Their crimes arise from difficult circumstances within society at large. According to 1983 Bureau of Justice statistics, forty-three percent of women were in for larceny, fraud, or forgery as compared with fifteen percent of men. In general, women are less likely to be involved in homicide than are men. For the years 1980-1984, women were found guilty of only fourteen percent of all homicides. Another important factor is that when women do engage in violent crime, it is often a fundamentally different sort of act.
Women are much more likely to kill a male partner than to kill anyone else.
Men are much more likely to perpetrate homicides against individuals outside the partner relationship, although the rate of male-perpetrated homicide against intimate partners is still nearly double the rate for female perpetrated homicides of male partners. Women are much more likely to kill in self-defense in response to their male partners' physical aggression and threats, and the recidivism rates for such crimes are extraordinarily low. That is, it is unlikely for a woman to repeat a homicide. Other authors point out that besides the provocation that immediately triggers the female homicide and is recognized by the court of law, female homicide is often in response to preceding years of male abuse. According to Shelley Bannister, over one-third of all women have been or will be abused as children by males within and outside of their families.