Academic Papers

Writing for Academic Knowledge, degree level papers on various subjects, mainly:

criminology
sociology
psychology

It was not until the late 20th century that gender became a focus in the Criminal Justice System with challenge of the previously accepted concepts of criminology. Exactly how comprehensive and appropriate these changes have been is still hotly debated especially in respect to gender and criminality. It is still statistically the case that most crime is committed by boys and men and the figures for conviction of every sort of crime at every age is less in women than it is in men. A Home Office study took a group of people born in 1953 and estimated that by the time that they had reached the age of 46, 33% of the males in the group had received at least one conviction whereas in their female counterpart the figure was a mere 9%. A later Home Office study done using one male and one female study group aged between 14 and 25, in the 1990’s revealed over half of the male participants admitting to have committed a crime while one third of the female group admitted wrong doing.........

......... Karen Matthews had apparently hoped to receive the reward money for Shannon in a plot that was so thin it was transparent and never likely to work. Further evidence that when women do instigate crime, it is not as deviously as men? Or further evidence of the pressures on women in today’s society?
Another recent case, the case of Baby P (2008) sent a shudder of revulsion through the entire country as we were appraised of the truly terrible suffering and torture of a baby by men living in his home, apparently condoned or at least allowed to continue by his quiescent mother. This woman has so far remained anonymous but the outpouring of hate towards her and her child’s killers has reached record proportions.
What do these cases tell us? They are possibly the highest profile cases in recent years involving women and excluding the Myra Hindley case where her punishment was as severe as her accomplice Ian Brady, it seems that the court are, in general, prepared to accept that women are often ‘led’ into crime by men, either to keep their men happy or to cover up for them.
The verdict and sentencing in the Baby P case is awaited but it will be interesting to see how that justice is meted out. In the case of Karen Matthews, she has been found guilty of kidnapping her own child for her own nefarious reasons. Her sentence will be telling.

Heidensohn, F. (1995). Women and Crime. Basingstoke: MacMillan.
Robbie, A. (2008) The After math of Feminism. Sage Publications.
Morsah, M. (2005) Understanding Gender, Crime and Justice. Sage Publications.
Lombroso, C Ferrero, G (1895) The Female Offender. Durham, NC: Duke University
Maccoby, E. and Jacklin, C. (1975) The Psychology of Sex Differences Stanford University Press
Dalton, K http://pms.org.uk/About+PMS/Be+Informed/Behavioural+symptoms
Ritchie, J (1991) Myra Hindley: Inside the Mind of a Murderess, Paladin
Masters, Brian (1996). She Must Have Known: Trial of Rosemary West, Doubleday (London).
Huntley: I lied for lover Maxine The Sun 28 Mar 2007. Retrieved 4 Feb 2008
Shannon Matthews http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/west_yorkshire/7763260.stm
Bby P’s mother http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7743563.stm