The effect of female social position on geographic variations in the sex ratio of arrests.

The area of female criminality has historically attracted little attention from criminologists,! and remains one in which few systematic empirical studies have been conducted. One point that has been firmly established, however, is that male arrest rates surpass female arrest rates in all societies and in all historical periods for which reliable data are available. Nonetheless, explanations for this differential remain controversial and at the forefront of current issues in the field. This paper explores the effect of geographic variations in the social position of women on the ratio of female to male arrests. While arrest statistics cannot be interpreted as a valid measure of actual rates of criminality, variations in the ratio of female to male arrests have been observed both across time and across different geographic locations. Across time, nationwide arrest data for the United States show female arrests have risen from 10.9 percent of all arrests in 1960,3(p· 183) to a 1978 figure of15.8 percent. "(p.197) Analysis of such temporal variations necessitates the use of a longitudinal research design and time series data. On the other hand, there are wide variations in the sex ratio of arrests that can be observed at anyone point in time. In Belgium for example, there are approximately 350 male criminals for each female offender, whereas in Algiers and Tunis males outnumber female offenders by a ratio of approximately 2750:1. In the United States, the sex ratio of arrests tends to be lower in rural areas than in large cities." Analysis of such geographic variations at one point in time requires the use of cross sectional designs. In this paper, cross sectional data will be used to assess the possibility that spatial variations in the sex ratio of arrests are related to differences in the social position of women in an area.