CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1   BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

        Over the years, in every religious society, women have always been considered as physically and mentally subordinate and unproductive to men. The trend might have reduced somewhat in the 21st century due to the advent of media, women commissions, NGOs, human rights organizations, etc. but we find reports of widespread violence against the „creators of life‟, particularly in the backward and developing nations. This particular term paper would concentrate on The situation of female criminality; causes and consequences. Discrimination against the women is largely due to some inherent and common social and religious factors in Bangladeshi society.

        The term female criminality refers those kinds of crime which is committed only by female. It was believed till a few decades ago that crime is predominately a male phenomenon and the world of crime is only a male phenomenon and the world of crime is only a man’s world. The criminal behaviour of women has been studied less than that of men. This is partly because women commit fewer crimes than men, especially violent offences, and also because female aggression is typically carried out in private and domestic areas.

        In Bangladesh, discrimination against the women is largely due to some inherent and common social and religious factors. Similar to their Indian and Pakistani counterparts (Muslims and non-Muslims alike), the Bangladeshi women have been subjected to unjust local social taboos and norms. People still follow the ancient belief that women should only be considered as child-bearers and housewives and as a result they are discriminated against by parents, husbands and sons throughout their lives. The little attention that was given to female offenders usually was limited to three contexts: (i). comparison that understood women’s lack of involvement in crime related to men; (ii). studies of prostitution; and (iii) analyses of the depravity of violent women, the rational being that since normal women are passive, the few women who do commit violent crime must be sick (Curran and Ranzetti: 2001). But, in contemporary age, female criminality is growing attention towards the readers because of the nature of news published in popular media. The number of crime committed by female is increased in recent days because of the marginal nature of women, discrimination in family life and workplace environment and complex lifestyles (Islam and Khatun: 2013) and impact of popular media (Siegel: 2007).