ABSTRACT
A principal fact of criminology is that criminal behavior varies dramatically by gender. Indeed, gender is one of the strongest correlates of crime. The "discovery" of differential female criminality and the rise of a feminist criminology constituted significant advances in knowledge. This chapter considers the influence of Freda Adler's work on the development of feminist criminology and, more generally, on the discipline of criminology. Feminist scholars and traditional criminologists criticized the work—albeit for different reasons—citing methodological and theoretical shortcomings. The strong reactions toward Adler's hypothesis and media interest in female crime point to the importance of the work as a challenge to both traditional models of thinking and emerging feminist perspectives. Adler majored in sociology and was caught up in the excitement of the burgeoning field of criminology. The Pennsylvania criminologists were working to expand the research interests by taking on important issues such as crime measurement, criminal careers, crime seriousness, homicide studies, and sentencing disparity.
