Throughout history the fields of policing and criminology have been shaped by inspiring women. Whilst their contributions may have historically been overlooked, women have championed change and paved the way for more progressive practices in criminal justice. Below, we look at some of the most inspiring women in policing and criminology and discuss their impact on the sectors.
Written by Grant Longstaff. Published 06 March 2025.
Women in policing
Searchers
Women played a vital role in policing long before they were able to become police officers. In fact, there are records of women working for the Metropolitan Police as early as the 1840’s; despite the first woman police officer not appearing until 1915.
Known as ‘Searchers’, many women were employed to search female suspects in police stations and tasked with finding stolen items hidden in their hair, under their tongues and sown into their clothing. They were also used in sting operations to catch criminals in the act and often worked undercover to follow suspects and secure evidence.
Whilst women were commonplace in the Victorian police force, and their daring escapades were regularly reported upon in newspapers of the time, their role seems to have been downplayed and diminished.
Edith Smith
The First World War saw the introduction of the Women’s Police Service in 1914, made up entirely of volunteers. However, in 1915 Edith Smith became a constable with Grantham Borough Police, received a wage and, significantly, became the first woman with the power of arrest. Alongside her police work Smith would travel around the country delivering talks on her experience, describing policing as “the study of human nature at it’s worst”.
Lilian Wyles
Lilian Wyles joined the Metropolitan Police in 1919 and joined the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) in 1922. Ten years later Wyles became the first woman Chief Inspector in the police force. She served for 30 years, retiring in 1949. After retiring Wyles wrote a memoir – A Woman at Scotland Yard: Reflections on the Struggles and Achievements of Thirty Years in the Metropolitan Police – in which she discussed her three decade career at length and revealed some of the challenges she faced as a woman in the force.
Sislin Fay Allen
Born in Jamaica in 1939, Sislin Fay Allen moved to the UK in the early 1960’s. In 1968 she applied to the force and joined the Metropolitan Police, only a year after the first black male officer was recruited. After describing how she ran from reporters on the day she joined Allen said, " I realised then that I was a history maker. But I didn't set out to make history; I just wanted a change of direction."
After her time with the Met, where she worked on the beat and with the Missing Persons Bureau, Allen returned to Jamaica and joined the Jamaica Constabulary Force. In 2020 Allen received a lifetime achievement award from the and has inspired generations of women of colour to pursue a career in the police.
Women in criminology
Pauline Tarnowsky
Pauline Tarnowsky, sometimes referred to as the ‘Mother of Criminology’, studied criminology in Italy under Cesare Lombroso. She explored Lombrosian Theory – which suggested criminality was due to innate biological and physiological traits – and spent years and years documenting these traits in prisoners.
However, Tarnowsky’s research evolved throughout her time studying and interviewing imprisoned women, instead highlighting how social and economic factors played a substantial role in why women commit crime – directly opposing the idea that people were “born criminal”.
Whilst her work is open to modern criticism, Tarnowsky challenged the prevailing ideas of her time and played an important role in shaping criminology.
Frances Heidensohn
Frances Heidensohn has made significant contributions to criminology since the late 1960’s, challenging the conventions of the male dominated field of the time. One of her most important books, Women and Crime (1985), challenged criminology theories which often ignored female offenders and victims. It asked why women commit fewer crimes than men, and explored how the justice system treated women, positing control theory as a cause.
Through her research, Heidensohn wrote of how women are controlled by men and the established social expectations of women. This control restricts women’s criminal opportunities. It also explored how the type of crime women commit differs to that of men, and how punishment can be more severe because it challenges perceived social norms.
Heidensohn, along with the work others such as Freda Adler and Marie-Andrée Bertrand provided pioneering perspectives in the discipline at the time and paved the way for feminist criminology today.
Betsy Stanko
Another prominent criminologist in feminist criminology is Betsy Stanko, best known for her groundbreaking work on violence against women, particularly domestic violence and sexual assault. Stanko has long campaigned for women. Before her professional career she joined the Take Back the Night marches in the USA in the late seventies to protest violence against women and established a women’s refuge which still operates today.
Since her formative years, Stanko has become a professor of criminology, researching the field extensively. Her work with the Home Office investigating the police has challenged how forces respond to gender based violence and her extensive contributions to the field of criminology have helped change both policy and procedure. In 2014 she was awarded an OBE for her services to policing.
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