explaining female crime Flashcards
key features of female crime
-woman have lower offending rates
-lombroso and ferro argued criminality is innate
-higher levels of testerone in males account for gender differences in offending
what theories can explain gender differences in crime
-sex role theory
-control theory
-liberation thesis
why do women do less crime? accoridng to parsons sex role theory
-men and women have set gende roles
-women expressive and men instrumental breadwinner
-so males often socialised into toys like guns so shifting to more violent crimes
-often taught to be sexually dominant and leads to sexual offences
how might parsons sex role theory explain the types of crimes committed by men and women?
-women brought up to see their place within the home
-expressive
-more likely to shoplift or fraud
-less likely to commit a ‘male’ crime
how can we evaluate parsons
-gender roles now more equal no longer confined to gender script
so, doesnt explain why gender differences continue
OR why women do more crime
what is murrays explanation?
-lone parent families may cause children to become deliquent
-bc no father figure to socilaise the children properly
-may depend on welfare benefits
how does murrays theoryy explain gender theories and evaluate him?
-boys have no role models to reprsent hardwork and career so more likely to join deliquent subcultures e.g shoplifiting and grafitii
why women do less crime according to heidensohn control theory
-patriarchal society controls women and puts restricitons
- control at home = in the house alot so cant offend , men may restrict their leisure time , daughters can adopt bedroom culture
-control in public= controlled by violence e.g in fear of sexual assault
fear of being judged e.g called ‘slags’ and ‘sluts’ lees
-control at work by male bosses who sexually harass them
how can we evaluate the control theory?
-majority of women now work comapred to the past
-doesnt acknowledge backgrounds ; class, ethncities and religions which may account for different experiences
what does carlen say about class and gender deals
-those women convicted said they desired deals
-class deal= theyd be rewarded w jobs that provide them w a good standard of living
-gender deal= rewarded with emotional rewards from family life by conforming to the role of mother
-women would turned to crime if not rewarded w these things
how to evaluate carlen
-small unreprsentative sample(w/c, serious offences)
-theories see women behaviour too controlled by external factors e.g patriarchy, underplaying free will
-carlen says failure of patriarchal society to deliever promised ‘deals’ to some women remove the controls that prevent them from offending
why women are doing more crime according to adler liberation thesis
-as women become free from patrairchal society their crimes become more frequent and serious
-do more crime and diff types
-may go onto more violent crimes e.g violence
-become more confident and assertive
-more senior positions at work will mean they could commit more while collar
evaluate liberation thesis (strengths )
-female offences gone up e.g armed robberies
-females may perform risky behaviours to look ‘hard’
-draws attention to changing posisitons and rates of offending
liberation thesis weaknesses
-most crimes probs by w/c so less likely infulened by lib
-poor women still liekly to commit crimes
-women may commit drug offences due to the link w prostituion - veru unliberated offence
-hunt found girls in gangs were still expected to conform to gender roles in same way as non deviant girls
-overestimated liberation and extent they now engage in serious crimes.
