Crime and Deviance: social groups Flashcards
women, crime and justice: official statistics underestimate the amount of female crime
a higher proportion of females than male offenders are convicted of property offences.
a higher proportion of male than female offenders are convicted of violent and sexual offences.
males are more likely to be repeat offenders, have longer criminal careers and to commit more serious crimes. e.g. 15x more likely to be convicted of homicide.
women, crime and justice: the chivalry thesis
argues that criminal justice agents e.g. police, jury and judges are men, and are socialised to act in a ‘chivalrous’ way towards women.
Pollak: “men hate to accuse women and thus send them to their punishment, police officers dislike to arrest them, distinct attorneys to prosecute them, and juries to find them guilty etc.
women, crime and justice
Graham and Bowling
found using a self-report study of 1721 people that although males were more likely to offend, the differences are smaller than recorded on official statistics.
women are more likely to be cautioned rather than prosecuted.
e.g. in 2009, 49% of females were cautioned, while only 30% of men were cautioned.
women, crime and justice
AO3: Evidence against the chivalry thesis
Farrington and Morris: reviewed 408 offences of theft at a magistrates court and found that in no cases were women treated more leniently.
Buckle and Farrington: an observational study found twice as many men than women shoplift. statistics show that the number of men and women are almost equal. this suggests that female shoplifters are more likely to be prosecuted than men.
box: reviewed UK and US self-reports, concludes that women who commit the most serious crimes are not treated more favourably. e.g. Rose West.
women, crime and justice
AO3: Bias against women
Heidersohn: courts treat females more harshly when they deviate from their gender norms. e.g. double standards: courts punish girls but not boys for premature, sexual activity. ‘wayward’ girls can end up in care without having ever committed an offence. Non-conformity: women who don’t conform to accepted standards of monogamous heterosexuality and motherhood are punished more harshly. Steward found that magistrates’ perceptions of female defendants were biased on stereotypical gender roles.
carlen: Scottish judges were more likely to jail women whose children were in care than women they saw as good mothers.
feminists argue that these double standards exist because the criminal justice is patriarchal. e.g. rape cases: judges make sexist, victim-blaming remarks. “women who say no, do not always mean no. If she doesn’t want it, she only needs to keep her legs closed.”
women, crime and justice
biological explanations of female crime
Lombrosso and Ferrero: argue that criminality is innate. however, very few women are born criminals. biological factors such as high testosterone mean more likely to be criminal.
sociologists argue that social rather than biological factors are the cause of gender differences in offending.
women, crime and justice: functionalist sex role theory
differences in behaviour and criminal activity can be explained through socialisation. e.g. boys play football, rugby, rough and tumble play, nerf guns. girls play with dolls, mini kitchens etc. encouraging role play ‘mums’
Parsons: The difference in crime and deviance can be traced back to the nuclear family. while men take the instrumental role, outside the home, women perform the expressive role within the home. this could lead to crime because women have more home responsibility and less opportunity for crime. while men are more likely to have opportunities for crime on the way to work and while at work.
women, crime and justice: AO3: Sex Role Theory
Walklate (2003) criticises the biological assumptions of Parsons. just because women are best suited to child-bearing, doesn’t make them the expressive role. feminists: the reason why women do not offend is because they are subordinate in a patriarchal society.
women’s behaviour is seen to be conformist. this is because a patriarchal society imposes more control over women and this reduces their opportunity to offend. this control operates at home, in public spaces, and at work.
women, crime and justice
control over women
Control at home: women’s domestic role and housework restricts women. this reduces their opportunity for crime by restricting them to the house.
control in public: women are controlled in public due to their fear of male attacks. women also fear being defined as non-respectable. Lees: in schools, boys maintain control by labelling girls as ‘slag’ if they fail to conform to gender expectations.
control at work: controlled by male supervisions and managers. subordination at work prevents opportunities for crime, as women are often unable to obtain promotion to higher positions where there is more opportunity to commit crime.
women, crime and justice:
Carlen: class and gender deals
using unstructured tape-recorded interviews, Carlen conducted a study of 39 15-46-year-old working-class women who had been convicted of a range of crimes including theft, fraud, handling stolen goods, burglary, drugs, prostitution, violence, and arson. 20 were in prison or youth custody at the time of the interview.
women, crime, and justice: types of ‘rewards’
working class women are generally led to conform through the promise of 2 types of ‘rewards’.
class deal: women who work will be offered material rewards with a decent standard of living and leisure opportunities.
gender deal: patriarchal ideology promises women material and emotional rewards from family life by conforming to the norms of traditional gender roles.
women, crime, and justice: AO3: Evaluation of class and gender deals
critics argue that theory underplays the importnace of free will and choice in offending. e.g. sees womens behaviour as being controlled/determined by external forces such as patriarchal society, class and gender roles.
Carlen’s sample is too small and therefore unrepresentative reconsisting as it did largely of working-class srious offenders.
the liberation thesis: Adler argues that as women become liberated from patriarchy, their crimes will become more frequent and serious than men. women’s liberation has led to a new type of female criminal and a rise in female crime rates.
Adler argues that the changes in structure in society have led to changes in women’s offending behaviour: opportunities for education and work have now become equal.
women, crime, and justice: women now commit crimes that are seen as being typically male
Densombe: teenagers’ self-images found that females were as likely to engage in risk-taking behaviour and that girls were adopting more ‘male’ stances, such as the desire to be in ‘control’ and ‘look hard’.
women, crime, and justice: AO3: Criticisms of liberation thesis
female crime rate began to rise in the 1950s: before women’s liberation which emerged in the 1960s.
Adler’s thesis does draw attention to the importance of investigating the relationship between changes in women’s position and changes in patterns of female offending.
Men, crime and justice: masculinity and crime
Messerschmidt: masculinity is a social contrast, and men have to constantly work at constructing and presenting it to others. In doing so, men have more resources to draw upon than others eg anger, money and the gym. Messerschmidt sees crime and deviance as recounted that different men use for accomplishing masculinity. They use resources in different ways:
White middle-class youths: subordinate themselves to teachers in order to achieve middle class status. In school, the demonstrate ‘accommodating masculinity’. outside of school, they show ‘oppositional masculinity’ - quietly defiant of expectations.
White working-class youths: opposition masculinity both within and outside of school as they have less chance of educational success.
Black lower working-class youths: very few expectations of them getting a good job. They use gang membership and violence as an expression of their masculinity.
