The growth of feminist history has revealed the extent to which gender divided Victorian society. Gender, as much as class, was the focus of intense interest and elaborate theorizing which tended to amplify distinctions between the sexes. Notions of femininity and masculinity influenced the way in which crime was viewed. Consequently, criminality was perceived, judged, and explained in terms of the offender's sex. Moreover, differential opportunities and needs were seen to create sex-specific criminal characteristics and criminal activity types. The author examines the extent to which gender-based ideologies influenced attitudes toward female criminality during the Victorian period. She discusses perceived differences between normal and deviant women, female crime, women and penal theory, women in local prisons (1850-1877), female convict prisons (1852-1898), and the removal of incorrigible women from the penal system. A principal theme of the book is the relationship between responses to female criminality and prevailing social values and concerns. References, footnotes, and tables