Feminist perspective

Question 1

‘Malestream’ sociology of crime and deviance

Answer 1

• Heidensohn and Silvestri (2012) - crime and deviance theories are characterised by ‘neglect and distortion’ and ‘amnesia’ towards women
• gender issues and female offending were forgotten or ignored until fairly recently
• little explanation of female crime/deviance or the gender gap
• female victimisation was also ignored, particularly in domestic and sexual violence

Question 2

Heidensohn (1996) - reasons for the invisibility of females in the sociology of crime and deviance

Answer 2

• academics and researchers were predominantly men
• ‘malestream’ middle class sociologists had a kind of romanticised male preoccupation with macho working-class deviance - by studying rogue males male academics might attach to themselves some of the alleged glamour and increase their ‘street cred’
• actually less to study due to the relatively low level of female crime, and the often invisible nature of the offences committed by women, which are more likely to be less detectable offences, like prostitution or shoplifting

Question 3

Contributions which the feminist perspective has made to the study of crime and deviance

Answer 3

• new focus on female offending and the experiences of women in the criminal justice system
• application of existing theories, criticisms of them, and the development of new theories to explain female deviance
• a new focus on the varying types of victimisation suffered by women, particularly from male physical and sexual violence, including rape and domestic violence
• a challenge to the popular misconception that women enjoy ‘chivalry’ from the criminal justice system, and are treated more leniently than men
• an important new focus on gender and gender identity issues in explaining deviance, and the adaptation of existing theories to refocus them on gender - feminists have raised question in control theory, for example, concerning how men and women experience different levels of control, and in labelling theory concerning why female reoffending carries higher levels of stigmatisation than male reoffending

Question 4

The growth of feminist criminology

Answer 4

• since the women’s movement in the 1960s and 70s there has been growing interest in female crime and deviance, led by feminist researchers, and this is now a key area of sociological research
• much feminist criminology focuses on female offending, women’s treatment in the criminal justice system, the study of female victimisation, and the gender gap in offending
• involves the application of existing theories of male deviance and criticising their shortcomings and developing new theories
• feminists bring the issue of gender and male power into sociological study
• a major theme has been the importance of gender identity in understanding crime and deviance, rather than simply focusing on offending and structural features like strain, subcultures, social class or power
• explores why men offend more than women

Question 5

Smart (1976) pointed out

Answer 5

that women offenders are often seen as double deviants, as they don’t only break the law but breach traditional gender roles too, which means that their offences are more highly stigmatised

Question 6

Messerschmidt’s (1993) researched into

Answer 6

how crime and violence including domestic violence, can be a means of ‘accomplishing masculinity’ (achieving a masculine image) for men who have failed to achieve this in other areas of their lives
not a feminist researcher