Giordano and Cerkovich conducted studies in 1979 involving women between the ages of 17 and 29. Their findings suggested that the 'more liberated' the response to questions, the less delinquent participants were. James and Thornton revealed from studies involving women prisoners that those incarcerated were primarily from impoverished and uneducated backgrounds. In other words, contrary to Adler's theory of emancipation, feminism appeared to be a positive force for conformity when there was opportunity to offend. When a woman is seen to be physically, sexually or psychologically dominant, even violently aggressive, she tends to be treated as unusual, a freak of female nature or as mentioned previously, 'mad'.
Many women appear to be encouraged to fear men and to circumscribe their public behaviour.
The customary association of men with the use of force and power is not confined to the criminal population. Female vulnerability is often invoked to strengthen both the senses of male power and the need for its considered use, that is, to protect women. The agenda for feminist criminology is to demonstrate to the more traditional members of the discipline that the conventional view of women is inaccurate. Women are to be observed behaving in ways that do not fit the theories. It tends to be the theories not the women that have been found to be deficient.