Gender Flashcards
How many convicts are male?
- 4/5
What types of crime are females more likely to commit?
- Property offences
What types of crime are males more likely to commit?
- Violent or sexual crimes
Who discusses the Chivalry Thesis?
– Otto Pollak; men have more of a protective attitude towards females which results in male police officers being less likely to arrest and less convictions
What does the Chivalry thesis believe?
- Women appear less in crime statistics as men and the CJS are socialised to act more chivalrous towards women
Who supports the Chivalry Thesis by saying women are more likely to be cautioned?
Flood
What do official statistics say that provide evidence for the Chivalry Thesis?
- Women are more likely to be released on bail, receive a fine and less likely to go to prison
What are the arguments against Chivalry?
- Women commit less serious offences therefore appear in statistics less often.
- Farrington and Morris studied 408 cases of theft in the Mag court and found that women were not sentenced leniently in comparison to similar male offences.
What do Feminists believe about Chivalry?
- Believe the courts punish women more harshly:
- Heideson; women are punished for both their crime and deviating from their biological gender norm
-Carlen; courts assessed and judged women on both their crime and their fulfilment as their role as a mother
What are the three main explanations towards female crime?
- Functionalist Sex Role Theory
- Heidensohn Control Theory
- Liberation Thesis
Who talks about sex role theory and what do they say?
- Parsons: Women take on the expressive role within the household, however boys reject this tenderness and femininity, and are forced to seek out masculinity via anti-social behaviour and delinquency, due to the lack of an accurate role model as the father plays the instrumental role. Girls however have a accurate role model and are less likely to fall into crime.
What do New Right theorists argue about the Sex Role Theory?
- That matrifocal lone parent families lead boys into criminal gangs as a source of masculinity.
Why do feminists disagree with FSR theory?
- They make biological assumptions about sex
Who discusses the Control Theory as a result of less female crime?
- Heidensohn
What does the Control Theory argue?
- Women are controlled within a patriarchal society which reduces their opportunity to commit crimes
In what three ways are women controlled according to Heidensohn?
- Home- restricted in the home by their domestic duties, as well as women who object to this role can become subjects of domestic abuse.
-Work- women are often subordinate to men in the workplace and pay remains unequal, therefore women are still financially reliable on men.
-Public- The fear of being a subject to male crime controls women in the public sphere as it restricts them from going out.
What theory did Carlen propose?
- When women lack the Class and Gender deals, they turn to crime.
What are the class and gender deals?
Class: Material rewards, holidays, lavish lifestyles; no need to commit crime
Gender; emotional rewards, children and family
- The women between 15-49 that Carlen interviews mainly lived in poverty and had been previously sexually harassed, meaning their access to the deals was limited, explaining their convictions.
How can we critique Carlen?
Argues women are fundamentally shaped by patriarchy, and that they have no agency when making their decisions.
Who discusses the Liberation Thesis and what is it?
Adler; due to changes in society ( social, employment ) women are less controlled by patriarchy and therefore have more opportunity to commit crime.
There is an increase in females committing ‘typically male offences’ due to these changes
What evidence is there to support the Liberation Thesis?
Denscombe; teenage girls as just as likely as boys to engage in risk taking behaviours to gain status and ‘look hard’
How does Laider and Hunt critique Adler?
Female gang members in the USA are still expected to conform to traditional gender norms, still patriarchal impact.
W/C girls are more likely to offend, M/C are not yet liberated from patriarchal control.
What do Steffenmier and Schwarts argue about female violent crime?
- Women are not committing more violent crime, the CJS is simply ‘Widening the Net’ and arresting women for less serious offences to catch trivial crimes.
-Victim surveys and self report studies do not show an increase in violent crime, just an increase in female crime.
Who believes the CJS is influenced by the moral panic of ‘Laddettes’ which effects their decision in sentencing?
Sharpe
How many victims of homicides are male?
70%
What percentage of killers and partners or ex partners of females?
60%
What are the statistics for men and women and violent crimes?
4% Male
2% Female - Women are 10x more likely to be sexually assaulted.
Who discuses masculinity and what do they believe?
Messerschmidt
Masculinity is a social construct which men need to constantly work at and portray to others.
What is Hegemonic Masculinity?
The idea of a real man, heterosexual, works in labour market ect, most men strive to achieve this.
In what ways do the following groups use crime and deviance to achieve hegemonic masculinity?
WHITE M/C
WHITE W/C
BLACK LOWER/CLASS
White M/C- subordinate to teachers within school and result to vandalism outside
W/C- Anti school subcultures, Willis w/c Lads
Black- gang membership
Who discuses Postmodernity and Masculinity?
Winlow- Bouncers in sunderland
What did Winlow find?
- For W/C boys, the new opportunities provided by globalisation have led to legal employment as well as criminal opportunities, as a way to express masculinity (Night Time Economy)
- This is a way to earn a living
