Gendered Crime Pathways

Within the field of criminology, research has been devoted toward understanding individuals’ pathways into crime, which consider important circumstances and events over the life course starting during childhood. However, the initial research in this area was generalized, and it largely neglected potential variation across gender. Arguably, general pathways research was not truly representative of all individuals as the theoretical perspective was developed using primarily samples of boys and men. Consequently, the gendered pathways perspective emerged to account for girls and women’s distinct pathways to crime. Since then, other scholars have also applied a gendered lens to consider boys and men’s pathways as well. Ultimately, using a gendered lens to understand individuals’ pathways accounts for the biological, psychological, and social circumstances that shape both entry into criminal behavior and societal responses. While adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), such as abuse, poverty, and parental incarceration, impact pathways among both boys and girls, reactions, coping mechanisms, and legal responses vary across gender, leading to specific contexts of pathways to crime.

Pathways to Crime and Emerging Adulthood: Differences between Prison Inmates and Normative Young Adults in Israel

The current study evaluates differences between inmates and normative young male adults based on the Pathways to Crime model. Research findings support the model’s assumptions, showing that inmate characteristics are consistent with the Life-Course Persistent (LCP) pathway, while the characteristics of the non-inmates are mostly consistent with the abstainers’ pathway. This investigation makes a theoretical contribution, demonstrating the model’s suitability for distinguishing between crime pathways among emerging adults. Also, emphasis is placed on emerging adulthood as an intermediate period on the path to adulthood, which can affect the evolution of crime pathways among at-risk populations.

Female Institutional Misconduct: A Test of Deprivation, Importation, and Gendered Importation Theories

Although deprivation and importation theories are frequently offered as explanations of institutional misconduct, there have been few studies that have tested either approach on women in prison. Moreover, despite research that suggests women have different pathways to crime, research studies have not incorporated gendered variables into the importation perspective. As such, this study tests three explanations of misconduct in a large sample of female inmates. Using logistic and negative binomial regressions, results support deprivation, importation, and gendered importation explanations relative to understanding of female misconduct.

Pathways to Crime

Scholarship in criminology has focused on individuals’ pathways to crime—how life experiences, often beginning during childhood, lead to criminality in adolescence or adulthood. General frameworks for this research include life-course, developmental, and biosocial criminology. However, because the vast majority of the general pathways research literature was developed using samples of boys and men, scholars with a feminist theoretical background argue that such research is not truly representative of girls and women’s pathways to crime. While general theories of crime have been applied broadly, gender-specific pathways to crime account for important distinctions between male and female experiences. Thus, gender (and sex), through biological differences, social norms, and expectations, shapes individual life experiences that result in distinct pathways to crime for men and women. Consequently, understanding criminality requires a full consideration of gendered experiences. Even though similar life events may occur with both men and women, individual responses and effects can vary greatly and lead to different pathways to criminal behavior. Accordingly, this article discusses pathways to crime though a gendered lens. First, men’s pathways to crime are presented, which have been traditionally represented through general criminological research. Next, women’s specific pathways to crime are discussed, developed primarily through the gendered pathways literature. Finally, future directions in pathways research are outlined.