Women top Europol's most wanted fugitives list

Europol's latest campaign has the theme "crime has no gender". Photo / 123rf

Europol has revealed the names of the European continent's most wanted fugitives — and 18 of the 21 are women.

The latest campaign by Europe's policing agency has the theme "crime has no gender".

"People think usually these crimes are not being committed by women," Tine Hollevoet, the spokeswoman for Europol, said of the list.

"But they are — and they are equally as serious as those committed by men."

The charges facing the named suspects include murder and human trafficking.

Dr Marian Duggan, an expert in gender and criminology at the University of Kent, told the BBC men were still more likely than women to perpetrate serious and organised crime.

However, gender stereotypes were often exploited by organised criminal groups when carrying out large-scale crimes, Duggan told the broadcaster.