General Strain Theory: The Gap Between Gender And Crime

In the study of modern criminology, the most central issue is the obvious gap between gender and crime. Women, throughout history and even during modern times, are less involved in crime than men and this has led to women being mostly absent from criminological studies since the beginning of the study of criminology. Using gender-specific theory and General Strain Theory, this paper will try to find a reason for the obvious gap between gender and crime and also the reason behind the criminal acts that are committed by females. Gendered General Strain Theory insists that gender variations in negative life events, known as strains, and variations in negative emotions, can lead to well defined pathways to criminal offending.(Puhrmann,1) It is important to understand why female crime is significantly lower than males and why females commit crime in the first place. Certain strains can be a possible reason for female criminal acts and these strains should be investigated. With strain theory and the

Feminism and the obvious gender gap has been a large topic of discussion since the late 1800's since the large and obvious gap between men and women's roles leaked over into the criminological world. Female crime, until more recent years, has been significantly less than male crime. Females commit crimes in different ways than males and they are seen as less violent which could be the cause for less of a study and information in female crime. Women are seen as less violent and less harmful to others but with recent studies, women are committing more and more crimes. Crimes can be seen as less violent when looking at female crime, but with social media and television being prevalent in showing female criminal acts, it can no longer be ignored that females play a prominent role in the criminological world. According to recent