Gender, structural disadvantage, and urban crime: Do macrosocial variablesalso explain female offending rates?

Building on prior macrosocial-crime research that sought to explain either total crime rates or male rates, this study links female offending rates to structural characteristics of U.S. cities. Specifically, we go beyond prev ious research by: (1) gender disaggregating the Uniform Crime Report (UCR) index-crime rates (homicide, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny -theft) across U.S. cities; (2) focusing explicitly on the effects of struc tural disadvantage variables on the index-offending rates of females; and ( 3) comparing the effects of the structural variables on female rates with t hose for male rates. Alternative measures of structural disadvantage are us ed to provide more theoretically appropriate indicators, such as gender-spe cific poverty and joblessness, and controls are included for age structure and structural variables related to offending. The main finding is consistent and powerful: The structural sources of high levels of female offending resemble closely those influencing male offendi ng but the effects tend to be stronger on male offending rates.