D. Steffensmeier et D. Haynie, Gender, structural disadvantage, and urban crime: Do macrosocial variablesalso explain female offending rates?, CRIMINOLOGY, 38(2), 2000, pp. 403-438
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.