Thieving Women : Theft and co-offending among women in northern Gotland during the 1840s

The purpose of the study has been to investigate women's theft crime in northern Gotland during the 1840s, and whether the women have committed co-offending together with other perpetrators. The study uses the method of hermeneutic text analysis. The study used court books from Gotland's northern district court from the years 1845 to 1847. The study uses gender theory, which is used to analyze and emphasize power relations between women and other perpetrators. The results of the study show that most women have stolen because of poverty. Clothes and food were the most common items stolen. In the court records, it appears that women are described differently than men. Several women had poor knowledge of Christianity and had given birth to children out of wedlock and were therefore more vulnerable. When co- offending was studied, conclusions could be drawn that women often co-offended with men, and in court, several women declared that they had been forced or threatened to steal. Through the gender theory, it is possible to see tendencies towards unequal power relations within marriage, where women have a lower status than men. Women who co- offended with other women are more likely to have done so consensually. The didactic question of the study dealt with the subject of historical awareness, where the topic of the essay can be linked to discussions about women and crime and what change may be seen over time. The discussions are expressed in terms of gender and how gender patterns can change over time.