ABSTRACT
Historically, criminological research has studied crime as essentially the study of men, boys and crime. The assumption that dominated criminology was that women and girls simply do not commit crimes to an extent worthy of concern or study; the few women and girls who do offend are aberrations, suffering from psychological or biological problems that cause them to act more like males than females. As a result, the criminal justice system’s development of policies, programs, and treatment regimes was based on the male offender. In short, criminality was conceptualized as masculine behavior, (passive) conformity as feminine.
