chivalry Flashcards
bias against women versus leniency towards woman - it does not act chivalrously
Carlen - sentences handed out by the CJS are partly influenced by an assessment of their character and performance in relation to their traditional roles as a wife and a mother - rather than focussing on the severity of the offence
this leads to violent women being seen as far worse than violent men as they are deviating far more from their social norm
Walklate - in rape cases, it is not the defendant on trial but the victim as she has to prove her respectability in order to have the evidence accepted
Alder - women who are deemed to lack respectability such as single parent families, teenage mothers, find it hard to have their testimony heard in court
Dobash and Dobash - leniency towards MEN in domestic violence cases
- found police officers were unlikely to make an arrest when an offender has used violence against his wife
- however through feminist campaigns, the police have changed and take domestic violence more seriously and have set up domestic violence units
bias against women versus leniency towards woman - it does act chivalrously
Statistics to demonstrate that women are under-represented in the CJS:
2005 - 4 to 1 ratio
2010 - 18% of all people convicted or cautioned were female
2010 - women less likely to be given most severe sentences
Poliak - opens the idea of chivalry even back in 1950 - he explores the idea that women do commit crime but it is not targeted (masked female offender)
Allen - 1987 - statistics show that 73% of women were found guilty for a motoring offence but were only given a fine
This is compared to 54% for men
Men given more prison sentences than women
women are more likely to be cautioned than sentences - it does not act chivalrously - more likely to be sentenced harshly
Heidensohn - women seem to be sentenced more harshly when comparing crimes of similar circumstances
- imprisoned rather than given community-based punishments
- deviate from societal norms and female sexuality
Evil Women Theory - women who are sexually promiscuous, neglectful mothers and violent against children perceived by CJS in worse terms than men
- violate their traditional gender stereotypes of feminine behaviour
Farrington and Morris - although men did receive more severe sentences than women, these differences disappeared when the severity of the offences were taken into account
women are more likely to be cautioned than sentences - it does act chivalrously
Ministry of Justice - 49% of women offenders received a caution in 2007, compared to 30% for men
Campbell - women more likely to be cautioned rather than prosecuted than men - OCS statistics agree
Hood - study of over 3,000 defendants found that women are 1/3 less likely to be jailed in similar cases to men
the types of crime women commit affect chivalry - it does not act chivalrously
Steward - 103 remand hearings found the majority of remand decisions are based primarily on offence seriousness, without consideration of the defendant’s gender
- also the case with bail - based on severity of offence and not gender
Box - self report study evidence - the weight of evidence on women committing serious offences does not give clear support to the view that they receive differential and more favourable treatment from members of the public, police or judges
the types of crime women commit affect chivalry - it does act chivalrously
Allen - in serious crimes - eg manslaughter - women sometimes escaped prison, where a man would face prison
Campbell - compared her own data on 16 year-old school girls from urban area with similar data collected by West and Farrington 16 year-old boys
- data showed that 1.33 offences committed by males compared to 1.0 of females
Less of a threat to society - women’s crime is less serious and therefore less of a threat to society
- this results in them given more informal approaches rather than being charged
- women are also more likely to admit their offence which is necessary before a police officer can issue a caution
