Perpetrators, Female

Historically, the reasons why females commit crimes and what female offenders need have been overlooked in the criminal justice and criminological literatures. In fact, female offenders are often referred to in the academic literature as “invisible women” or the “forgotten offenders” because academia has been focused on understanding male offending patterns. The feminist movement in the 1970s brought a renewed interest in issues impacting females in society, including female offenders. Over the past several decades, female offenders have received increased attention from researchers in the criminal justice and criminological literatures. This article devotes discussion to a description of female perpetrators in the United States and internationally, the types of crimes female perpetrators commit, risk factors for female criminality, and policy implications for female perpetrators of ...