Two long-standing explanations of converging violence gender gap trends in the United States are net-widening enforcement and offender-behavioral changes. We examine these explanations in an Asian context, democratic Taiwan. We use sex-specific arrests, conviction, and imprisonment statistics for violent offenses, 1989 to 2012, to identify whether Taiwanese gender gaps are converging across the criminal justice system. This study did not identify a female violent crime “wave” but mainly stability, failing to support the offender-behavioral change hypothesis. There is limited evidence of net-widening enforcement of felony assault and domestic violence, where disparate impacts on female arrest trends are identified solely for domestic violence.
AdlerF. (1975). Sisters in crime: The rise of the new female criminal. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
2.
AlaridL. F.WangH.-M. (2000). Cultural influences on Taiwanese police management and patrol practices: An exploratory investigation of Ouchi’s Theory Z. International Journal of the Sociology of Law, 28, 113-127.
3.
BarroR. J. (1998, April27). The East Asian tigers: Have plenty to roar about. Businessweek, p. 24.
4.
BayleyD. H. (1976). Forces of order: Policing modern Japan. Berkeley: University of California Press.
5.
BelknapJ. (2007). The invisible woman (3rd ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
6.
BelknapJ.HolsingerK. (2006). The gendered nature of risk factors for delinquency. Feminist Criminology, 1, 48-71.
7.
BoxS.HaleC. (1984). Liberation/emancipation, economic, marginalization, or less chivalry: The relevance of three theoretical arguments to female crime patterns in England and Wales, 1951-1980. Criminology, 22, 473-497.
8.
BroidyL.AgnewR. (1997). Gender and crime: A general strain theory perspective. Journal of Research in Crime & Delinquency, 34, 275-306.
9.
ChangS. C. (2002). 女性犯罪問題之研究 [A study of female criminality]. The Law Monthly, 53(3), 14-24.
10.
ChaoE. (2005). A study in social change: The domestic violence prevention movement in Taiwan. Critical Asian Studies, 37, 29-50.
11.
ChenM. (2001). Analysis of problems of police response to domestic violence. Community Development Journal, 94, 317-330.
12.
ChenP.-W. (2009). A counseling model for self-relation coordination for Chinese clients with interpersonal conflicts. The Counseling Psychologist, 37, 987-1009.
13.
ChenS.-F. (2010). The present and future of domestic violence: Prevention in Taiwan from the view of victims’ protection and offenders’ treatment. Asian Journal of Domestic Violence and Sexual Offense, 6, 187-210.
14.
ChenY.-S. (1997). Delinquency and psychological distress: Effects of gender and risk/protective factors (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Duke University, Durham, NC.
15.
ChenY.-S. (2000). Women and crime: It’s characteristics and research. Journal of Central Police University, 36, 255-275.
16.
ChenY.-S.LaiY.-L.LinC.-Y. (2014). The impact of prison adjustment among women offenders: A Taiwanese perspective. The Prison Journal, 94, 7-29.
17.
ChenY.-S.LinC.-Y. (2010). 我國女性犯罪原因與矯治處遇相關課題之研究 [The issues of causes and correctional treatment among Taiwanese female offenders]. Taipei, Taiwan: Ministry of Justice.
18.
Chesney-LindM. (1989). Girls’ crime and woman’s place: Toward a feminist model of female delinquency. Crime & Delinquency, 35, 5-29.
19.
Chesney-LindM. (2001). Out of sight, out of mind: Girls in the juvenile justice system. In RenzettiC. M.GoodsteinL. (Eds.), Women, crime, and criminal justice (pp. 27-43). Los Angeles, CA: Roxbury Publishing.
20.
Chesney-LindM. (2002). Criminalizing victimization: The unintended consequences of pro-arrest policies for girls and women. Criminology & Public Policy, 2, 81-90.
21.
Chesney-LindM. (2006). Patriarchy, crime, and justice: Feminist criminology in an era of backlash. Feminist Criminology, 1, 6-26.
22.
Chesney-LindM.ParamoreV. V. (2001). Are girls getting more violent? Exploring juvenile robbery trends. Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice, 17, 142-166.
23.
Chesney-LindM.SheldenR. G. (2014). Girls, delinquency, and juvenile justice (4th ed.). West Sussex, UK: Wiley-Blackwell.
24.
Chinese Statistical Association. (2013). Statistical yearbook of the Republic of China 2012. Taipei, Taiwan: Chinese Statistical Association.
25.
ChiouH.-H. (2012). Exploring the cultural meanings of male intimate partner violence in Taiwan. Asian Journal of Domestic Violence and Sexual Offense, 8, 27-50.
26.
ChuD. C. (2013). Introduction: Crime and criminal justice issues in Taiwan. International Journal of Comparative and Applied Criminal Justice, 37, 75-78.
27.
ChuD. C.SunI. Y. (2014). Reactive versus proactive attitudes toward domestic violence: A comparison of Taiwanese male and police officers. Crime & Delinquency, 60, 216-237.
28.
ClowardR. A.OhlinL. E. (1960). Delinquency and opportunity: A theory of delinquent gangs. Glencoe, IL: Free Press.
29.
DarrowC. (1922). Crime: Its causes and treatment. New York, NY: Crowell.
30.
DawsonJ.StrausM. A. (2011). Gender equality in society and male predominance in crime by university students in thirty-two national settings. The Open Criminology Journal, 4, 10-23.
31.
DengF.VaughnM. S.LeeL.-J. (2003). Imprisoned drug offenders in Taiwan: A gender-based-analysis. Substance Use & Misuse, 38, 933-964.
32.
Directorate-General of Budget. (2014). Women and men in R.O.C. (Taiwan): Facts and figures. Taipei, Taiwan: Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics, Executive Yuan, Republic of China.
33.
DuttonM.TianfuL. (1993). Missing the target? Policing strategies in the period of economic reform. Crime & Delinquency, 39, 316-336.
34.
FoxJ. A.LevinJ. A.QuinetK. (2011). The will to kill: Making sense of senseless murder (4th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.
35.
GarlandD. (2001). The culture of control: Crime and social order in contemporary society. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
36.
GilliganC. (1993). In a different voice: Psychological theory and women’s development (2nd ed.). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
37.
GingerichT. E.ChuD. C.ChangC. K. M. (2011). Public perceptions of police performance in Taiwan: A historical review (1945-2009). Asian Politics & Policy, 3, 49-68.
38.
GoodkindS.WallaceJ. M.ShookJ. J.BachmanJ.O’MalleyP. (2009). Are girls really becoming more delinquent? Testing the gender convergence hypothesis by race and ethnicity, 1976-2005. Children and Youth Services Review, 31, 885-895.
39.
GottfredsonM.HirschiT. (1990). A general theory of crime. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
40.
GronningT. (2009). Asian tigers. In WankelC. (Ed.), Encyclopedia of business in today’s world (pp. 79-81). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
41.
HaganJ.SimpsonJ. H.GillisA. R. (1979). The sexual stratification of social control: A gender-based perspective on crime and delinquency. British Journal of Sociology, 30, 25-38.
42.
HebentonB.JouS. (2014). Unmasking crime and criminology in Taiwan. In CaoL.SunI. Y.HebentonB. (Eds.), The Routledge handbook of Chinese criminology (pp. 253-266). New York, NY: Routledge.
43.
HeimerK. (2000). Changes in the gender gap in crime and women’s economic marginalization. In La FreeG. (Ed.), The nature of crime: Continuity and change, Criminal Justice 2000 (Vol. 1, pp. 427-483). Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice.
44.
HindelangM. J. (1979). Sex differences in criminal activity. Social Problems, 27, 143-156.
45.
HsiehW.-Y.HuangF.-Y. (2008). 性別差異與犯罪類型 [Gender differences in crime]. In LinL. S.HuangF. Y. (Eds.), 性別議題與執法 [Gender issues and law enforcement] (pp. 187-214). Taoyuan, Taiwan: Central Police University.
46.
HughesG. (1998). Understanding crime prevention: Social control, risk and late modernity. Philadelphia, PA: Open University Press.
47.
JiangX. (2009). Confucianism, women, and social contexts. Journal of Chinese Philosophy, 36, 228-242.
48.
JouS.-Y. (2011). 聲聲慢,台灣女性主義犯罪學之冷清 [Lack of Taiwanese feminism in criminology]. Journal of Criminal Justice and Criminology, 14, 77-92.
49.
KohE. (2008). Gender issues and Confucian scriptures: Is Confucianism incompatible with gender equality in South Korea?Bulletin of School of Oriental & African Studies, 17, 345-362.
50.
KruttschnittC. (2013). Gender and crime. Annual Review of Sociology, 39, 291-308.
51.
LaFreeG.HunnicuttG. (2006). Female and male homicide victimization trends: A cross-national context. In HeimerK.KruttschnittC. (Eds.), Gender and crime: Patterns of victimization and offending (pp. 195-229). New York: New York University Press.
52.
LaiY.-L.CaoL.ZhaoJ. S. (2010). The impact of political entity on confidence in legal authorities: A comparison between China and Taiwan. Journal of Criminal Justice, 38, 934-941.
53.
LauritsenJ. L.HeimerK.LynchJ. P. (2009). Trends in the gender gap in violent offending: New evidence from the national crime victimization survey. Criminology, 47, 361-400.
54.
LiC. Y. (1994). The Confucian concept of Jen and the feminist ethics of care: A comparative study. Hypatia, 9(1), 70-89.
LuM.-L. (2012). The changing status of women in Taiwan: 1945-2010 (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Auburn University, AL.
59.
LuoL.YangK.-S. (2005). Social- and individual-oriented self-actualizers: Conceptual analysis and empirical assessment of their psychological characteristics. Psychological Research in Chinese Societies, 23, 71-143.
60.
McCarthyB.HaganJ.WoodwardT. S. (1999). In the company of women: Structure and agency in a revised power-control theory of gender and delinquency. Criminology, 37, 761-788.
61.
MertonR. K. (1938). Social structure and anomie. American Sociological Review, 3, 672-682.
62.
MesserschmidtJ. W. (1993). Masculinities and crime: Critique and reconceptualization of theory. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
63.
MillerS. L. (2001). The paradox of women arrested for domestic violence. Violence Against Women, 7, 1339-1376.
64.
MillerS. L. (2005). Victims as offenders: The paradox of women’s violence in relationships. Piscataway, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
65.
Ministry of Justice. (2013). Yearbook of statistics of justice, 2012. Taipei, Taiwan: Author.
66.
Ministry of Justice. (2015). Yearbook of statistics of justice, 2014. Taipei, Taiwan: Author.
67.
MorrisR. R. (1964). Female delinquency and relational problems. Social Forces, 43, 82-89.
68.
MosherC. J.MietheT. D.HartT. C. (2011). The mismeasure of crime (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
O’BrienR. M. (1999). Measuring the convergence/divergence of “serious crime” arrest rates for males and females: 1960-1995. Journal of Quantitative Criminology, 15, 97-114.
72.
OkinS. M. (1998). Feminism, women’s human rights, and culture differences. Hypatia, 13(2), 32-52.
73.
ParmeleeM. (1918). Criminology. New York, NY: Macmillan.
74.
Patt-ShamirG. (2009). Learning and women: Confucianism revisited. Journal of Chinese Philosophy, 36, 243-260.
75.
PollakO. (1950). The criminality of women. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
76.
RennisonC. M. (2009). A new look at the gender gap in offending. Women & Criminal Justice, 19, 171-190.
77.
RosenleeL. H. L. (2006). Confucianism and women: A philosophical interpretation. Albany: State University of New York Press.
78.
SchwartzJ. (2008a). Comparing women and men who kill. In DeLisiM.ConisP. J. (Eds.), Violent offenders: Theory, research, public policy, and practice (pp. 119-140). Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett.
79.
SchwartzJ. (2008b). Gender differences in drunk driving prevalence rates and trends: A 20-year assessment using multiple sources of evidence. Addictive Behaviors, 33, 1217-1222.
80.
SchwartzJ. (2013). A “new” female offender or increasing social control of women’s behavior? Cross-national evidence. Feminist Study, 39, 790-821.
81.
SchwartzJ.RookeyB. D. (2008). The narrowing gender gap in arrests: Assessing competing explanations using self-report, traffic fatality, and official data on drunk driving, 1980-2004. Criminology, 46, 637-672.
82.
SchwartzJ.SteffensmeierD. (2015). Can the gender gap in offending be explained? In CullenF. T.WilcoxP.LuxJ. L.JonsonC. L. (Eds.), Sisters in crime revisited: Bringing gender into criminology (pp. 229-250). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
83.
SchwartzJ.SteffensmeierD. J.FeldmeyerB. (2009). Assessing trends in women’s violence via data triangulation: Arrests, convictions, incarcerations, and victim reports. Social Problems, 56, 494-525.
84.
SchwartzJ.SteffensmeierD.ZhongH.AckermanJ. (2009). Trends in the gender gap in violence: Reevaluating NCVS and other evidence. Criminology, 47, 401-425.
85.
SellinT. (1938). Culture conflict and crime. American Journal of Sociology, 44, 97-103.
86.
ShawC. R.McKayH. D. (1942). Juvenile delinquency and urban areas: A study of rates of delinquents in relation to differential characteristics of local communities in American cities. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
87.
ShimY.-H. (2001). Feminism and the discourse of sexuality in Korea: Continuities and changes. Human Studies, 24, 133-148.
88.
SimonR. J. (1975). Women and crime. Lexington, MA: D.C. Health.
89.
SteffensmeierD. (1980). Sex differences in patterns of adult crime, 1965-1977: A review and assessment. Social Forces, 58, 1080-1108.
90.
SteffensmeierD.AllanE. (1996). Gender and crime: Toward a gendered theory of female offending. Annual Review of Sociology, 22, 459-487.
91.
SteffensmeierD.AllanE.StreifelC. (1989). Development and female crime: A cross-national test of alternative explanations. Social Forces, 68, 262-283.
92.
SteffensmeierD.CobbM. (1981). Sex differences in urban arrest patterns, 1934-1979. Social Problems, 29, 37-50.
93.
SteffensmeierD.HaynieD. (2000). Gender, structural disadvantage and urban crime: Do macrosocial variables also explain female offending rates?Criminology, 38, 403-438.
94.
SteffensmeierD.SchwartzJ. (2004a). Contemporary explanations of women’s crime. In PriceB. R.SokoloffN. J. (Eds.), The criminal justice system and women: Offenders, victims, and workers (3rd ed., pp. 113-126). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
95.
SteffensmeierD.SchwartzJ. (2004b). Trends in female criminality: Is crime still a man’s world? In PriceB. R.SokoloffN. J. (Eds.), The criminal justice system and women: Offenders, victims, and workers (3rd ed., pp. 95-112). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
96.
SteffensmeierD.SchwartzJ.RocheM. (2013). Gender and twenty-first century corporate crime: Female involvement and the gender gap in Enron-era corporate frauds. American Sociological Review, 78, 448-476.
97.
SteffensmeierD.SchwartzJ.ZhongH.AckermanJ. (2005). An assessment of recent trends in girls’ violence using diverse longitudinal sources: Is the gender gap closing?Criminology, 43, 355-406.
98.
SteffensmeierD.ZhongH.AckermanJ.SchwartzJ.AghaS. (2006). Gender gap trends for violent crimes, 1980 to 2003. Feminist Criminology, 1, 72-98.
99.
SunT.-W. (2005). Gender representation in politics and public administration: Taiwan and Asian countries. Asia Pacific Forum, 28, 148-184.
100.
TangC. S.-K.CheungF. M.-C.ChenR.SunX. (2002). Definitions of violence against women: A comparative study in Chinese societies of Hong Kong, Taiwan, and the People’s Republic of China. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 17, 671-688.
101.
TsaiW.-H. (1989). Social changes under the impacts of economic transformation in Taiwan: From industrialization to modernization during the post-World War II era. Studies in Comparative International Development, 24(2), 24-41.
WalkerS. (2011). Sense and nonsense about crime, drugs, and communities: A policy guide (7th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
104.
WangJ.-P. (2011). The evolution and revolution of Taiwan’s criminal justice. Taiwan in Comparative Perspective, 3, 8-29.
105.
WangY.-G. (1999). 台灣婦女解放運動史 [Liberation history in Taiwan]. Taipei, Taiwan: Chuliu Publisher.
106.
WestC.ZimmermanD. H. (2009). Accounting for doing gender. Gender & Society, 23, 112-122.
107.
WolfgangM. E.FerracutiF. (1967). The subculture of violence: Towards an integrated theory in criminology. London, England: Tavistock.
108.
WuB. (1995). The declining gender difference in crime: The Taiwanese case. International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, 39, 359-366.
109.
WuB. (2009). Intimate homicide between Asians and non-Asians: The impact of community context. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 24, 1148-1164.
110.
XieM.HeimerK.LauritsenJ. L. (2012). Violence against women in U.S. metropolitan areas: Changes in women’s status and risk, 1980-2004. Criminology, 50, 105-143.
111.
YehK.-H.HuangT.-C.ChiuY.-Y. (2006). The characteristics of modern Chinese family culture: A study of 24 families in northern Taiwan. Psychological Research in Chinese Societies, 25, 141-195.
112.
ZhanH. J. (1996). Chinese femininity and social control: Gender-role socialization and the state. Journal of Historical Sociology, 9, 269-289.
113.
ZhangY. B.LinM.-C.NonakaA.BeomK. (2005). Harmony, hierarchy and conservatism: A cross-cultural comparison of Confucian values in China, Korea, Japan, and Taiwan. Communication Research Reports, 22, 107-115.
114.
ZimringF. (1998). American youth violence. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
