Female Violent Offending, Theoretical Models of

Women comprise a small population of adults arrested and sentenced for violent offenses within the United States—14% and 5%, respectively, in 2015 according to the national statistics from the Bureau of Justice Statistics. Common categories of violent crime are robbery, assault, and homicide. Analyses of national data available through the Bureau of Justice Statistics show that rates of violent crime by women have been relatively stable since the mid-1960s. Despite some isolated increases in rates of assaults, rates of other violent offenses by women have dropped since 1990. The increase in the number of women arrested for assaults is often attributed to the implementation of mandatory arrest policies for domestic violence incidents.

Women convicted of violent offenses are more likely to have histories of certain adverse ...