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Gendered Opportunities and Risk Preferencesfor Offending Across the Life Course

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Journal of Developmental and Life-Course Criminology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

Research on girls’ and women’s pathways into and out of offending has flourished. To further the study of gender, offending, and the life course, a coherent conceptual framework is needed to make sense of extant research and appropriately take into account gendering of the life course, especially as it intersects with other social locations. Integrating interactionist, relational, and social psychological approaches to decision-making and feminist perspectives relating to power and patriarchy, we theorize about the interplay between agency and structure across the life course in shaping the willingness and ability of females and males to engage in crime and criminal enterprise.

Methods

We analyzed quantitative and qualitative research on female pathways into/out of crime, relating to violence, ordinary property crime, white-collar crime, drug trade/abuse, and sex work to address between- and within-sex differences in type, frequency, and context of offending over the life course.

Results

The gendered paradigm of offending identifies female agency and offending pathways as shaped by (a) culturally influenced gendered focal concerns and risk preferences; (b) gender-stratified crime markets and opportunities (e.g., gender differences in selection processes, resources, capability, access); and (c) gendered bodies (e.g., real and putative biological and reproductive sex differences).

Conclusions

Female agency and offending pathways are constructed at various life course stages within the constraints and circumstances of gendered cultural concerns and risk preferences and gender-stratified crime markets, accounting for within and between sex differences in criminal offending and participation in criminal enterprise.

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Notes

  1. A recent quantitative assessment of female and male involvement in illegal drug sales, using 2010–2012 arrest-incident data from the National Incident Based Reporting Program, found low female involvement in drug sales overall and across all types of drugs (marijuana, heroin, cocaine, crack) [59]. Female involvement was greatest among crack sellers, an illicit market characterized by turbulence, high risk, and segmentation and noted for grave female exploitation (similar to meth). Among various crime group configurations, solo and all-male groups were most common and all-female groups were extremely rare; females were involved disproportionately through mixed-sex groups. In terms of illicit rewards, all-male groups recorded the highest quantities of drugs for sale, followed by solo male sellers and mixed-sex groups, and then solo females and all-female groups as the least income-generating.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology, Washington State University, 243 Wilson-Short Hall, Pullman, WA, 99164-4020, USA

    Jennifer Schwartz

  2. Department of Sociology and Criminology, The Pennsylvania State University, 1016 Oswald Tower, University Park, PA, 16802, USA

    Darrell Steffensmeier

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Schwartz, J., Steffensmeier, D. Gendered Opportunities and Risk Preferencesfor Offending Across the Life Course. J Dev Life Course Criminology 3, 126–150 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40865-016-0050-5

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