From: Michael Lorrey (mike@datamann.com)
Date: Tue Feb 13 2001 - 10:38:46 MST
>
> GBurch1@aol.com wrote:
>
> > As others have pointed out, the inherent gender-inequality of criminal
> > behavior defeats this idea. At least in "natural" humans, there will always
> > be far more young male offenders than female ones, no matter how you define
> > crime. That said, I personally think reform of contemporary criminal law and
> > penal systems ought to be a top priority of anyone with even a shred of
> > empathy for the suffering of others. In the US at least, the criminal law
> > and penal systems are horribly broken and counterproductive.
While the violent prison population is primarily male dominated, in
actual crimes committed, women are almost as prevalent as men. Women
tend to focus though on non-violent crimes (shoplifting esp.), tend to
be far more sanguine and intelligent about comitting them (they don't
hawk their wares, don't brag to buddies or spouses) and so are caught
less frequently (there being far less focus on catching and prosecuting
crimes committed by women than men) and when they are caught are far
more frequently let off or given light, short sentences. Shoplifting,
for example, is a crime that is almost universally committed by teenage
girls one or more times (and many adult women, as well, important women,
even), such that 'hacking' store security devices seems to be common
knowledge among many women in their 20's, in my experience.
Women commit more domestic violence, according to survey data, that is
not reflected in criminal prosecution, which indicates a severe level of
underreporting by male victims, an unsurprising result given the total
lack of respect that society in general and law enforcment in particular
give to male victims of domestic violence.
It stands to reason that one man in jail for ten years for his third
felony assault will cause the exact same level of prison crowding as
twenty women spending 6 months in jail for shoplifting.
Mike
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