Sex and Involvement in Deviance/Crime: A Quantitative Review of the Empirical Literature

Abstract

Forty-four studies reporting data on the relationship between sex and indicators of deviance/criminality are reduced to a single data base. Contingency tables (1,118) are generated from the extant empirical literature on sex and deviance and comparable statistics are calculated, using instances where the sex-deviance relationship was reported for specific categories of class position, age, data type, year of study, level of family intactness, race, place of residence, and type of offense. The findings from 1,118 instances are summarized, and patterns are discussed. The overall results indicate that the magnitude of the relationship between sex and deviance is contingent on the year the data were gathered, the type of data used, the percentage classified as deviant in a particular table, whether the indicator of deviance is a single behavior or composite index, race, and the specific offense. Moreover, analysis demonstrates that trends in the sex-deviance relationship over time vary by type of data and by population group. (abstract Adapted from Source: American Sociological Review, 1980. Copyright © 1980 by the American Sociological Association) Literature Review Adult Female Adult Male Adult Offender Adult Crime Adult Deviance Female Crime Female Offender Male Crime Male Offender Gender Differences Crime Rates 07-02

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