The Psychology of Gender 4th Edition

124 Chapter 4

SIDEBAR 4.1:Is Violence Increasing Among Women?

In their bookThe Female Offender, Chesney-Lind and Pasko (2004) argue that the media sensationalize

female violence in part because it is the exception rather than the rule, but that violent crime among

women has not increased in recent years. As shown in Figure 4.12, arrests for violent crime have in-

creased somewhat over the past few years for boys but have remained the same for girls—and arrests

have remained substantially lower for girls than boys. The overall arrest rate has increased for both

males and females—but the rate of increase has been greater for adolescent and adult women. These

arrests, however, are for less serious crimes, such as larceny (shoplifting) and status offenses (e.g., run-

ning away from home and curfew violation). When one compares youths’ self-report of these crimes

to rates of arrest, it appears that girls are more likely than boys to be arrested for the crime. The same

pertains to drug offenses. Although boys are much more likely than girls to be arrested for drugs, the

rate of arrest has increased much more for girls than boys—despite the fact that the sex difference in

usage has remained the same. Among adults there is an increasing number of women in prisons, but

this increase is not due to an increase in violent crime among women but to an increase in less severe

crimes, such as drugs and shoplifting. Even among white-collar crime, the typical female perpetrator

differs from the typical male perpetrator. With the exception of Martha Stewart, the male who em-

bezzles money is more likely to be a manager or an officer of the company, whereas the female who

embezzles money is more likely to be a clerical worker or bank teller.

FIGURE 4.12 Total violent crime arrests (murder, forcible rape, rob-

bery, and aggravated assault) for boys and girls under age 18.

Source: Adapted from Federal Bureau of Investigation, Uniform Crime

Reports (1998–2008).

0

1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

10,000

20,000

30,000

40,000

50,000

60,000

70,000

Boys

Girls

were more aggressive toward other boys than

girls, but that girls were equally aggressive to

boys and girls (Russell & Owens, 1999). How-

ever, the kind of aggression that girls used

with boys and girls differed; girls tended to be

physically aggressive with boys but used ver-

bal and indirect aggression with girls.

Laboratory research shows that who ag-

gresses against whom depends on the charac-

teristics of the perpetrator and the victim. In

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