“I Will Shoot You Like a Man”: Gender Neutralization and Gender Switching among Hardcore Female Street Offenders

• In Event: Offenders’ Perspective on Street Crime, Cooking Meth, Drug Market Conflict, and Laughing At It

Abstract

Prior research demonstrates that street offending is a highly masculinized activity, particularly for confrontational offenses like carjacking and robbery. Rates of participation for women in such offenses are generally low and much of that participation has tended to capitalize on the implementation of feminized roles. One reason for this is that women must contend more barriers to criminality than do men. As with their male counterparts they must contend with the anticipation of fear, guilt, and shame associated with breaking the law. In addition, they must also contend with violating gender expectations associated with engaging in street crime. Through the use of in-depth interviews with female street criminals, we find that these women are able to participate in hardcore street crime to the same extent and with the same intensity as men by engaging in gender neutralization, which then allows these women to engage in gender switching.

Authors

• Volkan Topalli, Georgia State University

• Aislinn Murray, Georgia State University