ABSTRACT
The gender difference in officially recorded crime has been described as so sustained and so marked as to be perhaps the most significant feature in recorded crime (with age the next). For England and Wales in 1992, 541,100 people were found guilty or cautioned for indictable offences: 81% were men, 19% were women. Men committed 10,300 indictable motoring offences; women 400. In 1992, for sexual offences, the male-to-female ratio was 49:1, for burglary 36:1. Even in the areas where women were most represented (theft, handling stolen goods, fraud and forgery) men outnumber women by four to one.
