Crime And Deviance - Crime And Gender - Pat Carlen & Social Control (1988) Flashcards
1
Q
Pat Carlen
A
A sociologist who linked gender and class as contributing factors for women who commit crimes
2
Q
How does Carlen explain why most women don’t commit crimes?
A
- working-class women have been ‘controlled’ by the promises of both a class-deal and a gender-deal
3
Q
define class-deal
A
- the way in which society promises material success and the ability to spend wages on our wants and needs
4
Q
define gender-deal
A
- the way in which society perpetuates the notion that femininity will win the attention and affection from men
- marriage and family life ‘promise’ to keep women law-abiding and prevent them from committing crime
5
Q
describe the study Carlen conducted in 1988
A
- 39 women convicted of one or more crimes
- in-depth, unstructured interviews with women, many in prison or youth custody
- women from woking-class backgrounds
6
Q
what did Carlen say the women in the study lacked?
A
- class and gender-deals
7
Q
what factor influenced why the women committed crimes?
A
- being brought up in care
- living in poverty
- experienced little/no material benefits
- troubled family backgrounds
- abuse, violence, and neglect characterised their childhoods and early-adult experience
8
Q
what crimes were more common?
A
- prostitution
- drug-abuse
- victim-less crimes
9
Q
evaluative points
A
- unstructured interviews could lead to bias
- specific group of women were selected; not representative of all women
- acknowledged link between gender and social class in relation to crime, but does not onsider other factors such as race
- why do some working classpeople work hard for class-deals while others commit crime?