female crime Flashcards
gender lesson 2
Functional sex role theory - Parsons.
- Traces differences in crime and deviance to gender roles in the traditional nuclear family.
- Mother takes on an expressive role at home whilst the father takes on an instrumental role of breadwinner, performed largely outside the home.
- This means boys often lack a male role model in the home and reject feminine model of behaviour that include gentleness and emotion.
- Instead boys seek to distance themselves from this through ‘compensatory compulsory masculinity’.
- A.K Cohen says that a lack of a male role model at home means fathers a re less likely to socialise their children so boys are more likely to turn to street gangs as a source of masculine identity.
- This is similar to New Right theory, who argue the absence of a male role model in matrifocal lone parent families leads boys to turn to gangs as a source of status and identity.
AO3 of Parsons Functionalist Sex Role Theory.
However, Sandra Walklate criticises sex role theory for its biological assumptions: just because women have the biological capacity to bear children, doesn’t mean they are best suited to the expressive role or that men are best suited to an instrumental role.
Patriarchal control theory - Heidensohn
- Argues that women conform more and commit less crime due to the greater control society exercise over women.
- They are controlled at home through women domestic role: they are confined to housework and childcare given them less opportunities to offend.
- Control at home = men exercise control through financial power over women and domestic violence.
- Dobash and Dobash show that many violent attacks stem from husbands dissatisfaction with their wives performance of domestic duties.
- Daughters are less likely to be allowed to come and go as they please so develop a bedroom culture.
- Control in public = women are controlled through the threat of male violence against them. For example, a crime survey in Islington found that 54% of women avoided going out after dark over fears of being victims of crime.
- They are also controlled in public over their fear of not being seen as a respectable woman.
- Control at work = women at work are controlled by male supervisors and managers. Sexual harassment is widespread in the workplace and helps keep women in their place. Women are less likely to progress to senior positions where there a re more opportunities to commit crime.
Overall, Heidensohn argues that patriarchal control oven women means they have fewer opportunities to commit crime. However she recognises that patriarchy can also push women into crime.
AO3 of Heidensohn’s Patriarchal Control Theory
This theory can be criticised for seeing female behaviour as being determined by external factors. It ignores the importance of free will and choice. It can also be argued to exaggerate the extent of mens control over women in todays society.
Carlen’s Class and Gender Deals
- Conducted a study of thirty nine 15-26 year old working class women who had been convicted of a range of crimes using unstructured interviews.
- She argues that most convicted serious female criminals are working class and wanted to find out why.
- Carlen argues that working class women are led to conform on the basis of 2 deals:
1) The class deal = working will provide material possessions and better standards of living.
2) The gender deal = patriarchy offers material and emotional rewards if they conform to a traditional domestic gender role.
If these rewards are unattainable, crime becomes more likely. She argues:
- the class deal had failed to help these women find a decent standard of living; these women had failed to find a legitimate way of earning a decent living causing them to feel powerless.
- most had also been unable to attain the gender deal or found it unhelpful.
- the women had reached the conclusion that ‘crime was the only route to a decent standard of living. They had nothing to lose and everything to gain’.
What does Carlens theory link to?
Carlens theory links with Heidensohn’s because it shows how when social controls which stop women offending are removed, crime becomes more likely.
AO3 of Carlen’s class and gender deals.
This theory can be criticised for seeing female behaviour as being determined by external factors. It ignores the importance of free will and choice. Furthermore, Carlen’s sample was small and unrepresentative.
The Liberation Thesis - Adler.
- As society is becoming less patriarchal and women are becoming liberated from mens control, female crime will increase.
- Opportunities in work and education have become more equal, women have greater legitimate and illegitimate opportunities. for example they have the opportunity to commit serious white collar crimes like fraud.
- Studies have shown rising levels of female involvement in traditionally male crimes such as embezzlement and armed robbery.
AO3 of Adler’s Liberation Thesis
One criticism of this thesis is that female crime rates began rising in the 1950s long before the women’s liberation movement which emerged in the 1960s.
Most female criminals are working class. These are the group less likely to be influenced by women’s liberation which has benefitted middle class much more.
