THE FEMALE CRIMINAL

Women furnish only one-fifth to one-tenth of the population of penal
institutions. Probably the percentage would be still lower if among
these were not a number of rather common convictions for acts which are
peculiar to women, like abortion, infanticide, child abandonment and the
like. As to the other crimes, few women are burglars or robbers, or
guilty of other crimes of violence, except murder. Women steal and
poison and blackmail and extort money and lie and slander and gossip,
and probably cause as much unhappiness as men; but their crimes, like
their lives, are not on so large or adventurous a scale. They do not so
readily take a chance; they lack the imagination that makes big
criminals or lays broad schemes. In many of their crimes they are often
the accomplices of men and take rather a minor part, although sometimes
a quite important one. For this reason they are often not detected and
frequently not prosecuted, a fact which leaves the percentage smaller
than it otherwise would be. Then too, juries are apt to acquit women of
crime even when they are indicted and tried. It must be a positive case
and one which calls for no possible feeling of sympathy or where there
is no personal appeal that will work the conviction of a woman. Men have
so long adopted an attitude of chivalry toward women that very few
juries will convict them. This too has much to do with the small number
of female convicts.

Some writers claim that the small number of women in penal institutions
shows that women are better than men; but this is a hasty conclusion
arrived at from insufficient facts. There are fewer female prisoners
because women have lived a more protected life; they have not been
engaged so generally in business; they have not been so constantly
obliged to fight their way in the world; their lives have been more
quiet and smooth; they have been surrounded by strong conventions and
closely watched. Especially is this true with regard to the girl as
compared with the boy. Such protection naturally keeps them from the
commission of crime. The great consideration shown to them by
prosecuting witnesses, prosecuting officers, judges and juries,
supplements the protected life and is an added reason for the showing
made by statistics. It is notorious that a woman is seldom convicted of
murder. This has been the subject of much complaint on the part of the
public; still a man may condemn such acquittals and