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Abstract

The validity of three assumptions about self-esteem, sex-role identity, and feminism in female offenders was empirically investigated in a study of 73 women awaiting trial (ATU) in Massachusetts. ATU and a comparison group of women were administered several paper-and-pencil questionnaires measuring self-esteem, personal autonomy, psychological masculinity and femininity, and feminism. Despite age and educational differences, ATU women were similar to nonoffender women. The results did not support assumptions regarding low self-esteem and increased masculinity in female offenders. The third assumption about feminism in young female offenders received slight support. The relationship between social class and attitudes was discussed as well as the appropriateness of rehabilitative goals for female offenders and speculations were made about the role femininity (or expressiveness) in criminality, Spence's concepts of negative masculinity and femininity, and the role of societal expectations in influencing one's self-concept.

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