Trends in the Gender Gap in Violent Offending: New Evidence from the National Crime Victimization Surveys

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It is a truism in criminology that males commit much more crime than females. There has been controversy, however, about whether the gender gap or gender difference between female and male offenders have declined over time. In an article published in Criminology, Social Science Research Program Director Karen Heimer, with co-authors Janet Lauritsen and James Lynch, use pooled National Crime Survey (NCS) and NCVS data from 1973 to 2005 to examine this issue.