Custom essays on Women and Economical Crime. The Core Trend of the Contemporary Gender Criminology under the Influence the Struggle for Equality

As it was mentioned earlier women are more subjected to the economical crime activity and less to any others. According to the different investigators that is closely connected to the psychological perception of crime by female representatives and such women as Mary Ann Cotton are not excluding from the rule rather than support of it. The female (mostly feminist) investigators of criminal science support the idea that women are more subjected to the economic crime as they are eager to escape from financial poverty and seek for the better and comfortable life if possible. Despite this fact the feminist criminologists are insisting on the fact that the feminine concept is the core one in investigation of so called “crime gender” as every sex has its peculiarities and the reasons such as escape from the poverty are not the single ones in committing crimes by women. Making a stress on the fact that “crime gender” has the core significance in contemporary crimping female criminal researches support the idea that men could have a number of reasons for committing various crimes, the same time they consider that femininity is also the core idea for the understanding: “Precisely what this means for women and girls is not yet clearly theorized but implies that women who “do crimes for economic gain” would “do” prostitution, shoplifting, cheque frauds and so on. To develop the idea of “doing femininity”, if we assume the “doing gender – doing difference” approach, one consequence of this is that we never need to consider the “generalisability problem” because of the separateness of the gendered explanations, women would simply be emphasizing their femininity” (Davies, 1997). It goes without saying that is pretty different approach to understanding behavioral peculiarities of the offenders. Pamela Davies suggests principally new method to investigation of the contemporary criminology. She consider that generalizing the criminal behavior is really a big fault and the talented criminal investigators understand the separation for gender is necessary for behavioral understanding of the crime peculiarities. The same time some criminal scientists consider that investigation of female aspect does not make any significant contribution as female being less subjected to crime, could not provide interesting cases for investigation and rarely succeed in committing crime: “If women are less into crime and are relatively less successful at it, this is less a result of single-mindedness in the rational pursuit of crime than because they lack access to organizations and social contacts that would enable them to pursue criminal enterprise more safely and profitably” (Steffensmeier 1983, 1025)

Making a stress on the fact that women performing economical crimes because of their lack of social contacts and this never would make them successful criminal seems to be quite a risky statement. As current statistical data showed that the growth of female participation in the crime is increasing with every passing year, yet male still commit 80 percent of offending: “Recent years have seen a substantial increase in the number of women coming into contact with the criminal justice system in the U.K., and in particular an increase in the number of women incarcerated. Figures from the Home Office and Her Majesty’ Prison Service indicate a rise of 15% in the number of women incarcerated between 2001 and 2002, compared to an increase of 6% for men (cited in Fawcett Society, 2003). Despite such increases, the comparably small number of women within the criminal justice system continues today. Explanations for this have typically come from one of two standpoints: those women simply commit less crime, or that women commit as much crime as men but that this remains hidden” (Herrington & Nee, 2005, 2 – 3). It goes without saying that such supposition raise a number of contradictory questions and again the criminal science as well as many others go back to the gender equality question. It goes without saying that the economical crime, which observes the biggest rate of women involvement, is still one of the most contradictory themes in contemporary criminologists. It is essential that gender aspect significantly influence investigative process. Even now men and women could hardly speak on the same question seeking for answering one question. Seeking for equality both suppositions should be taken into account. The small number of women involved in to the crime is the sign of either their inability to commit crime due the certain reasons (narrow-mindness need scientific support as a theory) or they commit as many crimes as men and they remain hidden. Some researches dealing with the old fashioned stereotypes do not want to take into account the quick development of the current trend and the fact that women get more and more involved into the criminal world due the emancipation and quick development of gender equality (even in the United Kingdom, where it is too early to speak about gender equality between men and women), which in some parts celebrate female domination upon the men. Some male researches investigating the economical aspects of the female crime deal with a number of gender stereotypes, which does not make a good advantage for the development of criminal science: “The stereotypical images of the shoplifter that persist continue to be overwhelmingly female and also now include; the menopausal housewife, the confused foreign tourist, the mother striving to feed and clothe her young children, women and girls tempted by glitzy bright jewelry and clothes. When it comes to further analysis and theories concerned about explaining crime, criminology has generally been gender blind, assuming that crime is a masculine preserve. In addition, explanations in respect of why men and boys might be engaged in property crime have changed several times during the course of the twentieth century” (Davies, 1997). The contemporary criminal science seeks for the psychiatric explanation for the reasoning of committing crime. It goes without saying that this approach would be good for the both genders but not for the male only. It is essential that due to the statistical data male criminal activity is under investigation more than female, but still it is obvious that the same methods are necessary for investigation of the female offending. According to the data provided by the Home Office Press Office, Communications Directorate in 2002 the most typical reasons for committing crime among the women were:
– having no money (54%)
–mixing with the wrong crowd (46%)
– need to support children (38%)
–drink or drugs (35%)
– family problems (33%)
– having no job (33%) (Home Office Press Office, Communications Directorate, 2002, 5)
The significance of the detailed research of this question is still necessary as male offending reasoning is studied more thoroughly that is why the wide variety of reasoning is observed. The contemporary method of psychoanalytical research would help to provide the necessary supportive data to the investigation of the gender problematic within the criminology. It goes without saying that contemporary difference of the criminal studies connected with the gender are significantly confrontation and puzzling the whole process. It goes without saying that significant changes in the collaborative practice should be provided and all the findings separated by gender, as the recent investigation showed that within the research process of the contemporary criminology, gender question is one of the most significant.