Crime and Deviance: Gender, crime & justice Flashcards

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1
Q

Gender patterns in crime (Heidensohn & Silvestri 2012)

A

-3/4 convicted offenders are male.
-By 40, 9% of girls & 32% of males have a criminal conviction.
-More female than male offenders are convicted of property offences.
-More males convicted of violence or sexual offences.
-Males more likely to be repeat offenders and commit more severe crimes and are 15X likelier to be convicted of homicide.

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2
Q

Do women commit more crime?

A

Some sociologists say that stats underestimate women crime:
1. Less likely to be reported - ie, shoplifting is less likely to be noticed or reported as well as prostitution.
2. May even be let off lightly.

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3
Q

Do women commit more crime? - The chivalry thesis (Pollak 1950)

A

-Most criminal justice agents (police officers, judges) are socialised to act in a chivalrous way towards women.
-Pollak argued that men don’t like accusing women and have a protective attitude, so they’re more lenient with them.
-Exaggerated gender differences in crime.

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4
Q

The chivalry thesis: Self report studies

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-Individuals asked what crimes they’ve committed suggested women are treated more leniently.
-Graham & Bowling found though males were likelier to offend, the difference was smaller than in OS.
-2.33X likelier rather than 4X.

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5
Q

The chivalry thesis: Official statistics

A

-Females are likelier to be released on bail rather than remanded in custody.
-Females are likelier than males to receive a fine or a community sentence and less likey to be sent to prison.
-1/9 females receive a prison sentence for shoplifting but only 1/5 males.

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6
Q

Evidence against the chivalry thesis

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-Buckle & Farrington’s observational study of shoplifting found that teuce as many males shoplift as females but the offenders in OS are fairly equal.
-Self report studies show men are likelier to commit crime (Hales et al).
-Underreporting of male crimes against women, 2012- only 8% of female victims of serious sexual assault reported it to the police.

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7
Q

Bias against women (Heidensohn)

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Argued courts treat women more harshly than males when they deviate from gender norms.
-Double standards - courts punish girls but not boys for ‘promiscuous’ sexual activity. Sharpe found that 7/11 girls referred for support because they were sexually active but none out of 44 boys.
-Woken who don’t conform to accepted standards of monogamous heterosexuality are punished harsher.
-Found that Scottish judges were likelier to jail women whose children were in care than ‘good’ mothers.
-Walkate argued in rape cases, the victim is on trial to prove her respectability.
-Adler argues women such as single parents find it difficult to have their testimonies believed by the courts.

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8
Q

Explaining female crime

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-Lobroso & Ferrero argue criminality is innate and there’s few ‘born criminals.’
-Higher levels of testosterone can explain gender differences in offences.
-Sociologists say; sex role theory, patriarchal control theory, class & gender deals & the liberation thesis.

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9
Q

Functionalist sex role theory (Parsons 1955)

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-Men encouraged to be tough, risk taking and they’re likelier to be aggressive.
-Parsons says that while men take the instrumental role, women perform the expressive role.
-This gives girls access to an adult role model and boys reject feminine models of behaviour that express tenderness and emotion.
-Boys engage in ‘compensatory compulsory masculinity’ through delinquency.
-Cohen says that due to the lack of a role model, boys are likelier to turn to street gangs as a source of masculine identity to earn status.
(New Right support this for lone parent families).

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10
Q

Criticisms of Parsons sex role theory (Walklate)

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-Criticised for its biological assumptions because he assumes that because women have the biological capacity to beat children, they’re suited to the expressive role.
-Feminists give other explanations in the patriarchal nature of society.

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11
Q

Heidensohn: Patriarchal control (1996) - Control at home

A

-Argued that because women’s behaviour is conformist as they commit fewer and less serious crimes than men because patriarchy controls them and reduces their opportunities to offend.
-Women’s domestic role confined them to their house & women who reject the role may face DV.
-Dobash & Dobash show many violent attacks is from men’s dissatisfaction with their wives’ performance of domestic duties.
-Men exercise control through financial power restricting women’s leisure time.
-Daughters are subject to this control as they’re less likely to go out as they please do they develop ‘bedroom culture’ involving socialising at home with friends.
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12
Q

Heidensohn: Patriarchal control (1996) - Control in public

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-Women are controlled through threat of male violence against them.
-Crime survey found that 54% of women avoided going out after dark, compared to 14% of men.
-Media reporting rapes adds to women’s fear.
-Also controlled by their fear of being defined as not respectable and affecting their reputation, women may avoid going into pubs to not be regarded as ‘loose’.
-Lees notes that in school, boys have control by labelling girls ‘slags’.

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13
Q

Heidensohn: Patriarchal control (1996) - Control at work

A

-Controlled by male supervisors keeping them in their place.
-Secual harassment.
-Women’s subordinate position reduces opportunities to engage in major criminal activity such as fraud/embezzlement.
-‘Glass ceiling’ prevents many women from rising to senior positions.

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14
Q

Evaluation of Patriarchal control

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15
Q

Carlen: Class & gender deals

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-Conducted study of 39 W/C women convicted of a range of crimes.
-20 were in prison or youth custody at the time of the interviews.
-Argues most convicted are W/C.
The class deal: women who work offered material rewards with a decent standard of living & leisure.
The gender deal: patriarchal ideology promises women material & emotional rewards from family life through conforming to domestic roles.
-32 of the women had been in poverty, others couldn’t get jobs or claim benefits.
-Used crime to escape poverty.
-Some abused physically, spent time in care or were homeless & unemployed:

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16
Q

Evaluation of Class & gender deals

A

-Carlen shows how the failure of patriarchal society to deliver the promised ‘deals’ removed a control of women offending.
-Carlen’s sample was small and unrepresentative since it used mostly
W/C offenders.

17
Q

The liberation thesis (Adler 1975)

A

-Argues that as women become liberated from patriarchy, their crimes will become more frequent and as serious as men’s.
-Argues that as oppurtunities for women have become more equal, women have begun to adopt traditionally ‘male’ roles in legitimate activity (work) & illegitimate (crime).
-Women commit more white collar crimes too because of their self assertiveness and confidence & able to be in senior positions.

18
Q

Support for the Liberation thesis

A

-Both the overall rate of female offending & female share of offences rose during the second half of 20th century.
-> female share rose from 1 in 7 to 1 in 6.
-Media talk of ‘girl gangs’ while a study by Denscombe found females were as likely as males to engage in risk-taking behaviour and girls wanted to look ‘hard’ & be in control.

19
Q

Criticisms of the Liberation thesis

A

-Female crime rate began rising in the 50s, before the women’s liberation movement in the 60s.
-Most female criminals are W/C / least likely to be influenced by women’s liberation.
-Chelsey-Lind says that in the USA poorer women are likelier to be criminals.

20
Q

Females & Violent crime

A

-According to Hand & Dodd, between 2000-2008, no. of females arrested for violence rose by an average of 17% per year.
-Suggests females are increasingly committing ‘male’ crimes.

21
Q

Females & Violent crime: The criminalisation of females (Steffensmeier & Schwartz 2009)

A

-Found that while female arrests grew from 1/5th to 1/3rd between 1980-2003, the rise was not matched by the findings in victim surveys or self report studies.
-Net widening conclude there’s been no change and the rise in arrests is due to the justice system prosecuting women for less serious forms of violence than previously.

22
Q

Net widening

A

-Chesney-Lind argued that a policy of mandatory arrests for DV has left to an increased where if a couple fights,both are likely to be arrested.
-Sharpe & Gelsthorpe note there’s a growing trend towards prosecuting females for low-level physical altercations - even playground fights.
-Young & Worrall argue that girls’ misbehaviour in the past was considered a ‘welfare’ issue but not it’s been relabelled as ‘criminality’.

23
Q

Females & Violent crimes: A moral panic about girls?

A

-The criminalisation is a social construction resulting from a moral panic over young women’s behaviour.
-Burman & Batchelor point to media depictions of young women as ‘drunk & disorderly, out of control.’
-Sharpe found that professionals were influenced by the media stereotype of ’ladettes. & media panic is affecting sentencing decisions.
-Overall effect is a self-fulfilling prophecy and an amplification spiral; reports of girls’ misbehaviour results in more convictions & more negative coverage.

24
Q

Gender & Victimisation - CSEW 2012

A

-About 70% homicide victims are male.
-Female victims are likely to know their killer & 60% of the time, it’s a current or ex partner.

25
Q

CSEW 2012 - Fewer women are victims BUT…

A

-More women are victims of sexual assault, domestic violence & intimate violence.
-1 in 4 will experience DV during adulthood.
-women are likely to be victims by an acquaintance rather than stranger.
-Only 8% of females experiencing sexual assault reported it & 1/3rd believed there was no point.

26
Q

Gender & Victimisation - Mismatch between fear and risk?

A

Women are more fearful but less are victims.
-Lea & Young found women are at greater risk and are likelier to refuse interviews.
-Victim surveys may not convey
frequency or severity of victimisation.
-Walby & Allen said women were likelier to be victims of multiple crimes & Ansara & Hindin said women experienced more severe violence and control.

27
Q

Why do men commit crime? (Cain 1989)

A

Non feminist theories focussed on masked assuming they explained all crime rather than solely male crime.
-Criminologists focus on how how males commit more crime, but not about what about being male, leads them to.

28
Q

Masculinity & crime (Messerschmidt 1993)

A

Argues masculinity is a social construct or accomplishment and men have to constantly present it & construct it to others.
-Hegamonic masculinity: working in paid labour, heterosexual, subordination of women.
-Subordinated masculinity: lower class, gay & ethnic minority men who lack resources.

29
Q

Messerschmidt: Forms of rule breaking

A

-White M/C youths: have to subordinate selves to teachers to achieve M/C status leading to an accommodating masculinity & outside school they demonstrate it through; drinking, pranks etc.
-White W/C youths: less chance at educational success so masculinity is oppositional inside & out of school. Willis & Lads.
-Black W/C youths: few expectations of reasonable jobs due to racism and use gangs and violence to express masculinity or turn to properly crime to achieve material success.

30
Q

Criticisms of Messerschmidt

A

-Does masculine exolain male crime or just describe male offenders. **Circular argument since it explains male crimes because they’re committed by males.
-Doesn’t explain why not all men use crime to accomplish masculinity.
-Overworks concept of masculinity to explain virtually all male crimes from joy riding to embezzlement.

31
Q

Winlow: Postmodernity, masculinity & crime

A

-Shift to industrial society has led to the loss of many traditional manual labour jobs used by W/C men to express masculinity.
-Job industries increased in service sector; pubs, clubs.
-Led to W/C men having legal employment, lucrative criminal opportunities & chance to express masculinity.

32
Q

Winlow’s study (2001)

A

-Bouncers in NE England an area of deindustrialisation & high unemployment.
-Provided young men paid work & opportunities for illegal ventures in drugs, duty free tobacco & alcohol & can demonstrate masculinity through violence.
-Notes that in modern society, there had always been a violent, conflict subculture in Sunderland where ‘hard men’ earned status through violence.
-Absence of professional criminal subculture meant there was little opportunity for a career in organised crime.

33
Q

Bodily capital

A

-An organised professional criminal subculture has emerged as a result of nee illicit business opportunities found in night time economy.
-Ability to use violence displays masculinity & earns a living.
-Bouncers seek to develop physical assets by bodybuilding.
-Maintains the sign value of the body to discourage competitors from challenging them.
-Shows how to expression of masculinity changed with time and opens up new criminal opportunities for men who are able to use violence to express masculinity.