International Journal of Law

Authors
Saif Al-Rawahi

Abstract
There is no doubt that in all societies, response to crimes, particularly serious ones, is significantly affected by the gender of the defendants or sometimes the gender of the victims. Within societies, female gender expectations and gender roles are different from those of males. There are some kinds of crimes that can be expected to be committed by women, but there are others that are not. On the one hand, there is no gender role corresponding to the former kinds of crimes, or at least it is not clear. On the other hand, if a woman commits a crime that society does not expect her to commit, such as killing her children, she will invariably be treated harshly by that society. Society’s expectations depend on the culture and tradition more than the law. Since regulations, in general, make no difference in dealing with crime on the basis of gender, in practice the situation may be different. The aim of this paper is to consider how gender affects the way the law and society respond to different types of crime and violence. It will argue that gender plays a significant role in dealing with various crimes within the criminal justice system.