Interdependence of Theory and Taxonomy: The Case of Women’s Pathways to Serious Crime

Theory often precedes the development of offender taxonomies: e.g. Moffitt’s dual taxonomy; Lykken’s taxonomy of four main “genera” of psychopathic, sociopathic, character disorder and normal types and subtypes. Conversely, however, identification of a stable empirical taxonomy may precede and guide theoretical speculation on processes underlying empirical patterns. The present study utilizes an empirically identified taxonomy as a base for theory development in the case of women offenders. In a sample of over 700 female prisoners an empirical taxonomy of four major pathways and eight sub-pathways was reliably identified (Brennan et al. 2012). These were assessed on tools that included several classic gender-neutral theories and a comprehensive set of gender responsive factors (Van Voorhis et al. 2010). The present study uses the “taxonomy-to-theory” strategy for developing theoretical implications of these eight empirical pathway structures. The study comments on the possibility of gender-specific pathways to crime and on issues regarding theory integration in the case of women offenders.