As women assume a more prominent role in public life, female gender stereotype has undergone major changes. Instead of staying home to raise children, many women are opting to pursue their careers. But even though the gender barriers have largely broken down in terms of employment, when it comes to crime, there is still a noticeable difference between the two genders. Men commit the overwhelming majority of violent crimes. Female murderers are extremely rare. Of all the murders in the United States, women commit only 5-10 percent (Myers, Gooch, and Meloy, 2005, p. 1). And even when women do kill, their reasons are often markedly different from that of men. The likes of Aileen Wuornos, an infamous female serial killer, are so uncommon that numerous studies have been performed to try and understand what factors could drive a woman to kill. But Aileen Wuornos is an exception to the norm because most women refrain from committing violent crimes. There are a number of sociological, biological, and environmental causes that could help explain why women commit less crime than men.
There is ample evidence to show that men, as a whole, commit far more crimes than women. Some researchers propose that masculinity is often linked to violent behavior as a way for men to exhibit “toughness” (Krienert, 2003). In contrast, the quintessential female image is associated with elegance, femininity, and beauty. As children are socialized from a young age, they quickly learn what is and what is not acceptable social behavior. While it is perfectly normal for boys to wrestle on the floor and roughhouse with each other, most people would think this was unusual behavior coming from a young girl. As violence is more readily fostered and encouraged among males than females, this could be one possible explanation why men are naturally more violent than women.
Another potential cause of the difference in crime rates between men and women could be purely biological differences. These inherent biological differences are most relevant to sexual assault crimes. Male perpetrators far outnumber female perpetrators in sexual assault crimes. In purest form, the anatomical structure of males gives them a greater ability to overpower females, both in size and strength. In a struggle, the larger, more powerful individual has an obvious advantage over the weaker individual. In addition, because of their sex alone, women are often placed in a subordinate position to men among society (Larish, 1996, p. 479). The sexual dimorphism between men and women could be a significant factor as to why men commit more violent crimes than women.
References
Krienert, J.L. (2003). Masculinity and crime: A quantitative exploration of Messerschmidt’s
hypothesis. Electronic Journal of Sociology.
Larish, I.A. (1996). Why Annie can’t get her gun: A feminist perspective on the second
amendment. University of Illinois Law Review, 467-568.
Myers, W.C., Gooch, E. and Meloy, J.R. (2005). The role of psychopathy and sexuality in a
female serial killer. Journal of Forensic Science, 50(3): 1-6.
