Masculinity and Crime

David R. Champion

It has long been recognized that men commit more crimes than do women, as reported by official law enforcement sources such as the FBI's Uniform Crime Report (UCR). The 2005 UCR demonstrates that this holds true for adult males as well as juveniles (under age 18). Although the arrest rates for the past 10 years have demonstrated a decrease in rates for men and an increase for women, the 2005 UCR data indicate that men still accounted for 76% of adult arrests. For the same year, 82% of violent crime arrestees were male, and males accounted for 68% of property crime arrests. Being male could be considered the single greatest predictor of criminal behavior. Scholars have explored this fact from a variety of approaches, examining how the concept of masculinity (or at least some malfunctioning types of masculinity) may account for this phenomenon. Obviously, not all males are criminals, and ...

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