Feminism and gender and crime

Question 1

Who argues that the sociology of crime is male dominated and female offending was ignored and until recently studies were on males so little attempt to explain male offending

Answer 1

Heidensohn and Silvestri

Question 2

Lombrosso and Ferrero believe about gender and crime that ….

Answer 2

Criminality is innate and there are very few born female criminals

Question 3

Who argued that gender differences are ‘the most significant feature of recorded crime’
The reasons for invisibility of females in sociology of crime are………

Answer 3

Heidensohn
Academics are predominantly men
There is less to study as low female crime and less detectable offences

Question 4

How much of the prison population is female?

Answer 4

5%

Question 5

How many convicted offenders are male?

Answer 5

4/5

Question 6

Who found twice as many males caught shoplifting on study of theft in a department store and argued that female offending in statistics are pretty accurate

Answer 6

Farrington and Buckle

Question 7

How many times are men more likely to be convicted of homicide than women?

Answer 7

15

Question 8

How many times are men more likely to be convicted of sex offences than women?

Answer 8

60

Question 9

Who argues that women offenders are seen as double deviants who break both the law and traditional gender roles meaning offences are more highly stigmatised than loss by men even if less serious

Answer 9

Smart

Question 10

Who says that violence can be a means of accomplishing masculinity?

Answer 10

Messerschmidt

Question 11

What is Pollok’s chivalry thesis? And what do the home office show about women first offenders?

Answer 11

Sexism in the criminal justice system means women are viewed as less guilty and in need of protection so are treated more leniently so are less likely to end up in statistics
Women first offenders are half as likely to be given immediate imprisonment

Question 12

The ministry of justice in 2009 found that …..% of females records recieved a caution while only ….% of men

Answer 12

49% of females recieved a caution while only 30% of men

Question 13

What did Box say in opposition to the chivalry thesis of Pollak?

Answer 13

Women aren’t treated more leniently their offences are just less serious so they are less likely to go to court, and they are more likely to show remorse which makes them more likely to be given a caution

Question 14

Who says that when women are jailed it is less for the seriousness of their crimes and more according to the courts assessment of them as wives, mothers and daughters and found that Scottish judges were more likely to jail women whose children were in care than those they saw as good mothers

Answer 14

Carlen

Question 15

What does Walklate say about rape cases? And what does Adler say?

Answer 15

That it is not the defendant on trial but the victim who has to prove her respectability to have evidence accepted
Adler says that women who lack this responsibility like single parents find it difficult to have their testimonies believed

Question 16

What is Parsons’ sex role theory?

Answer 16

Traces differences in crime to gender roles in the nuclear family.
Women’s expressive roles gives girls a role model and tends to mean boys reject feminine models of behaviour that expresses tenderness, gentleness and emotion. So they distance themselves, engaging in compulsory masculinity through aggression and anti social behaviour which can lead to delinquency

Question 17

How does Walklate criticise sex role theory?

Answer 17

It makes biological assumptions as Parsons assumes women are more suited to the expressive role since they bear children

Question 18

Who says that patriarchy reduces opportunities to offend. Control operates at home, in public and at work where sexual harassment is widespread to keep women in their place and glass ceiling prevents women riding to senior positions so they don’t have opportunity for white collar crimes
How does patriarchy have control in the public?

Answer 18

Heidensohn

Sensationalised reporting of rape adds to women’s fear by presenting averages rapist as a stranger

Question 19

Who argues that violent attacks result from men’s dissatisfaction with wives performance of domestic duties?

Answer 19

Dobash and Dobash

This links to Heidensohn’s idea of control in the home

Question 20

Explain bedroom culture and who says it?

Answer 20

McRobbie - girls are less likely to be allowed to stay out late and develop a bedroom culture - staying in and socialising with friends
Links to Heidensohn’s idea of control in the home

Question 21

……% of women avoid going out after dark for fear of being victims of crime, which survey found this?

Answer 21

54%

Islington Crime Survey

Question 22

What does Lee say that links to Heidensohn’s idea of control in public?

Answer 22

In school boys maintain control through sexualised verbal abuse labelling girls slags if they don’t conform to gender role expectations

Question 23

Heidensohn notes that although patriarchy often reduces opportunities for crime it can?

Answer 23

Push women into crime, for example poor women may turn to prostitution

Question 24

What is the class and gender deal and who proposed them?
And who does this link well to?

Answer 24

Carlen
Women expected to conform by the class deal - material awards that arise from working in paid employment enabling purchase of consumer goods and respectable life and home
And by the gender deal - the rewards that arose from fulfilling their roles in the home, material and emotional support from a male breadwinner. Most accept them and conform but if unattainable due to poverty, women may choose crime as it had few costs when they have little to lose and offers benefits that aren’t otherwise available through legitimate class and gender deals
Links to Hirschi - if people aren’t tied to conformity and the costs are low they will commit crime

Question 25

Who said that as women become liberated from patriarchy their crimes will become as frequent and serious as men’s. As patriarchal control has loosened women have begun to adopt traditionally male roles in both legitimate and illegitimate activity
Now commit typically male crimes like violence

Answer 25

Adler

Question 26

Who argues there is s masculine ladette culture with media talk of growth in girl gangs. Found that Midlands teenage girls are just as likely as makes to engage in risk taking behaviour and had a desire to look hard

Answer 26

Denscombe

Question 27

Chesney-Lind argued poor and marginalised women are more likely criminals than literates women she found …….

Answer 27

Women branching out to more male offences like drugs but only due to their link with prostitution - a very unliberated offence

Question 28

Who argued that masculinity is a social construct and men have to constantly work at presenting it to others. Proposed hegemonic masculinity which is ........... Which some cannot achieve so have subordinated masculinity which is ..........
Crime can be a resource for accomplishing masculinity. For example in school white middle class have an accommodating masculinity where they are only oppositional outside of school while white working class are oppositional both in and out of school. Middle class men may use crime but there is a difference in type - white collar crime can contribute to hegemonic masculinity while street crime can contribute to subordinated masculinity

Answer 28

Messerschmitt
Hegemonic masculinity - ‘work in the paid labour market, the subordination of women, heterosexism’ most men aspire to but some can’t achieve so have subordinated masculinity
Link to Willis’ lads study

Question 29

What did Winlow say about masculinity?

Answer 29

Loss of traditional working class jobs means men can’t express masculinity by physical work and providing.
Increase of nighttime leisure in late modern society provides young working class men a combinations of legal employment, criminal opportunities and expressing masculinity.
Study of bouncers in Sunderland could demonstrate masculinity through violence, developing physical assets to look the part and discourage challenge
Study of