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15. Most female criminals were recidivists
Although the intent of Victorian incarceration was to allow criminals to consider the cause of their crimes, and hopefully reform, few did. Recidivism is particularly apparent regarding women criminals, especially hoisters, shoplifters, and burglars. When the same Detective Wensley who arrested Sheena Suck and Rose Greenbaum retired in 1931 he published his reminiscences of his long career in Scotland Yard. In them, he blamed the recidivism of women on the depredations of men. He suggested, based on his long experience, that women acted, for the most part, as participants in crime against their will. Their dependence on their man forced them into illegal acts for which they otherwise had no inclination, and certainly no aptitude. His judgment explains the comparatively lenient sentences often given to women.
But it doesn’t explain them entirely. Women arrested for other crimes often suffered the same harsh penalties imposed upon their male counterparts, including hanging, deportation, and lengthy prison terms. The leniency towards women seemed to be in the areas of shoplifting, hoisting, and burglary. In part, they reflected the Victorian attitude of women being the weaker of the sexes, unable to resist temptation vigorously applied. The courts viewed women as being, in a manner of speaking, corollary victims of their own crimes. Stealing of dresses, furs, and expensive jewelry appeared as them succumbing to their inherent vanity. That theory did not explain why expensive and attractive loot often found itself converted to cash, yet it prevailed among social scientists and the courts throughout most of the Victorian Age.