Gender Patterns & Crime - Women

Most crimes appears to be commited by males, and its been observed that gender difference in crime are perhaps the most significant feature of recorded crime. 

The official statistics elude to the idea that males commit more crime than females. But it raises the question of, does the official statistics give us a true picture of the extent of gender differences. 

A very interesting argument is known as the chivalry thesis. This thesis argues that criminal justice agents, such as police officers and judges are men and men are socialised in a way that makes them chivalrous towards women. 

It may be that the criminal justice system is very lenient towards females, and so their crimes are less likely to end up in the official statistics. 

This thesis is hotly debated and recieves support from many studies. but this is countered with evidence against this theory. 

And, some sociologists claim that the criminal justice system is biased against them. In that they treat females more harshly, due to double standards.

This…