WOMEN DOCTORS AND CRIME: A REVIEW OF CALIFORNIA PHYSICIAN SANCTIONING DATA 1990-1994

This article evaluates the participation of women doctors prosecuted for physician-related violation and crimes in California during the 1990-1994 period. The first section emphasizes how opportunity has changed the way we study women and crime including their participation in white-collar crime. Section 2 provides an overview of the physician population including the occupational characteristics of women doctors in the United States. These figures support the influx of women into American medical schools and the profession. Section 3 and Section 4 focuses on methodology and the interpretation of the data set. Research is based on the original data collected by Public Citizens group published in the 1996 edition of Questionable Doctors. Generalizations are limited but the data are useful in comparing sanctioning rates and varieties of female and male physician-related offenses. The final section discusses the propriety of female physicians as an object of criminological research, and explains how female and male physicians may differ in their approach to medicine.