Females commit far fewer crimes than males. Prostitution is the only crime in which females dominate; they are almost never arrested for other sex crimes such as child molestation. The gap between male and female offenders is widest for violent crimes. While female rates of economic crimes are increasing faster than male rates, they are still much smaller. Females who do become criminal have suffered a greater frequency and/or intensity of many of the negative environmental factors that are said to increase the probability of criminal activity than do male criminals. They tend to suffer more physical, sexual, and psychological abuse, parental substance abuse, parental neglect, and have come from poorer homes and more broken homes. Some feminist criminologists view female crime as extensions of normal female roles, while others concentrate on how patriarchy and sexism can lead to it. Greater nonviolence among women is probably attributable to neurohormonal factors. The American Psychological Association and feminist counselors believe that female offenders should be treated differently than males in terms of counseling. Many problems leading them to commit crimes are the result of their relationships with males, making it unreasonable to expect female offenders to respond positively to male counselors. Counselors seek to raise consciousness among female offenders by using techniques such as sex role and power analysis, assertiveness training, and reframing and relabeling. Females appear to have greater adjustment problems when incarcerated, including unwed motherhood, the lack of meaningful programs, and a greater isolation from the outside world. Although women suffer greater social disabilities than men and are less well serviced by the criminal justice system, their personal characteristics are viewed as affording them greater rehabilitative potential. These characteristics are being less comfortable with a deviant lifestyle, more altruistic, a higher maturity level, and higher IQs than males. The female offender demands processing and dialog about any given situation, and tends to be very literal. Other issues to be dealt with are anger management, stress reduction, and physical health. 70 references