Bonnie and Clyde

by Nicole Findlay

Bonnie Parker was only 20 years old when petty crook Clyde Burrows drifted in to her life. Their depression-era crime spree and bloody deaths elevated the couple to near folk hero status. Unanswered is what prompted Bonnie, a high school honour roll student, to abandon her life for the Barrow Gang.

Shelley Brown, associate professor in the Department of Psychology, has been examining the factors that lead girls and women to commit crimes.  

Initially, Brown’s research grappled with understanding men who commit sexual offences and the precursors to recidivism.

After completing her PhD, Brown moved to the Correctional Service of Canada’s Research Branch, where she focused on how the federal correctional system assesses male and female offenders when they are first admitted to the
system.

She discovered a gap in the data on criminal behaviour.

Most studies focused on male criminals, with the assumption that females behaved no differently.

The realization led Brown to co-write a book, “The assessment and treatment of women offenders: An integrated approach” that summarized the existing research on assessment and treatment strategies for women.

“In many ways, writing the book catalyzed my career change not only in terms of a shift in my research interests – to female rather than male criminal conduct, but also precipitated a change in venue – from the public service to academia,” said Brown.

Brown is beginning a study to examine why young women end up in the criminal justice system and whether or not they end up there for different reasons than young men.

In-depth interviews and assessments will be conducted with Ontario-based male and female young offenders, who have been charged or convicted with a criminal offence.

Brown will monitor the participants for three years after the initial assessment to see what factors might have prevented high risk youth from re-offending.  She will also analyze the results to see if different factors emerge between the genders.

“We think that there may be some subtle yet important differences in the factors that protect young women from engaging in new crimes relative to their young male counterparts. If so, the results have implications for how we treat young women as well as young men in the criminal justice system.”

* Story updated 2010. Orginally published in 2007.