Toward an integrated explanation of female criminality: the deprivation-compensation model

Conceptual work on the study of crime argues the need for new approaches to understanding the incidence and etiology of that social phenomenon. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the explanatory power of the deprivation-compensation model of criminality. This new model of crime commission incorporates two social psycholoical constructs - relative deprivation and limited rationality - which partially mediate the relationship between structural and interpersonal deprivation and the type of crime committed. In this research, I focus exclusively on women offenders. A two-part questionnaire was administered to 112 women inmates at three state correctional facilities located in Illinois. A personal history inventory provided basic demographic and crime-related information. Part two was comprised of items tapping relative deprivation and limited rationality. The proposed model received only minimal support. A consistent finding was the weak influence that structural and interpersonal deprivation had on the type of crime committed by women offenders; however, the path coefficients for both of these constructs to relative deprivation were statistically significant. Relative deprivation and limited rationality shared a statistically significant relationship to the type of crime committed by women offenders. Several alternative explanations for the findings are offered. Finally, a number of suggestions for the conduct of future research using relative deprivation and limited rationality are outlined.