5. Statistics and Patterns of Crime - 2.1 Feminist Perspective Flashcards
Three elements of the feminist perspective on gender differences in crime
Heidensohn: radical feminism and social control
Carlen: socialist feminism, women, crime and poverty
Messerschmidt and Winlow: masculinity
Why are females less likely to commit crime according to Heidensohn?
Because they are subjected to closer levels of social control than men are
3 settings where greater control is exercised over women than men according to Heidensohn
Control at home
Control at public
Control at work
Control at home (Heidensohn)
Women’s primary responsibilities of housework and childcare keeps them at home for more hours than men
Women may also feel controlled at home due to domestic violence and financial control
Girls also tend to be subject to greater control than boys
Control in public (Heidensohn)
Women may fear going out in public (E.g. fear of being ridiculed, raped or assaulted) which reduces opportunities for them to commit crime
Control at work (Heidensohn)
Most managers are men so can therefore exercise control over women
Positive evaluation of Heidensohn’s radical feminism and social control: Toor and British Asian girls
Toor identified very low rates of recorded crime among British Asian girls and they are the group who experience the highest levels of control
Negative evaluation of Heidensohn’s radical feminism and social control: out of date
May be outdated as women can now express greater control
This is the view of liberal feminists who support a MoP view
Who developed socialist feminism, women, crime and poverty?
Carlen
Study carried out by Carlen
Unstructured interviews of 39 women who had been convicted of a variety of offences
Characteristics of female offenders in Carlen’s study
Overwhelming from w/c backgrounds
Hadn’t experienced benefits of women’s liberation unlike m/c women
What did Carlen conclude from the study?
Concluded that gender and class interacted in explaining offending of women in study
Citing control theory (Carlen)
W/C women enjoyed little success in society and had little to lose turning to crime.
Criminality emerged by drug addiction, search for excitement, being raised in care and experiencing poverty
2 reasons why w/c women were more likely to commit crimes (Carlen)
Class deals
Gender deals
Class deals
Sacrificing personal freedom and working hard to earn enough money to gain access to consumer goods and leisure
Female offenders in study had few qualifications and no experiences of sustaining a well-paid job
Living in poverty and being unemployed, women had no incentive to conform to