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2002, Number 5

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Salud Mental 2002; 25 (5)

¿Por qué delinquen las mujeres? Perspectivas teóricas tradicionales. Parte I

Romero MM, Aguilera GRM

Language: Spanish
References: 54
Page: 10-22
PDF size: 394.13 Kb.


ABSTRACT

In the last decades, the rate of female delinquency has had a major increase in comparison with male deliquency in various countries, including Mexico. It is known that most of the imprisoned women come from social and economically disadvantaged population sectors, and that they are confined due to typical offenses committed by powerless people like those who have lived in poverty and suffered violence most of their lives. However, recently, most womenhave been involved in new criminal acts such as bank robberies, kidnaping, extortion and crimes against health. Until recently, these criminal actions were typically linked to man, due to the implicit violence that its execution requires. Making a reflection on these changes requires to enter a field full of ideological prejudices that have produced “theories” based on “the way women behave” and fail to explain the new realities that delinquent women have to face.
The objective of this documental research is to find out what type of criminal acts and offenses are more prevalent in women and to make a deeper review of current knowledge in regard to traditional theories that claim to understand female delinquency. Our aim is to make visible the theoretical, methodological and empirical gaps that up to this day have allowed an inequitative treatment towards delinquent women. We, therefore, have reviewed several documental, bibliographic and statistical penitentiary sources, in Mexico and other Latin-American countries.
“Crime” as a juridical behavior prohibited by law, has a contingent nature, that is, each society enhances crime as a historical product, and criminal acts evolve in quantity and quality, in time.
The most important traditional theories are divided into 1.-Biopsychosocial/Anthropobiological theories, 2.- Social Structure Theories, 3.- Social Process Theories and 4. Social Reaction Theories.
Theories of antropobiological/biopsychosocial nature, explain the connection between biology and women’s criminality, by stating questionable conclusions such as that women, by nature, act more as inducers than as executers of delinquent behavior and that they are inherently dishonest.
Social Structure Theories emphasize aspects such as social disorganization (deficient households, unemployment, low income, familiar disintegration); strains that modern society imposes on subjects stratified by social class (achievements, values, goals, desires) means needed for success (education, work) which generate feelings of alienation, anger and frustration, associated with delinquent behavior; and construction of sub-cultural values that maintain rules and values against laws and dominant traditions.
Social Process Theories emphasize aspects like social learning (criminal behavior is learned); differential association (as a consequence of a differentiated socialization); differential reinforcement to some conducts (criminal conduct as a preferential option when balancing risks and gains); neutralization that permits temporarilly omitting dominant traditions and values in order to break the law and social control. These concepts on one hand lead people to obey the law, but when dissolved, push them towards criminality.
Finally, Social Reaction theories stress other aspects such as labelling a person as delinquent. As a consequence, this person becomes “stigmatized” and is catalogued as deviant, provoking undesirable effects on his/her future behavior: these theories also point out the importance that social institutions have at the moment of making laws. According to this, perspective laws perform the function of imposing the will of some social groups on others, through the control of the behavior of subaltern groups.
One of the most important conclusions is that theories examined here do not allow to understand in an holistic manner, the increase of women’s criminality, so that delinquent women have the right to question the general validity of such theories which fail to explain the mechanisms than lead them to commit those socially sanctioned behaviors. It is necessary to reflect on a theoretical perspective that permits to comprehend women, by analysing aspects such as violence, inequity, controls (formal and informal) and the power relationships that are involved. In synthesis, a multidisciplinary approach is required to understand the complexity of the analyzed phenomena and to achieve juridical equity for men and women.
Some limitations of this work are the lack of available data of epidemiological nature related with the penal situation of different countries, and also the lack of data regarding women’s situation in Latin-American prisons.


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