayed as hysterical, irrational and incapable of being fully responsible for her actions and crimes due to her biology and sex” (Davies, 1997). Considering that British Criminal system of the past and the present is still portraying women as hysterical, irrational creatures, we should take into account that they mainly commit economic crimes and without any doubts this is closely connected to peculiarities of female psychic organization. The following paragraph would observe the patterns of offending behavior. British criminology developed significantly new approach in understanding men and women in committing the criminal action and this could be undoubtedly considered to be the serious progress in the criminology science.