Scientific Rationale of the Problem of Female Criminal Behavior

When explaining female criminal behavior from the scientific standpoint, researchers study it from different angles — criminological, criminal law and penitentiary. In the current article, the author examines female criminal behavior within the scope of not only anthropological and sociological approaches, by also of the psychological approach aimed at analyzing the causes of deviant behavior that does not correspond to the requirements of laws or social norms. It is noted that the sociological approach to researching female crime is based on taking into account not only quantitative characteristics of the social space, but also the social characteristics of women, which are undergoing a transformation due to a changing role of women in society. The author summarizes modern trends of female crime and notes that it is highly dynamic and thus leading to a considerable gap between the practice of counteracting female criminal behavior which is due and expected by the society and the existing methods of preventive work used by the state. The scientific substantiation of approaches to researching female crime and the author’s own vision of the problem are used for working out recommendations aimed at enriching criminal law science in its search for optimal ways and effective means of counteracting female criminal behavior. Scientific substantiation of female criminal behavior allows the author to identify key trends for the development of social, criminal and penitentiary policy oriented at women. This problem has a considerable potential for further research touching upon not only criminal law, penitentiary and criminological spheres of work, but also political, ideological, economic, cultural-social, psychological and moral spheres of social life, which predetermined the contents of the current article.