NORTHERN ADVOCATE DAILY SATURDAY, JANUARY 9, 1926. WOMEN AND CRIME

Northern Advocate, 9 January 1926, Page 4

NORTHERN ADVOCATE DAILY

SATURDAY, JANUARY 9, 1926. WOMEN AND CRIME

Registered for transmission through the post as a newspaper.

So many women liave been adopting careers of adventurous crime throughout the world that ii general stir of inquiry has begun as to the why arid wherefore of this phenomenon. In flic United States we have had frequent stories of bobbed hair bandits in sMrts plying their callings in the large cities. What the Americans call “gungirls” are to be found on nearly all the main highways of travel, and feminine sharpers are now making their appearance a't hotels and on steamship decks wherever tourists congregate. In some recent cases women have been acting as chauffeurs for bandits, who have moved from place to place committing daylight robberies and trusting to their women chauffeurs and their “get-away” motor cars for escape. ■Card parties, have often beep, interrupted by businesslike female bandits, equipped with automatics, who hold up the players and decamp with whatever they can get. One woman, who is popularly known as “Jack,” because of her first name Jacqueline, has made a speciality of stealing motor cars, and it is said that owing to her depredations more than one hundred owners have been deprived of their vehicles. As a set-off against this growing feminine criminality, it may be mentioned that, according to police statistics, Crime' amongst men has been steadily decreasing. Figures showing the increase of crime amongst women in the United States reveal the fact that in 1919, in the city of New York, 998 women were arrested for robbery with violence, while in 1920 the arrests for the same crime were 1402. Arrests for fraud among women in 1921 were 289, and in 1923 the arrests were 305. In the same year there were 2262 fewer arrests among men and boys. It is not so much, however, a question of the numbers of women arrested for crime as of the nature of the crimes for which they have been arrested. Ordinary shoplifting and petty thefts have always been common everywhere; but latterly these minor thefts have given place fo more audacious robbery. The confidence trick is played to-day more frequently by women adventurers than by men. The directors of large steamship Hues state that women card-sharpers abound on almost every ship, and they are powerless to get rid of them. Many who have attempted the boldest deeds of violence are from twenty to twentyfive years of ago, and they have held up banks, attacked and killed messengers known t(?bo carrying money, and in some eases have created a regular reign of terror. Different social organisations have been studying this new phase of femininity, and endeavours have been made to find the reason for this large increase in crime amongst women. I't is said that the most common cause is a desire for expensive dress. They want the most stylish gowns, and they long for all those things which go to make them attractive. The extravagance of the present day is very largely to blame. Everybody seems to want to make as big a show in life as possible. The decay of home life is another factor, according to the report of an organisation which endeavours in every way to befriend young women and girls who have made a wrong start in li f c. The desire to figure as movie heroines is blamed for igany girls running away from home. Once those girls embark on a dishonest career they find the possibilities of leaving it steadily growing smaller. They got in the grip of some criminal gang, and pass from the army of shoplifters and potty thieves and pick-pockets to being leaders of desperate groups of bandits. There have always been a certain number of female offenders, but mostly for comparatively trivial crimes. To-day the female shoplifter has become a positive menace to drapers and ■others who iater for feminine needs. The increase of crime amongst women is perhaps most marked

in the United States, but it is a feature of criminal life the world over. The now freedom which is so loudly praised in many quarters is held to lie mainly responsible for this change for the worse. All reports agree that the decay of home life and home influence, and the lack of parental control, are mostly to blamo for what threatens to be a serious evil unless it- is promptly cheeked.