PSYC 3402 Lecture Notes - Lecture 11: Cheque Fraud, Property Crime, Homicide
14 Dec 2016
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PSYC 3402 Women Prisoners Nov 30th 2016
Women prisoners:
• 23% of criminal code offences were done by women
• What is the nature of the offences tended to be?
o 20% were community sentences
o 13% Provincial admissions (double check)
o 6% was federal level
• There is about 700 women in the federal system
• This does’t ea that e should’t e studig this issues.
Context and Prevalence of female crime:
• Female offenders usually commit property related offences
o Check fraud would be common
o Theft
o Prostitution is large
o Shop Lifting
- Prevalence and Nature of Female-Perpetrated Crime
o Compared to boys and men, women and girls commit less crime, which are
particularly less violent and less serious crimes.
o Property crime – males commit 87% of break-and-enters and motor vehicle
thefts
o Not only do women and girls commit less crime, and less serious crimes
compared to their male ocunterparts, they motivation, circumstances and
context of crimes differ as well.
o It has been examined (in terms of murder), that females are most likely to
murder a partner or family member, whereas males are most likely to murder a
stranger.
o Though when women did commit non-familial homicide, evidence showed the
motivation was like those of men, which was vindication and an attempt to
restore personal integrity.
o Women commit property crime, for economic necessity
• Certainly, men commit property related offences but these are more unique to women
offenders.
o There offences are usually non-violent in nature, and we see with men that they are
more violent in offending
o Women typically commit violent offences in relational disputes, and this is where we
generally see these circumstances to occur
• It is either self-defence, or dealing with abuse with violence
• In 2013 there were over 450 individuals convicted of homicide, and only 11% were
women.
o For women offenders it is 1/14 who commit homicide, and for men it is 1/4
• For male offending what we know from the literature is that most of their violence and
homicide is towards infidelity, and jealousy
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• When we look at things like protective factors, being a women is a large one, as we know
that women are accounting for nonviolent offences, and that there is less of them
Female Youth and Crime:
• We are seeing that female youth are becoming more prominent and their crimes are
becoming more violent
o However, this is also driven by the media which has to be taken skeptically
Rena Berth Case
• She was beaten to death and drowned by 7 other teenagers
• One of the offenders, Kelly Eller, was 15 and was tried as an adult. This case was very
alarming for the public to hear as it made society fact check that women can commit
violent offences.
• She was seen as the ring leader, and the media covered on this particular case was largely
negative.
2006 Case
• This was a 12 year old girl, and a 23 year old boyfriend who was convicted of killing her
parents and her brother.
• Allegedly the crown argued that she killed her parents because they disapproved of the
relationship between her and her boyfriend.
• Critis are aroud the setee that the gae her, as the elieed that she did’t
understand the extent of her actions as she was only 12 years old
o But isn't the age of criminal responsibility the age of 12?
In 2009 Case-
• There was a 17 year old girl, but part of the crime was executed by her boyfriend.
o In this case it was found that she was text messaging her boyfriend and influencing/
manipulating him to commit violent crimes.
• These crimes were apparently influenced by jealousy, and she manipulated her boyfriend
to commit these crimes on the account
Feminist Perspective
• They believe that the system has a patriotic error in their way that they treat and
sentence women in the criminal justice system.
• Feminist literature say that you have to be interviewing the population that you are
applying these tasks too
o This is because you have to hear from their narrative that brings these women's into
the system
o They may look at things like what conditions brought these women to this situation?
• What was the family structure, what was it like for childcare, where they
unemployed?
- Feminist Pathways Perspectives
o Many pathways studies have concluded that many women turn to the streets
due to aversive family environment
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find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Context and prevalence of female crime: female offenders usually commit property related offences, check fraud would be common, theft, prostitution is large, shop lifting. Female youth and crime: we are seeing that female youth are becoming more prominent and their crimes are becoming more violent, however, this is also driven by the media which has to be taken skeptically. Rena berth case: she was beaten to death and drowned by 7 other teenagers, one of the offenders, kelly eller, was 15 and was tried as an adult. In 2009 case: there was a 17 year old girl, but part of the crime was executed by her boyfriend. For men it can be about adventure or to increase their interest. Final limitation of the research is its emphasis of a unidimensional pathway to crime the criminazalied survivor pathway that defines female heterogenety in the form of multiple female offender pathways.
