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GENDER, STRUCTURAL DISADVANTAGE, AND URBAN CRIME: DO MACROSOCIAL VARIABLES ALSO EXPLAIN FEMALE OFFENDING RATES? *
Author(s) -
STEFFENSMEIER DARRELL,
HAYNIE DANA
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
criminology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.467
H-Index - 139
eISSN - 1745-9125
pISSN - 0011-1384
DOI - 10.1111/j.1745-9125.2000.tb00895.x
Subject(s) - disadvantage , homicide , poverty , psychology , crime rate , violent crime , criminology , demography , poison control , injury prevention , sociology , economics , political science , environmental health , medicine , law , economic growth
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 previous 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 structural disadvantage variables on the index‐offending rates of females; and (3) comparing the effects of the structural variables on female rates with those for male rates. Alternative measures of structural disadvantage are used to provide more theoretically appropriate indicators, such as gender‐specific 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 offending, but the effects tend to be stronger on male offending rates.