American Women and Crime

The topic of women and crime is currently enjoying a vogue, because women, in general, and research related to many aspects of women's lives are now popular topics for research. This article analyzes the relationship be tween the contemporary woman's movement, the role of women in crime, and the changing socioeconomic and politi cal statuses of American women. Statistics on female arrest patterns for different types of offenses going back four decades are presented. The changes in women's propensities for committing different types of crimes are discussed and ex planations about why these changes have occurred are offered. Statistics describing American women are compared with female crime data available for some 25 different countries. The extent to which women are victims of various types of offenses is also discussed. In its conclusion, the article offers some prognosis for the short-run future on how American women are likely to participate in criminal ac tivities.