ABSTRACT
Crime is a predominantly male enterprise. By this, I mean that men and boys are significantly more likely to be involved with the criminal and juvenile justice systems. As I will explore in this chapter, males are more likely to commit crimes, more likely to be victimized by crime, and more likely to be arrested, convicted, and sentenced to criminal sanctions (e.g., prison and probation). These trends have led to a system that has been primarily designed to address male offending and offenders. Criminological theorizing and criminal justice policy and practice have historically ignored the experiences of females as victims and offenders. Moreover, situating male offending as normative has led to a relative lack of attention paid to the experiences of male victims and offenders as gendered beings. Drawing on (pro)feminist calls to bring gender to the fore of criminological thinking, this chapter outlines how male dominance in offending and victimization has had serious implications for both females and males. We begin with a brief overview of evidence supporting the claim that crime is a predominantly male enterprise.
