Beer-drenched heels, slurred speech and tear-streaked mascara paths.

This is a common scene Friday night.

The women's cell in the East Lansing jail recently underwent renovations to accommodate the overflow of those who drive drunk, possess alcohol while underage or are too intoxicated to be left on their own. Although the cell's capacity is set at six, it now holds double what it used to, East Lansing police Capt. Kim Johnson said.

The amount of women jailed in East Lansing has steadily grown throughout the years, from 667 incarcerated females in 2004 to 780 in 2005 and 790 in 2006, East Lansing police Lt. Kevin Daley said.

East Lansing police officials aren't the only ones who have seen a change regarding women in crime. An increase in the number of women involved in violent crimes has been recorded countywide, and officials are scratching their heads to come up with an explanation.

"I was beginning to wonder if the box cutter was a new fashion accessory," Ingham County Prosecutor Stuart Dunnings III said.

"I just had a case where two girls went to the home of a third girl, broke in, and they assaulted the girl — the one girl suspected she was having sexual relations with her boyfriend. It's so common."

Although the number of violent crimes committed by both sexes is decreasing, the proportion of crimes masterminded by women is on the rise.

"Actually, our female population is down right now. … It's been down for a few months — it's not normal for us to be down like this," Ingham County Sgt. Scott Sisco said about the Ingham County Jail. "But we do have some here for more violent crimes. … They're more violent than they have been."

Merry Morash, a criminal justice professor who specializes in women and crime, said the crime rate as a whole is decreasing, but she hasn't heard anything about an increase in female violence.

"Women tend to be very nonviolent, and there is no knowledge of an increase," Morash said. "Last I heard, the crime rate has been going down. There's been a slight increase in the robbery area, but I'm not at all aware of the increase in women."

But Morash said most women incarcerated in East Lansing will be facing charges related to drinking.

Women are still committing far fewer crimes than men, but Daley said statistics he has seen reveal women are committing more violent crimes than ever before.

"They're doing crimes that used to be labeled as male crimes," he said. "More women are committing these crimes that were exclusively male — stealing cars … (breaking and enterings), robbing banks.

"It's not just embezzlement; they're also being charged with more egregious crimes."

Katherine Greenup, a marketing junior, said she has had four of her female friends wind up in jail within the past year on minor in possession charges, or MIPs. She said the increase may have more to do with additional police presence on East Lansing streets, rather than a change in those who break the law.

"I know that a lot more people are sent to jail for MIPs," she said. "I just don't think police are singling anyone out. I think they're looking at everyone more equally now."

Daley added that the cell expansion was needed so those females charged with misdemeanors wouldn't be housed in Ingham County's jail.

"It's the fact we had no place to lodge women in the past," he said. "Once you hit three, then you were unable to go ahead and make any more arrests."

East Lansing police Sgt. Mark Vande Wouwer said he has witnessed the East Lansing facility go from no female cells when he started 21 years ago to the recent renovation to add more space for female offenders.

"There's definitely been an increase over the past few years," he said.

"Sometimes we have more females in jail than males. It's hard to say what it is. I guess it's just society in general.

"More equality means both good and bad, I guess."

Although Daley and Vande Wouwer can't pinpoint why there has been an increase in violent crimes among women, Dunnings has a few ideas.

"It's because of culture that young people are exposed to violence," Dunnings said.

"I also think there's parents out there that aren't parenting. There's cruelty out there that you just didn't see before."