Male and Female

> The latest male career to be invaded by liberated women is crime, according to Sir Leon Radzinowicz, Wolfson Professor of Criminology at England's Cambridge University. Although women have traditionally made up only one-eighth of the criminal population, Radzinowicz says, they will soon be closing the gap if the present trend continues. The trend will go on, he predicts, as long as women continue to liberate themselves from their traditional place in the home. During the World Wars, when women were forced to do tasks performed by men, their crime rate went up. "When the men came back, as they did after the wars," Radzinowicz says, "this criminality receded to its normal ratio. This is one of criminology's few laws. Any member of society who starts to take an increasing role in the economic and social life of that society will be more exposed to crime and will have more opportunities and therefore will become more vulnerable and more prone to criminal risk." Some female infractions that are on the increase: shoplifting, political terrorism and drug-induced crimes.

> Have labor-saving appliances and gadgets really freed women from household work? Joann Vanek, a sociologist at the University of Michigan, compared a series of group time-use studies conducted between 1926 and 1965, and concluded that the amount of time housewives spent on housework had remained virtually the same over 40 years, despite the introduction of many labor-saving devices during that period. Actually, Vanek found, the new appliances did save women time in specific routine tasks such as food preparation and laundry. But most of the women had apparently invented new kinds of housework to take up the slack: gourmet cooking, the direction of children's play, household management and shopping.

> Women contemplating abortion can now turn for advice to a concise and straightforward book written by a young New York mother under the auspices of Planned Parenthood of New York City. Abortion: A Woman's Guide (Abelard-Schuman; $5.95 or $2.95 paperback) begins with a discussion of the emotional complexities of terminating pregnancy, goes on to describe abortion techniques in nontechnical terms and concludes with an essay on fertility control. For those who are uneasy about abortion, there is also an index of clergy consultation services and Planned Parenthood affiliates across the country. The text is written with unusual insight and compassion, for good reason: the author, Beth Richardson Gutcheon, 28, a grandniece of Dr. John Rock, the birth control pioneer, has had two abortions herself.

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