Are men natural born criminals? The prison numbers don't lie

Article here. Excerpt:

'The factors most commonly thought to contribute to crime - a lack of education (half of prisoners have no qualifications, compared with 15 per cent of the general population); experiences of violence or abuse as a child (41 per cent of prisoners witnessed domestic violence as a child and almost a third experienced abuse); financial difficulties, and so on—affect men and women alike. Yet from pickpocketing to white collar crime to assault, men are more likely to offend than women.

For a long time, this phenomenon was overlooked. Criminological research and theory focused almost exclusively on men, without explicitly questioning why the gap existed. But as feminist theorists started demanding a closer look at such differences the crime gap rose to light, and from the 1970s onwards various explanations were presented. Today, although there is still no universally-accepted explanation, most criminologists point to socialised gender roles and the different expectations of male and female behaviour.
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Some people have of course argued that it is biological rather than sociological: that men are naturally more violent, for example, or that they’re stronger and therefore more capable of committing some crimes. These assumptions might explain why it took so long for anyone to question the different levels of crime among men and women. But as Heidensohn points out, most crimes are not violent in nature and can’t be put down to physical differences: the most common crimes in the UK are motoring offences. Men do tend to take more risks, according to many studies, which could be relevant, although whether that’s an innate or socialised difference is difficult to tell; more on that later.

Could it be that women commit more crime than it appears but are simply better at getting away with it? One idea - the so-called “chivalry theory” - holds that paternalistic judges and authority figures are more lenient on female offenders, explaining the lower number of women behind bars. The evidence on this is complex and contradictory: there is a competing view that judges are sometimes harsher on women because criminal behaviour deviates further from what is expected of them.'