Gender of Victims and Alleged Offenders
Gender of alleged victims of theft:
Of the 40 cases that were documented from the Montgomery County Sentinel, 19 cases identified the gender of the alleged victims, and in each of these cases, the alleged victim was male. In many of the cases, the gender of the alleged victim was only discoverable if they were mentioned by name in the article, otherwise the focus was given to the alleged offender more often than not. Over time the gender of the alleged victim became reported more commonly as it got closer to 1920.
Gender of alleged offenders:
Out of the 40 cases of theft, 33 articles identified the gender of the alleged offender or offenders. In total there were 51 male alleged offenders who were identified and 4 female alleged offenders. Cases that did not include the gender of the alleged offender are instances where the offender was not arrested by the time the article was published. In the cases where a female alleged offender was identified, two cases involved a female accused of theft acting alone and the other two they were an accomplice. In one case, the alleged female offender was the wife of the male alleged offender. There was no real change over time in regards to the gender of the alleged offenders, with the numbers remaining fairly consistent from 1900-1920.