Text in Afrikaans / Vrouemisdaad is 'n komplekse sosiale verskynsel. 'n Aspek van vrouemisdaad wat in die onderhawige proef skrif ondersoek word, is om aan die hand van bestaande teoriee te probeer verklaar waarom vroue soveel minder misdaad as mans pleeg. Ten einde antwoorde op die vraag te vind, is 'n kwantitatiewe ondersoek na die gemeenskap se houding rakende die vrouemisdadiger en 'n kwalitatiewe ontleding van die beskikbare literatuur gedoen. 'n Intensiewe verkennende studie van die beskikbare literatuur het getoon dat die gemeenskap, navorsers en akademici bepaalde persepsies huldig oor die vrouemisdadiger wat nie altyd met die werklike beeld strook nie. Alhoewel die getalle van vrouemisdadigers deur die jare toegeneem het, het die tipe misdade wat vroue pleeg weinig verander en die omvang van vrouemisdaad proporsioneel tot die bevolking dieselfde gebly. Geen enkele teorie of benadering op sigself bied 'n algemene verklaring vir die verskynsel van vrouemisdaad nie; dit kan hoogstens as gedeeltelike verklaring dien. 'n Algemene verklaringsmodel vir vrouemisdaad is egter opgestel wat terselfdertyd as samevatting van die geselekteerde teoriee dien. Met behulp van die argivale metode is 'n profiel van die gekommitteerde vrouemisdadiger saamgestel om 'n basiese kennissisteem van die vrouemisdadiger daar te stel. Statisties beduidende verbande is gevind tussen die karakteristieke van die blanke gekommitteerde vrouemisdadiger se huwelikstaat, aantal kinders en bedrog. Die kwantitatiewe ondersoek bestaan uit die ontleding van 516 respondente se persepsies oor die vrouemisdadiger. Uit die resultate van verskeie statistiese tegnieke blyk dit dat die ondersoekgroep, wat blanke respondente van vier voorstede uit struktuurstreekplansel 22 van Pretoria verteenwoordig, bepaalde persepsies en opvattings aangaande die vrouemisdadiger het. Die persepsiemeting het aan die lig gebring dat daar verskille in persepsies bestaan oor die vrouemisdadiger en vrouemisdaad in die blanke gemeenskap bestaan. Hierdie persepsies stem nie ooreen met die beeld wat blyk uit die onderhawige navorsing nie. Statisties beduidende verskille in persepsies tussen manlike en vroulike respondente van die ondersoekgroep is ook gevind. Daar bestaan verder statisties beduidende verskille tussen respondente van verskillende voorstede, onderwyspeile, taalgroepe, en ouderdomsgroepe. / It can be said that female crime is a complex phenomenon. An aspect of female crime that is investigated in this thesis is to explain, with reference to existing theories, why women commit fewer crimes than men. In an attempt to answer this question, a quantitative investigation regarding the attitude of society towards the female criminal as well as a qualitative study of the available literature, was conducted. An intensive exploratory study on female crime indicated that and academics have a certain of the available the community, perception of literature researchers the female criminal which does not always correspond with the facts. Although the number of female criminals has increased through the years the extent of female crime, proportionally to the population size, has remained constant, and the type of crime committed by women has remained relatively unchanged. It seems clear that no single theory or approach can explain female crime, it can at best give a partial explanation. An integrated explanation model for female crime has been compiled which simultaneously serves as a summary of selected theories. By means of the archival research method a profile of the female prisoner was compiled, to be used as a basis for the researcher's scientific knowledge of this phenomenon. Statistically significant relations were found to exist between the characteristics of the white female prisoner's marital status, number of children and fraud. The quantitative investigation consisted of an analysis of the responses of 516 respondents on an attitude scale. The results of various statistical techniques show that the research group, which represents respondents fr6m four suburbs from structure plan cell 22 of Pretoria, reveals certain attitudes and beliefs about the female criminal. This attitude measurement indicated that differences in perceptions regarding the female in the white community do criminal and female exist. Furthermore crime these perceptions do not correlate on the female criminal in with the information gathered this research. Statistically significant differences in attitude were found between male and female respondents, respondents from the different suburbs, with different qualifications, of different language groups, and of different age groups. / Sociology / D. Lit. et Phil. (Kriminologie)

Late-nineteenth and early twentieth-century Dundee had a strikingly large female workforce and this fact has attracted much scholarly attention. But existing research has not probed the official crime records to determine whether the associated local stereotype of the disorderly mill worker, as a ‘moral blot' on the landscape, is justified. This study looks at female criminality in Dundee 1865–1925. It finds that drunkenness, breach of the peace and theft were the leading female offences and that the women most strongly associated with criminality belonged to the marginalised sections of the working class. Amongst them were the unskilled mill girls prominent in the contemporary discussions, but it was prostitutes and women of ‘No Trade' who appear to have challenged the police most often. They were frequently repeat offenders and consequently this thesis devotes considerable attention to the women entrenched in Dundee's criminal justice system. A pattern noted in the city's recidivism statistics, and often echoed elsewhere, is that the most persistent offenders were women. The fact that men perpetrated the majority of petty crime raises the suspicion that the police statistics capture differential policing of male and female recidivists – an idea that builds upon feminist theory and Howard Taylor's stance on judicial statistics. Yet a detailed study of the archives reveals that there are as many examples of the police treating women fairly as there are of gender-biased law. Indeed, several practical constraints hindered over-zealous policing, one of which was the tendency of the local magistrates to throw out cases against prostitutes and female drunks. This thesis, taking the police and court records as a whole, emphasizes that it was generally pragmatism, rather than prejudice, that guided the sanctioning of female recidivists in Dundee.