10 The Open Criminology Journal, 2011, 4, 10-23 1874-9178/11 2011 Bentham Open Open Access Gender Equality in Society and Male Predominance in Crime by University Students in Thirty-Two National Settings* Jean Dawson and Murray A. Straus* Family Research Laboratory, University of New Hampshire, 4 Garrison Ave Durham, NH 03824, United States Abstract: This article presents rates of criminal offending in the life history of male and female students at universities in 32 nations who participated in the International Dating Violence Study. The crime data is for assaults perpetrated on dating partners and for other crimes. It tests the hypothesis that the more gender equality in a society, the lower the degree of male-predominance in crime. Use of self-reported crime avoids confounding with national differences in criminal justice system response to crime by women. National differences in the percent of male students who committed two or more offenses ranged from 17% to 55% (median =32%) and for female students from 5% to 35% (median = 17%). Thus the average rate of offending by male students was 1.9 times greater than for females. Male predominance was greatest for violent crimes. For property crimes, the rate for males was 1.7 times greater than for females, and for violent crime the male rate was 3.5 times greater. Cross-national analyses found that national contexts with more social and economic equality between men and women tend to be more equal in rates of violent crime. Keywords: Cross-national, self-report, crime, gender equality. INTRODUCTION Male predominance in criminal offending is well-established in criminological research (Steffensmeier & Allan, 1996). However, much more theoretical work needs to be done to explain this “obvious” phenomenon. Among the explanations for the low level of female offending com-pared to that of males are theories that emphasize differences in biology, opportunity, social control and processes of so-cialization. Some theorists argue that the differences in physical size or biologically determined inherent levels of aggression explain the higher rates (especially for more seri-ous and violent behavior) of male criminality (Maccoby & Jacklin, 1980). Other theories contend that gender role so-cialization accounts for differences in levels of aggression, anger, and empathy (Heimer, 1997). Still others emphasize the contribution of social conditions to explain the disparity, for example, more violence in socialization such as more use of corporal punishment and more tolerance of fighting by boys (Straus, 2001) and more social control of girls, espe-cially during the peak crime years of adolescence (Hagan, Simpson, & Gillis, 1987). Adler (1975) and Simon (1975) argued that greater equality between men and women in economic and social roles would result in greater equality in respect to perpetra-tion of crime and in respect to recognition of female criminal behavior by criminal justice agencies. However, Adler be-lieves that women are catching up with men in all kinds of crime, including violence, whereas Simon argues that women are catching up with men in committing property crime but not in violent crime. This has been called the con-vergence theory or emancipation hypothesis. Convergence *Address correspondence to this author at the Family Research Laboratory, University of New Hampshire, 4 Garrison Ave Durham, NH 03824, United States; Tel: 603 862-2594; Fax: 603 862-1122; E-mails: [email protected]; [email protected] does not necessarily imply an increase in crime rates. It can, for example, come about with a large decrease in male crime and a small increase in female crime perpetration. Although the convergence theory was well received in the 1970s, most empirical studies have failed to support the theory and some have found opposite results (Steffensmeier & Allan, 1996). Some feminist criminologists have gone so far as to label it as absurd (Chesney-Lind & Shelden, 1992). They argue that the effects of patriarchal power, such as gender differences in poverty or discrimination in law enforcement, provide better explanations for differences in male and female of-fending. However, the premise of convergence is still logi-cally plausible and merits further attention. This article seeks to do that using data from 32 countries in the International Dating Violence Study (IDVS). The main focus of the IDVS is on physical assaults and sexual coercion of dating partners (Douglas & Straus, 2006). However, the IDVS also obtained data on many other issues, one of which is the prevalence of other types of crime perpetrated by the students who partici-pated in the study. This article has three objectives: (1) To provide data on the prevalence of crime and the degree of male-predo-minance in crime for students in 32 national settings. (2) To test the theory that social and economic equality between men and women will tend to result in more equal crime rates, i.e. a reduction in male predominance of crime, and to exam-ine two of the many possible explanations. (3) To provide data on the cross-national reliability of the Criminal History scale of the Personal and Relationships Profile. PREVIOUS STUDIES OF MALE-PREDOMINANCE IN CRIME There is an extensive literature on gender and crime and the fact that the rate of most types of crime is higher for males than females is well established (Canter, 1982; Hindelang, Hirschi, & Weis, 1979; Steffensmeier & Allan,Gender Equality in Society and Male Predominance in Crime The Open Criminology Journal, 2011, Volume 4 11 1996). It also applies cross-nationally for juvenile crime (Junger-Tas, Ribeaud, & Cruyff, 2004). A review of research on delinquency through 1975 by Hindelang (1979) found that males were consistently more likely than females to self-report any offending regardless of crime type, and were par-ticularly more likely to report being serious or frequent of-fenders. Moreover, confidence in this conclusion was strengthened because they also found that self-report and official records produced compatible results on male pre-dominance. Smith and Visher (1980) analyzed 44 studies of self-reported deviance as well as official records of arrest, police contact, conviction, or incarceration. They found a higher degree of male predominance (1) in official data compared to self-report data, (2) for violent and property offenses than for status and personal offenses, (3) for single indicators