According to the FBI’s 2019 arrest statistics (the most recent available online), men tend to dominate in most crime categories, especially the violent ones. The only categories where women match or come close to matching men’s rates of arrest is for prostitution (63% of arrests), embezzlement (50.2% of arrests), and larceny/theft (42.6% of arrests). These are American women’s major areas of crime in the 21st century, and these mugshots of arrested British women from North Shields, just east of Newcastle, from the turn of the 20th show that not much has changed. All of these women were arrested for stealing, probably many of them to support their families. Considering how rare and expensive photography was at this time, this may be the only photograph many of these women had taken in their lifetimes (unless they were frequent visitors to the North Shields police department). Check out this collection of Annies, Catherines, Janes, and Marys who all found themselves on the wrong side of the law in 1903 and 1904.
Images via Vintag.es
