It seems like all different kinds of theft are on the rise. One type we hear about quite often is metal theft. Another type of theft which has only recently been given a nickname are thefts like embezzlement and other types of non-violent thefts perpetrated by females. The new tern is “pink collar” crimes.

Some people are shocked to hear that a woman was at the center of an embezzlement scheme, but women in fact tend to be pretty savvy embezzlers. In our last blog we looked at Rita Crundwell who embezzled more than $37,000 per day from the town she worked as comptroller. As crazy as that number is, she succeeded in her scheme for more than 20 years!!!

In fact, with more women taking on leadership positions in corporate America, an unexpected phenomenon has begun to emerge: pink-collar crime.

It’s never been a popular topic. In 1975 Rutgers criminologist Freda Adler wrote a groundbreaking yet controversial book, Sisters in Crime: The Rise of the New Female Criminal that shed light on research analyzing the criminality of women. But in the era of the Equal Rights Amendment, Adler took a ton of heat, as critics believed her book undermined the feminist movement and distorted the facts about the female crime rate.

Was Adler wrong? As a counselor for both in-class and online stop theft classes, I would argue she wasn’t.