Topic 15. Female crime

The crime of women differs from the crime of men in its quantitative indicators, the nature of crimes and their consequences, the methods and instruments of commission, the role that women play in this case, the choice of the victim of a criminal assault, the influence of family and household and accompanying circumstances on their offenses.

These features are associated with the historically conditioned place of a woman in the system of social relations, her social roles, biological and psychological characteristics. Of course, social conditions and lifestyles, the roles of women are changing, and therefore the nature and methods of their criminal behavior are changing.

During the 1980-1990s. the proportion of women in total crime was 10-15%, and by the beginning of 2000 it had reached 20%. The most common crimes of women are theft (about 15% in the overall structure of women's crime, of which 12% are theft of personal property), theft of other people's property by appropriation or embezzlement (18-20%). Much less often, women commit theft with the help of theft, robbery, robbery and fraud, as well as theft on a large scale. The vast majority of thefts are committed by them in connection with the performance of various duties that are directly related to the work performed. Three quarters of thefts take place in cities, since there are much fewer commercial enterprises, retail outlets, public catering establishments, and construction sites in the countryside.

In the past, women mostly gave bribes or mediated bribery, but now the proportion of those who take bribes has slightly increased. Apparently, this should be associated, on the one hand, with the increased social activity of women, including in the law enforcement sphere, and, on the other hand, with the development of a market economy and the administrative activities associated with it. The increase in the proportion of women among those who have committed crimes against state power is a fairly characteristic feature of modern crime.

In recent years, the number of thefts committed by women has increased. Thus, according to selective data, the number of thefts of personal property of citizens committed by women increased from 17 to 20% in the structure of their crime. In other words, every fifth identified criminal is a thief. The number of women who commit theft of personal property of citizens is 2-2,5 times higher than the number of those who commit other types of theft.

Thefts of all kinds are more often committed by women in cities. Among them, a significant proportion of those who constantly commit theft and have already been punished for it. These are mostly older women, many of them have been homeless for many years.

Women are characterized by thefts committed "by way of trust", especially on railway transport and from apartments. The specificity of this kind of crime lies in the fact that a woman inspires sympathy and trust in her victim, disposes to herself.

For example, in the event of a theft from an apartment, she can easily be entrusted with the keys or asked to look after the apartment, and crimes in railway transport are mainly committed by female workers during the performance of their official duties.

Among criminals, about 1% are people convicted of murder and attempted murder, the same number of women were convicted of causing grievous bodily harm, over 3% - for robbery and robbery.

In the total mass of crime, the proportion of women among murderers in different years ranged from 10 to 12%, without showing a noticeable upward trend; among those who caused serious harm to health - from 5 to 7%; among those who committed robberies and assaults - from 16 to 18%. In recent years, there has been a slight increase in the number of women convicted of complicity in rape.

Every third or fourth woman serving a sentence in correctional colonies is guilty of a violent crime. This is natural, since women are imprisoned mainly for dangerous crimes.

A typical crime for women is infanticide, and unlike other types of murder, the deprivation of life of a newborn is not uncommon in rural areas. As a rule, such acts are committed by young women who do not have a family, sufficient material support, or their own housing. In a number of cases, in these crimes, somewhere in the "background" there is the figure of a man, not without whose influence or tacit consent these crimes are committed. Usually this is a partner or lover. According to sample data, compared with the period of the 1920s. the number of infanticides has tripled.

As with all criminals, the most significant group among criminals is made up of people under the age of 30 (about 48%). Of course, this is a general picture, because among their individual categories, the ratio of different age groups may be different. So, among the large robbers and bribe-takers, persons of middle and older ages predominate, there are more of them among recidivist women, for example, thieves from among the vagrants.

Among women of 30 and especially 40 years old, the proportion of single women is high, which is due to the breakdown of their marital ties and the loss of parents. At the same time, it is at this age that women are most active in social production, and their social contacts are expanding. During these years, women are appointed to leadership positions.

By the time the crimes were committed, more than half of the women were married. For those of them who were not then deprived of their liberty, the family, as a rule, was preserved. Family affairs are much worse for those who are serving sentences in places of deprivation of liberty: according to numerous observations, a man actually or legally starts a new family for himself quite quickly, sometimes even immediately after the conviction of his wife. The family broke up during their stay in places of deprivation of liberty in 11,9% of married men, and among women - in 23,5%; 2,8% of men and 1,2% of women got married while serving their sentence.

Among the criminals, there is a relatively high proportion of people with higher and secondary specialized education, as well as those who have a specialty. This became especially noticeable in the 1990s, when women with a higher level of education began to take an active part in economic activity.

Those convicted of serious violent crimes, large-scale theft and bribery have the highest qualifications. However, up to 40% of criminals did not have certain occupations at the time of the crimes, and this number does not include housewives.

Selective studies on the number of convictions of men and women and their comparison revealed the following trend: with a small number of convictions, the proportion of men significantly exceeds the proportion of women, but in groups with a large number of convictions, their shares are equalized. So, in the group with five convictions, men were 5,1%, women - 3,2%, with six convictions - respectively 2,6% and 1,9%, seven convictions - 1,3% and 1,2%, eight convictions - 0,6% and 0,6%, nine convictions - 0,6% and 0,7%.

According to selective data, about 25% of women sentenced to imprisonment had various mental anomalies. Most often it is alcoholism, psychopathy, oligophrenia, organic lesions of the central nervous system, the consequences of traumatic brain injuries. About 33,3% of women underwent a forensic psychiatric examination during the investigation; 7,7% were hospitalized in psychiatric hospitals after criminal prosecution.

Psychopathies and residual effects of organic brain lesions are most common. "Anomalous" criminals (excluding alcoholics) are somewhat more numerous among minors. Among them, there are many who have been diagnosed with venereal diseases.

A psychological study of convicted women showed that in the mass they do not have qualities that could significantly complicate preventive work with them, the process of their correction. However, the process of rehabilitation for women released from places of deprivation of liberty may be more difficult than for men, since their socially useful ties are cut off more abruptly. On the whole, the majority of female criminals, in comparison with criminals, have less antisocial attitudes, they do not have stable criminal convictions, although their social and psychological adaptation is impaired, it still does not have serious defects. This, of course, cannot be said about recidivist criminals who have lost socially useful contacts and are maladjusted personalities.

It is known that in general for women the assessment of other people and the impression they make are very important. Criminals are no exception. Their need for self-affirmation, being one of the most powerful stimuli of human actions, becomes obsessive, significantly influencing their way of life. This is not just a desire to please men or look better than other women, but the need to confirm their existence, their place in life.

For criminals, in general, the persistence of affective psycho-traumatic experiences and high impulsivity are quite characteristic. This leads to inadequate perception and assessment of emerging life situations, poor prediction of the consequences of one's actions, disorganization and thoughtlessness of behavior. In connection with the commission of unlawful acts, women experience a sense of guilt, anxiety for their future, and this anxiety, of course, intensifies during the period of serving sentences in places of deprivation of liberty.

Causes of women's crime. An analysis of modern socio-economic and psychological processes and living conditions of women suggests that the causes of crime among them are currently associated with such phenomena as:

▪ significantly more active participation of women in social production;

▪ some weakening of the main social institutions, primarily the family;

▪ increased tension in society, conflicts and hostility between people, which is perceived more acutely by women;

▪ increase in drug addiction, alcoholism, prostitution, vagrancy and begging among women.

Women began to work much more than before in social production and participate more actively in public life. At present, they make up about half of the number of workers and employees, and most of them are employed in such areas as health care, public education, culture and art, science and scientific services, trade, public catering, small business, supply, marketing, procurement, lending and insurance, textile industry and a number of others. More than half a million women manage enterprises, institutions, organizations (as a rule, small and medium), about a million are heads of workshops, sections, departments and other structural units. Disorganization in all these areas is much more sensitive for women than for men.

In production, women steal not only because of the availability of valuables, but also because they cannot acquire these valuables in any other way due to lack of money or because of high prices. It is no secret that now in many families women engaged in entrepreneurship, working in trade or public catering are the main breadwinners even with a husband. Of course, a lot of theft is committed due to the poor preservation and protection of manufactured products, goods and the disorganization of production, as well as the lack of educational work with people. However, educational work and appeals to conscience in the absence of money and the introduction of the cult of money into life are equal to zero.

Approximately half of the heavy and low-skilled work in industry and construction is currently borne by women, which is absolutely abnormal and demoralizes women. According to available data, almost a million women have chosen construction as a profession, but the level of mechanization here, on average, reaches 50%. Due to the lack of small-scale mechanization in trade and public catering, in warehouses, depots, and stores, women have to handle most of the goods manually, so women easily abandon such work and may embark on the path of delinquency.

Currently, in most industries and industries there are no restrictions and prohibitions on the use of women's labor. Their labor is used on an equal footing with men's, the length of the working day is equal to that of men, and the same rates of pricing are determined. At the same time, women are much more exposed to adverse factors than men; physically, they are much weaker than men. The criminological significance of these circumstances lies in the fact that many women cannot withstand such overwhelming loads, and the work itself is not prestigious. As a sample study showed, most of the female vagrants were previously employed in hard, low-skilled or non-prestigious jobs. According to another survey, of women sentenced to imprisonment, one in five had no qualifications.

The situation of women in the countryside, where the share of manual labor is especially high, is even more difficult. Much worse than in the city, medical, commercial, cultural and consumer services are provided here, there are significantly fewer amenities in the houses. Many settlements are located far from major cultural and industrial centers. In the countryside, life expectancy is lower, and the mortality of children and people of working age is higher. Therefore, it is not surprising that women from villages and towns go to the city, joining the ranks of vagrants, beggars, prostitutes, thieves, and show aggressiveness when they find themselves in a new environment and unsuccessfully adapt to it.

Hard, unskilled work coarsens, hardens a woman, depriving her of such natural traits as femininity, softness, weakness, and sensitivity. She becomes sharp, aggressive, inclined to solve emerging situations with the help of force. This is one of the reasons for the increased share of crimes committed by women against the person, their aggressiveness and cruelty.

Before our very eyes, a kind of social "alteration" of female nature is taking place. These changes can have very unfavorable consequences for society, its customs, spiritual culture, and relations between people. Serious damage is done to the upbringing of the younger generation. Moreover, we now live in a situation where the situation with women's labor, women's employment will worsen even more.

The economic mechanism in a number of cases comes into conflict with the proclaimed principle of social priorities. The pursuit of profit, enrichment at any cost, multiplied by the everyday disorder of people, the lack of spirituality and the insignificant role of moral guidelines inevitably push socially useful goals into the background. In the absence of an appropriate legal mechanism and with the poverty of the state, the issue of social protection and employment of women in the context of economic reform and a market economy threatens to worsen their position in production, and, consequently, aggravate conflicts.

A number of social contradictions affecting crime include the rapid involvement of women in social production, and the lack of consideration of the natural historical characteristics of the female labor force. There remains a contradiction between the high level of women's employment in social work and the relatively low level of their qualifications. Although domestic work is officially recognized as no less important than work in an enterprise or entrepreneurship, the latter are still valued more highly. The combination of a woman's intense professional activity with the fulfillment of her family, maternal duties leads to the most undesirable consequences. This is expressed in the fact that she works with overload all the time, she constantly experiences fatigue, nervous tension, fear of not coping with numerous tasks, she develops high anxiety, mental disorders, a state of maladjustment, a feeling of hostility of the world. Because of this, some women stop cherishing both family and work, they begin to lead an antisocial lifestyle, acquiring their livelihood in an illegal way.

The weakening or destruction of the family inevitably leads to the fact that a woman ceases to perform or properly perform the primordially female roles and duties. The family, either one's own or the parent's, to a certain extent has lost its former significance as a regulator of behavior and the whole way of life, its control functions have weakened. Those women who cease to feel their connection with her are no longer guided by her traditional values ​​​​and get much more opportunity to act without looking back at her every time. At the same time, it is very important to note that the psychological independence of a woman is often organically linked with material independence, since now she begins to work early.

When people talk about breaking family ties, they usually mean contacts between parents and children. Indeed, gaining "freedom" from her parents, a woman can commit various antisocial acts, steal, deceive consumers, engage in prostitution. However, one must also keep in mind one's own family, where a woman is a wife and mother. Some women do not consider it any value at all, especially if it is not just about living together, but about an inner, spiritual connection between spouses. The absence of such a connection is very clearly manifested, for example, in the engagement of married women in prostitution.

A significant weakening of social control over the behavior of women is characteristic of the modern era due to the increasing pace of urbanization, mass migration of the population, its everyday disorder, breaking up the established cultures of various social strata and groups. At the same time, the social mobility of women is significantly increased, and their roles are enriched. One cannot fail to note such a factor, to a large extent associated with the increased social mobility of women, as the possibility of their closer and longer communication with previously convicted persons and persons committing crimes. In such treatment, criminogenic "infection" of women, especially young women, their assimilation of negative attitudes and stereotypes of behavior, familiarization with an antisocial lifestyle occurs. The life of a young woman can be tragic if she gets involved with a group of delinquents or drug addicts, with mafia structures.

Young women from low-income and low-income families, who are unable to purchase fashionable clothes and other prestigious items, are forced to commit theft, robbery and robbery, and engage in prostitution; the bitterness, aggressiveness and vandalism displayed at the same time serve as a means of psychological compensation for the humiliation experienced.

Women sentenced to deprivation of liberty, as a rule, have a low education and low professional qualifications, in connection with which their labor rehabilitation may be ineffective. Among them, there is a high level of recidivism. In places of deprivation of liberty, the conditions of anxious expectations are growing among convicted women, mental disorders are worsening. They usually receive emergency psychiatric care only when they pose a real danger to others. In general, medical care for women in correctional institutions is insufficient. All these phenomena impede the successful resocialization of women after their release.

Preventing female crime. Problems of preventing female crime must be addressed as part of the fight against crime in general. A prerequisite for the success of special measures to prevent female crime is the achievement of a qualitatively different state of our society. Of course, a woman in society should have a fundamentally different status in life; she should be freed from the role of the main and even equal “breadwinner” of material wealth with men. Her strength and attention should be focused on her family and children. The basic principles of preventive work with women should be humanity and mercy, an understanding of the reasons that pushed them to crime or immoral acts. Laws - criminal, criminal procedural, and other regulations, for example, internal regulations in correctional institutions - should be imbued with humanity and mercy towards women.

The positive results of preventive work with women can lead to the improvement of public morality in general, the strengthening of socially approved relationships in many areas of life, and primarily in the family, they will also help reduce crime among adolescents.

Work on the prevention of women's crime should first of all cover those areas of life in which negative traits of their personality are formed and in which they often commit crimes. The education of femininity is of great importance, especially for curbing the growth of violent crime among women, which poses a great threat to the moral health of society. Such education requires special preparedness and skill of educators. It should start in the family and be reinforced in the school. However, such a reorientation is also determined by the nature of communication, the position of a woman in society, the level of her morality, and her security.

In addition to financial and material assistance, the state and society are obliged to provide assistance to the family in the care of children in connection with the illness of one of its members and its collapse. Family social support should include not only the payment of cash benefits. It is no less important to provide women with the opportunity to earn money, raise the social prestige of their work, obtain higher qualifications, etc. In addition to prevention, the object of which is the family, direct assistance is needed for women themselves. This may be, in particular:

▪ providing state and public assistance to young women and girls who, due to alienation, find themselves in unfavorable conditions and committing antisocial acts. This should include the entire complex of individual educational measures, the establishment of guardianship and trusteeship, referral to orphanages, special schools, special schools, boarding schools, employment or study, etc., as well as medical care, which is necessary for many girls leading antisocial lifestyle, since among them there is a high proportion of people with sexually transmitted, somatic and mental diseases. Without treatment, their introduction to normal life is impossible;

▪ carrying out daily educational work in combination with constant monitoring of behavior (by law enforcement officials, public and church organizations, teachers, doctors, etc.). Control should include the use of prohibitive or restrictive measures in order to block unwanted contacts, prevent aimless pastime (for example, by limiting exposure to public places in the evening);

▪ application of public, administrative, civil and compulsory educational measures to women who commit antisocial acts.

Another object of prevention of female crime is the sphere of their labor activity. Here, among the first tasks should be the reduction of the working day or the working week while maintaining the same wages for women with children, the introduction of additional holidays, the improvement of working conditions, and a significant reduction in the number of women employed in hard and hazardous work. It is unacceptable to use the work of women in the night shift. Industrial employment should not replace family and child-rearing care.

It is necessary to overcome one more difficulty - a significant difference in the earnings of men and women, associated with unreasonable intersectoral and intrasectoral differentiation in wages. In the future, as the economy strengthens, such a complex and important social task as giving a woman the right to free choice should be solved: to work and engage in social activities, or to be a housewife and raise children, or to combine these activities.

When an antisocial orientation is developed in women in the sphere of work, it usually takes on a selfish coloring, which, in turn, negatively affects other workers and employees, as well as family relationships, its moral and psychological atmosphere. Therefore, the organization of preventive activities in the labor collective requires a combination of material and moral impact, and sometimes changes in the family and living conditions of working women.

Particularly difficult is the labor and household arrangements for women who are not employed, and even more so if they do not have a fixed place of residence. The difficulty arises not only because it is not always possible to find a job for such women (employment of an elderly woman, and even more so a woman who has served her sentence), but also due to the fact that not every one of them will agree to take the position that she offered.

For the prevention of female crime, the question of who, in addition to law enforcement agencies, should be involved in this process is of great importance. This is a very significant issue, since it is impossible to achieve more or less noticeable success by the forces of the law enforcement agencies themselves (and even more so with the help of laws alone). Now it is not necessary to pin especially high hopes on the women's movement. Nevertheless, women's organizations should take measures to involve women in socially useful work, provide them with material support, assistance in solving various labor, family and other personal issues.

Taking into account the increased role and influence of the church, especially in the education of people's morals, it can be assumed that the work of the church in the prevention of crime in general and women in particular can bear fruit. This is evidenced, in particular, by world experience.

Institutions for juvenile affairs of the internal affairs bodies are called upon to play a large role in the prevention of women's crime, since the educational impact on teenage girls who can embark on a criminal path is not only a very humane, but also a very effective way to combat women's crime.

A significant role in the prevention of crime in general and women's in particular can be played by public organizations for the protection of law and order at the household level. Now such organizations have been weakened, and in some places they have been liquidated altogether, which has caused considerable damage to the fight against crime.

Medical professionals can play a more prominent role in the early prevention of girls' sexual demoralization. They are able not only to detect and treat gynecological disorders and venereal diseases in a timely manner, but also to identify the contingent of girls who have already begun to commit immoral acts, as well as the source of the corrupting influence on minors. Gynecologists can also record cases of violations of the sexual integrity of minors and take the necessary medical and pedagogical measures for the victims, raise the issue of bringing to justice the persons who committed such violations before the competent authorities.

The problem of preventing female crime is one of the most important for law enforcement agencies. In modern economic conditions, women are often forced to commit various crimes in order to provide themselves with an elementary opportunity to exist in this world. As already mentioned, the main causes of female crime are the increased tension in society, the difficult economic situation and the weakening of the main social institutions. A woman ceases to feel like a "weak" sex, occupying leadership positions, participating more actively in public life, working on an equal footing with men. High prices and lack of money encourage women to commit theft and theft. In addition, intense professional activity, combined with the fulfillment of family responsibilities by women, leads to the most negative consequences. Working with overload, feeling tired, nervous strain plunge women into a state of psychological breakdown, which also entails the possibility of committing criminal acts.

Thus, the problems of preventing female crime should be addressed as part of the fight against crime in general. One of the most important conditions for achieving success in this area is a qualitatively different state of society. This means that a woman should receive a fundamentally different life status - primarily the status of mother and wife. The state must also provide the woman with financial, material assistance and social support, provide her with the opportunity to earn money and receive higher qualifications.

Authors: Vasilchikova N.V., Kukharuk V.V.

<< Back: Criminological characteristics and prevention of crimes of minors and youth

>> Forward: Organized crime, its characteristics and prevention

We recommend interesting articles Section Lecture notes, cheat sheets:

▪ Anesthesiology and resuscitation. Lecture notes

▪ Operational-search activity. Crib

▪ Budget law. Crib

See other articles Section Lecture notes, cheat sheets.

Read and write useful comments on this article.

<< Back

Latest news of science and technology, new electronics:

The existence of an entropy rule for quantum entanglement has been proven 09.05.2024

Quantum mechanics continues to amaze us with its mysterious phenomena and unexpected discoveries. Recently, Bartosz Regula from the RIKEN Center for Quantum Computing and Ludovico Lamy from the University of Amsterdam presented a new discovery that concerns quantum entanglement and its relation to entropy. Quantum entanglement plays an important role in modern quantum information science and technology. However, the complexity of its structure makes understanding and managing it challenging. Regulus and Lamy's discovery shows that quantum entanglement follows an entropy rule similar to that for classical systems. This discovery opens new perspectives in the field of quantum information science and technology, deepening our understanding of quantum entanglement and its connection to thermodynamics. The results of the study indicate the possibility of reversibility of entanglement transformations, which could greatly simplify their use in various quantum technologies. Opening a new rule ... >>

Mini air conditioner Sony Reon Pocket 5 09.05.2024

Summer is a time for relaxation and travel, but often the heat can turn this time into an unbearable torment. Meet a new product from Sony - the Reon Pocket 5 mini-air conditioner, which promises to make summer more comfortable for its users. Sony has introduced a unique device - the Reon Pocket 5 mini-conditioner, which provides body cooling on hot days. With it, users can enjoy coolness anytime, anywhere by simply wearing it around their neck. This mini air conditioner is equipped with automatic adjustment of operating modes, as well as temperature and humidity sensors. Thanks to innovative technologies, Reon Pocket 5 adjusts its operation depending on the user's activity and environmental conditions. Users can easily adjust the temperature using a dedicated mobile app connected via Bluetooth. Additionally, specially designed T-shirts and shorts are available for convenience, to which a mini air conditioner can be attached. The device can oh ... >>

Energy from space for Starship 08.05.2024

Producing solar energy in space is becoming more feasible with the advent of new technologies and the development of space programs. The head of the startup Virtus Solis shared his vision of using SpaceX's Starship to create orbital power plants capable of powering the Earth. Startup Virtus Solis has unveiled an ambitious project to create orbital power plants using SpaceX's Starship. This idea could significantly change the field of solar energy production, making it more accessible and cheaper. The core of the startup's plan is to reduce the cost of launching satellites into space using Starship. This technological breakthrough is expected to make solar energy production in space more competitive with traditional energy sources. Virtual Solis plans to build large photovoltaic panels in orbit, using Starship to deliver the necessary equipment. However, one of the key challenges ... >>

Random news from the Archive New Optical Discs for New Generation Cell Phones 24.01.2003 Philips is developing new optical discs for next-generation cell phones with a capacity of more than 4 GB. The dimensions of the drives for such discs are comparable to the size of conventional credit cards. Since a short-wavelength blue laser beam is used for writing and reading, the thickness of the recording layer does not exceed 0,1 mm. Thanks to this, unlike conventional DVD players, read / write errors during shaking and shocks are completely excluded. The price of the novelty is still quite high (about $ 100), but with mass production it can be significantly reduced.

Other interesting news:

▪ ICL5102 - Efficient half-bridge AC-DC converter controller with PFC

▪ Dual-Image TVs

▪ quantum stopwatch

▪ Printed scheme from under the chicken

▪ Asteroid TC4 will pass by the Earth

News feed of science and technology, new electronics

Interesting materials of the Free Technical Library:

▪ section of the site Protection of electrical equipment. Article selection

▪ article One swallow does not make spring. Popular expression

▪ article Why were Chistye Prudy used to be Pogany? Detailed answer

▪ article Methodist-psychologist. Job description

▪ article Extending the life of incandescent lamps. Encyclopedia of radio electronics and electrical engineering

▪ article Automatic discharge-charger (ARZU) Ni-Cd batteries. Encyclopedia of radio electronics and electrical engineering

Leave your comment on this article:

All languages ​​of this page

Arabic	Hebrew	Polish
Bengali	Hindi	Portuguese
Chinese	Italian	Spanish
English	Japanese	Turkish
French	Korean	Ukrainian
German	Malay	Vietnamese

Home page | Library | Articles | Website map | Site Reviews

www.diagram.com.ua
2000-2024