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This is a meticulous and extensive study of criminality in women, based primarily upon interpretation of world-wide reports on
criminal statistics. The author's familiarity with several languages enables him to utilize sources not otherwise readily available. His critical approach to the statistical tables documenting incidence and nature of reported crime is such as to emphasize the inadequacy of such reports in general, and more particularly the extent to which criminal acts, particularly those performed by women, remained undetected or unreported. He demonstrates that, to a degree much greater than is true for men, criminal behavior of woman remains concealed, and that even when known to others, those involved fail to coöperate with the law to bring the offender to the attention of enforcement officials.
Woman's predilection toward concealment, social attitudes toward women, and the nature of the crimes committed, all tend toward concealing crime committed by women. Predilection toward concealment is postulated as an expression of woman's physiologically determined capacity for concealment of her true feelings in the sphere of sexual relations as contrasted with the impossibility of such concealment or deception on the part of the male. Women can feign sexual responsiveness; men cannot. Women are more confident of their capacity for misrepresentation and more adept in such concealment. The protective attitude of society toward women, in which all involved in detection and prosecution tend to be reluctant to accuse and punish women, further shields women against detection.
The nature of crimes more peculiar to women is such as to make detection more difficult. The male partner of the prostitute, even though theft and blackmail may be involved, is not likely to coöperate in her prosecution. In their roles as feeders, nurses, protectors, it is easy for women to direct criminal behavior toward children, husbands, lovers. Women are in the best position to po