Gender Equality and Female Offending: Evidence From International Data Sources. (October 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Chu, Doris C.; Hebenton, Bill; Toh, Albert
• Is Part Of: International journal of offender therapy and comparative criminology. Volume 65:Number 13/14(2021)
• Page Start: 1496
• Page End: 1519
• Publication Date: 2021-10
• Subjects: gender equality -- female offending -- World Economic Forum Global Gender Gap Index; Criminals -- Rehabilitation -- Periodicals; Criminal psychology -- Periodicals; Violent offenders -- Periodicals; Sex offenders -- Periodicals; Criminology -- Periodicals; 364.3
• DOI: 10.1177/0306624X20986527
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0306-624X

Abstract

This paper examines the nature of female offending patterns in relationship to societal gender equality using cross-national analysis of 27 European countries for the year 2006. Importantly, our analysis uses a conceptually innovative indicator (the World Economic Forum's Global Gender Gap Index ) to determine relative levels of gender equality. Results show that countries with a narrower gender gap in the Global Gender Gap indexes of political empowerment were likely to have a higher female prosecution rate, and that political empowerment was also significantly associated with female conviction rates as well as rates of property offending. The pattern of results generally supports the liberation thesis. Finally, limitations and suggestions for future study are addressed.