Su Investigación.pdf

Ina Selimić's article "Female Criminality, Class, and Deviance During the Rise of the Twentieth Century Department Store" explores the relationship between consumer culture, class, and female deviance during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The rise of department stores created new opportunities for women to engage in shoplifting, particularly among working-class women seeking to construct a new identity and form of independence. The article examines the distinction between amateur and career criminals, as well as the use of the kleptomania defense, which protected wealthy women from liability by framing their shoplifting as a mental condition rather than a deliberate act. The article also discusses how female sexuality was conflated with illness and how women were stereotyped as "disorderly" and incapable of rational processing. The example of the all-female "Forty Thieves" gang is used to highlight the agency and cunning of working-class women who defied social norms and evaded police detection. Overall, the article argues that the concept of kleptomania was used as a social palliative to protect social elites and explain the middle-class shoplifting epidemic in a gendered manner.