Azizah Al-Maneh
BOTH men and women commit crimes. But are the crimes committed by women any different from those committed by men? While I was looking around at the recent Riyadh book fair, I found a book focusing on the crimes committed by women. I decided to buy it to find out if the gender of the criminal had anything to do with the type of crimes committed.
The book, which is based on research conducted by the author, purports that women are less likely than men to commit crimes. Moreover, the percentage of crimes committed by women all over the world is less than that of men.
Some US reports on this issue indicate that the crimes committed by men outnumber by tenfold the crimes committed by women. To my surprise, the book denies that the low percentage of female criminals has anything to do with the nature of women. In other words, women do not commit fewer crimes than men because they are less evil. The real reason, according to the author, is due to the fact that many of the crimes committed by women are never discovered. The second reason is that people tend to treat women more kindly and forgive them. However, the author did not provide any proof to support these conclusions.
The type of crimes can differ according to the gender of the criminal. Crimes committed by women are usually non-violent such as prostitution, blackmailing, extortion, drug dealing, bootlegging and abortions. The motive of these crimes is money and in some cases women are forced into committing these crimes. Women who are well off do not usually get involved in money-related crimes. The author blames the liberation of women for these crimes but does not give any proof to support this.
While it is true that women might become involved in violent crimes and might beat someone to death or burn someone alive, they are more likely than men to be victims and not perpetrators of crimes.
