The Impact of War Circumstances on Women's Criminality - Court Records of the Provincial Court in Ljubljana (1914-1916)

Abstract

The role of women as as economic and social basis of societles in the background was strengthened significantly in the period of World War I. In those difficult war circumstances some women broke the law in order to survive, therefore a general increase in women's criminality during World War I is noticeable. The main characteristic of the state of emergency were the so-called anti-state criminal offences. Women's offences were most freguently associated with providing basic necessitles, so a large number of thefts, increases in prices, hiding agricultural produce, frauds involving military benefits or even protests can be observed. Women stood up to the decrees of war absolutism by forging documents or putting up resistance to regulsitions. The modification of social values in war time is reflected also in offences associated with prostitution, child neglect and juvenile delinguency.