4.gender & crime (c&d) Flashcards
the chivalry thesis
-women treated more leniently by police & courts who are made up by mainly men who have been socialised to be ‘chivalrous’
-criminal justice system more lenient with women so their crimes less likely to end up in official stats
evaluation of chivalry thesis
-if women are treated more leniently, it may simply be because their offences are less serious
-women offenders also seem more likely to show remorse & this may help to explain why they’re more likely to receive a caution
biological explanation for women coming crimes
Lombroso and Ferrero argued that criminality is innate but that there were very few ‘born female criminals’
psychological explanation for women committing crime
argue that biological factors such as higher levels of testosterone in males can account for gender differences in violent offending
functionalist sex role theory
-boys encouraged to be tough, aggressive, risk taking & this can mean they’re more disposed to commit acts of violence or take advantage of criminal opportunities
-Parsons (1955):men take instrumental, breadwinner role, performed outside the home, women perform expressive role in home, so unable to commit crime
-Cohen (1955):boyd have less access to an adult role model, boys are more likely to turn to all male street gangs as source of masc identity
evaluation of sex role theory
-deterministic
-doesn’t explain why females do commit crime
-Sandra Walklate- biological assumptions. parsons assumes that because women have the biological capacity to bear children, they are best suited to the expressive role
patriarchal control
-Frances Heidensohn (1996): women’s behaviour is conformist. they commit less serious crimes than men as patriarchal society imposes more control over women & this reduces opportunity to offend
-control at home:domestic role confines them to house
-control in public:by threat or fear of male violence against them
-control at work:male supervisors & managers
how does patriarchal control explain why some women commit crime
-some women may commit crime to retaliate against the patriarchal control
-Heidensohn- patriarchy can also push some women into crime, as a result of gender inequalities, women may turn to theft or prostitution
cohen: class deals and gender deals
-class deal: women who work will be offered material rewards. as no rewards were gained they felt they had nothing to lose by using crime to escape from poverty
-gender deal: patriarchal ideology promises women material & emotional rewards from family life by conforming to norms of conventional domestic gender role. felt they had nothing to lose & everything to gain
evaluation of patriarchal control
-control theory and feminism see women’s behaviour as determined by external forces such as patriarchal controls or class and gender deals. this underplays the importance of free will and choice in offending
liberation thesis
-Freda Adler (1975): women become liberated from patriarchy, crimes will become as frequent & serious as men’s. liberation led to new type of female criminal
-as patriarchal control & discrimination have lessened, opportunities in education & work have become more equal, women adopt traditionally ‘male’ roles
-women no longer just commit traditional ‘female’ crimes such as shoplifting. they now also commit typically ‘male’ offenders, due to women’s greater self-confidence & assertiveness, now have greater opportunities in legitimate structure
criticisms of liberation thesis
-female crime rate began rising in the 1950s- long before the women’s liberation movement, which emerged in the late 1960s
-most female criminals are w/c- the group least likely to be influenced by women’s liberation. which has benefitted m/c women much more
-can be argued Adler overestimated the extent to which women have become liberated & the extent to which they are now able to engage in serious crime
why do men commit more crime than women?
-functionalist: instrumental role, might be only option
-new right: breakdown of nuclear family, poor socialisation of young boys in families
-postmodernist: rise of tech, more choice, lack of male w/c jobs
-social control theory: not afraid in public like women are, men don’t have as many expectations as women on behaviour
-differential association theory: interactions with others, individuals learn the values & attitudes etc of criminal behaviour
masculinity and crime
-Messerschmidt (1993) argues masculinity is a social construct or ‘accomplishment’ & men have to constantly work at constructing and presenting it to others. some men have more resources than others to draw upon
-different masculinities coexist within society, but that hegemonic masculinity is the dominant, prestigious form that most men wish to accomplish
4 principles of hegemonic masculinity
-work in paid labour market
-subordination of women
-heterosexism
-uncontrollable sexuality of men
evaluations for messerschmidts theory
-doesn’t explain why not all men use crime to accomplish masculinity
-over works concept of masculinity to explain virtually all male crimes from joy riding to embezzlement
-masculinity is now much more flexible and subjective
-circular argument
postmodernity, masculinity & crime
-winlow (2001) globalisation led to decline in traditional manual jobs which many w/c males could express masculinity through. increase in night time leisure economy, provided combination of legal employment and criminal opportunities to express masculinity
-studied group of bouncers in sunderland, working as bouncers provided men with paid work & opportunity for illegal business ventures
-in modern society there has always been a violent, conflict subculture in sunderland which ‘hard men’ earned status through their ability to use violence
strengths and weaknesses of winlows study
-focuses on w/c masculinity and crime
-shows how expression of masculinity has changed with move towards postmodern society
-lying-edgework would describe this behaviour as result of risk taking behaviour in postmodern society
differential association theory
-suggests that through interactions with others, individuals learn the values, attitudes, techniques & motivation for criminal behaviour
- “got in with the wrong crowd”
-differential associations may vary in frequency, duration, priority & intensity
-process of learning criminal behaviour by association with criminal and anti criminal patterns involves mechanisms involved with other learning
-principle part of learning of criminal behaviour occurs with intimate personal groups
