Female crime

... CONTEXT Although female crime is a topic that is not often researched - especially by male sociologists, there a number of studies relating to this area of crime I am interested in. Early attempts to explain female crime was based on physiological or biological theories. Lombroso, an Italian criminologist in the 19th Century, attempted to explain female crime. He compared physical features of female criminals and non-criminals; for example he reported data comparing brains and skulls, the width of cheekbones and the size of jaws. Lombroso argued that instead of biology being the cause of female criminality, it actually prevents women from becoming a criminal. He said that women are not true, biological criminals, they break the law, but only occasionally and their crimes are not serious. Despite this, he did believe that a few women are born a criminal and tended to be more masculine than other women,

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