Gender Flashcards
1
Q
The Chivalry Thesis
A
- Argues most that most criminal justice agents, such as police officers, magistrates and judges, are men and they are socialised to act in a ‘chivalrous way’ towards women.
- Pollak (1950) argues men have a protective attitude towards women - ‘Men hate to accuse women, police officers dislike arresting them, district attorneys to prosecute them, judges and jury to find them guilty.’
- CJS is more lenient with women, crimes less likely to end up in OS - invalid - exaggerates the extent of gender differences in rated of offending.
2
Q
The chivalry thesis - Self report studies
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- Evidence from self report studies suggests women are treated more leniently.
- e.g. Graham and Bowling (1995) research on a sample of 1721 14-25 year olds found although males were more likely to offend, the difference was smaller then recorded in the OS.
- Males - 2.33 times more likely to admit committing an offense in previous 12 months - OS show males 4 times more likely to offend.
- Flood-Page et al (2000) found while only 1 in 11 female self reported offenders had been cautioned, prosecuted, the figure for males was over 1 in 7 self report studies.
3
Q
The chivalry thesis - Official statistics
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- Females are more likely than males to be released on bail.
- Females are more likely then males to receive a fine or community sentence, less likely to go to prison.
- 1 in 9 females offenders receive a prison sentence for shoplifting but 1 in 5 males.
- Hood’s (1992) study of over 3000 defendents found women were about a third less likely to be jailed in similar cases.
4
Q
Criticisms of the chivalry thesis
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- Farrington & Morris (1983) study of sentencing of 408 offences of theft in a magistrates court found women were not sentenced more leniently for comparable offences.
- Also ignores the fact that many male crimes do not get reported. eg. in 2012, only 8% of females who had been victims of a serious sexual assault reported it to police. Yearnshire (1997) found a women suffers 35 assaults before reporting domestic violence.
5
Q
Bias against women - Heidensohn (1996)
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- Heidensohn (1996) argues the courts treat females more harshly than males when they deviate from gender norms.
- Double standards - courts punish girls but not boys for ‘promiscuous’ sexual activity. Sharpe (2009) found 7 out 11 girls were referred for support due to being sexually active. but none out of 44 boys.
- Women who do not conform to accepted standards of monogamous heterosexulaity and motherhood are punished more harshly. Stewart (2006) found magistrates perceptions of female defendants characters were based on stereotypical gender roles.
6
Q
Bias against women - Carlen (1997)
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- When women are jailed it is less for the seriousness of the crime and more according to the courts assessment of them as wives, mothers and daughters.
- Carlen found Scottish judges were more likely to jail women whose children were in care than a women that saw as a good mother.
7
Q
Bias against women - Smart (1989), Walklate (1998), Adler (1987
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- Smart quotes Judge Wild as saying that ‘ Women who say no do not always mean no. It is not just a question of how she says it, how she shows and makes it clear. If she doesn’t want it she only has to keep her legs shut.’
- Walklate argues in rape cases it is not the defendant who is on trial but the victim since she has to prove her respectability in order to have her evidence accepted.
- Adler argues women who are deemed to lack respect, such as single parents, punks and peace protectors, find it difficult to have their testimony believe by court.
8
Q
Criticism of Bias against women
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- Additionally, these feminist perspectives tend to overlook how legal reforms have improved gender equality in the justice system. The introduction of rape shield laws, specialist domestic violence courts, and greater awareness of coercive control challenges traditional biases against women.
- Furthermore, the increasing recognition of male victims in cases of domestic and sexual violence complicates the idea that the justice system exclusively disadvantages women.
9
Q
Functionalist sex role theory- Parsons (1955)
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- Parsons traces differences in crime and deviance to the gender roles in the conventional nuclear family.
- Boys reject feminine models of behavior and tend to engage in ‘compensatory compulsory masculinity’ through aggression and anti social behavior - delinquency.
- Cohen (1955) boys are more likely to turn to all-male street gangs as a source of masculine identity.
10
Q
Criticism of sex role theory
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- Walklate (2003) argues that Parsons assumes that because women have the biological capacity to bear children, they are best suited the expressive role.
- Although the theory tries to explain gender differences in crime in terms of behavior learned through socialisation, it is based on untested biological assumptions about sex differences.
11
Q
Patriarchal control - Heidensohn (1996)
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- Women’s behaviour is conformist, they commit fewer and less serious crimes than men- due to patriarchal society imposing greater control over women, reducing their opportunities to offend.
12
Q
Patriarchal control - Control at home
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- Women who try reject their domestic role may find their partners seek to impose it by force, domestic violence.
- Dobash & Dobash (1979) show many violent attacks result from mens dissatisfaction with their wives performance of domestic duties.
- Daughters are also subject to patriarchal control such as not staying out late - ‘bedroom culture’ socialising through the phone.
- They have less opportunity to engage in deviant behavior on the streets.
13
Q
Patriarchal control - Control in public
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- Through threat or fear of male violence especially sexual violence. - 54% of women avoided going out after dark due to this fear, compared to 14% of men.
- Sue Lees (1993) notes that in school, boys maintain control through sexualized verbal abuse e.g. labelling girls as ‘slags’ if they fail to conform to gender role expectations.
14
Q
Patriarchal control - Control at work
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- Through male supervisors and managers -sexual harassment to keep them ‘in their place’.
- Women’s subordinate position reduces their chance of engaging in criminal activity at work. e.g the ‘glass ceiling’ prevents women rising to senior positions - opportunity for fraud - less likely to white collar crime.
- Heidensohn recognises patriarchy can also push women into crime. More likely to be poor, leading to theft or prostitution to gain a decent standard of living.
15
Q
Criticisms of Patriarchal control
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-Postmodern feminists challenge Heidensohn for portraying women as passive victims of control. They argue that women actively negotiate and subvert patriarchal restrictions, with some engaging in crime despite social constraints (e.g., women in gang culture or corporate fraud).
-Adler’s liberation thesis suggests that as women gain greater freedom in society, they also access more opportunities for criminal behavior. This directly contradicts Heidensohn’s claim that control mechanisms always suppress female deviance.
16
Q
Class and gender deal - Carlen (1988)
A
- Conducted a study of 39 15-46 year old WC women who had been convicted of a range of crimes including theft, fraud, drugs and arson. - 20 in prison or youth custody at time interview - some MC offenders, although most convicted are WC.
- Uses a version of Hirsch’s (1969) control theory to explain female crime - Humans act rationally and are controlled by being offered a ‘deal’, of rewards in return for conforming .
- Carlen concludes, for these women, growing up in poverty or an oppressive family were the main causes of criminality.
17
Q
What is the class and gender deal for women?
A
Class deal - women who work will be offered material rewards with decent standard of living and leisure opportunities.
Gender deal - patriarchal ideology promises women material and emotional rewards from family life by conforming to norms of a conventional domestic role.
If these rewards are not available or not worth the effort, crime becomes more likely - proven in Carlen’s study.
18
Q
Criticism of class and gender deals
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- Carlen’s sample was small and may be unrepresentative, consisting as it did largely of WC and serious offenders.
19
Q
The liberation thesis - Adler (1975)
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- Adler argues a women may become more liberated from patriarchy meaning their crimes will become as frequent and serious as men’s.
- As patriarchal controls and discrimination have lessened, and opportunities in education and work have become more equal, women have begun to adopt traditionally ‘male’ roles in both legitimate and illegitimate activity.
- As a result, women no longer just commit traditional ‘female’ crimes, but also male offences - greater self confidence, more opportunity e.g white collar crime.
20
Q
Evidence to support liberation thesis
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- Between 1950’s and 1990’s, the female share of offences rose from 1 in 7 to 1 in 6.
- Media talk of the growth of ‘girl gangs’ - Denscombe (2001) Midlands teenagers self images found females were as likely to males to engage in risk - taking behaviour and that girls adopting more ‘male stances’ such as the desire to be in control and look ‘hard’.
21
Q
Criticism of liberation thesis
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- Most female criminals are WC, Chesney-Lind (1997), in USA poor and marginalized women are more likely than liberated MC women to be criminals.
- Found evidence of women branching out into more typically male offences such as drugs - usually due to their link with prostitution - ‘unliberated’ female offense.
- Overestimates both extent who which women have become liberated and extent to which they can now engage in violent crimes.
22
Q
Hand & Dodd (2009)
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Between 2000 and 2008, police statistics show number of females arrested for violence rose by an average of 17% each year.
23
Q
The criminalisation of females - Steffensmeier & Schwartz (2009)
A
- While females share of arrests for violence grew from 1/5 to 1/3 between 1980 and 2003, this rise in police statistics was not matched by findings of victim surveys.
- Net widening - no change in women’s involvement in violent crime - arrests are due to justice system ‘widening the net’ - arresting and prosecuting females for less serious forms of violence than previously.
24
Q
Chesney-Lind (2006)
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- Policy of mandatory arrests for domestic violence has led to a steep rise in female violence statistics in USA.
- Females previously ignored by justice system now find themselves being labelled as violent offenders.
25
Q
Sharpe & Gelsthorpe (2009)
A
- Net widening policies are producing a rise in OS for females violent crimes.
- Growing trend towards prosecuting females for low level physical altercations, including playground fights.
- Example of what Jock Young (2011) calls ‘defining deviance up.’
- Worrall (2004) argues in past girls misbehavior was more likely to be seen as a ‘welfare issues’ - re-labelled as criminality.
26
Q
Moral panic about girls?
A
- Burman and Batchelor (2009) point to media depictions of young women as ‘drunk and disorderly, out of control and looking for fights.
- Reports featuring binge drinking, girl gangs - effecting CJS. e.g. Sharpe (2009) found professionals such s judges, police were influenced by media stereotypes - ‘ladettes’ - girls behaviour getting worse.
- Steffensmeier et al (2005) media driven moral panics on girls affect sentencing decisions.
- Amplification spiral - producing further negative media coverage.
27
Q
Gender and victimisation
A
- 70% of homicide victims are male, female more likely to know their killer, 60% of cases partner or ex. Males - friend or acquaintance.
- CSEW - women less likely to be victims, Lea and Young (1993) women are greater risk.
- Sparks et al (1977) female victims of violence more likely to refuse to be interviewed, Walby & Allen (2004) women more likely to be victims of multiple incidents. Amanda & Hindin (2011) women victims experienced more severe violence and control.
28
Q
Masculinity & crime - Messerschimidt (1993)
A
- Masculinity is a social construct
- White MC youths = subordinate themselves to teachers in order achieve MC status. Outside school their masculinity takes an oppositional form e.g. drinking, vandalism.
- White WC youths = has less chance of success, masculinity oppositional in and out of school. Constructed around sexist attitudes e.g The Lads Willis (1977)
- Black lower WC youths = have few expectations of reasonable job due to racism, using gangs and violence to express masculinity, turn to property crime for material success.
29
Q
Criticism of Messerschmidt
A
- Intersectionality - oversimplifies masculinity by not considering how race, class and sexuality intersect with gender to shape mens experience of crime.
- In risk of being a circular argument as as is masculinity just an explanation of crime or a description of male offenders.
30
Q
Postmodernity, masculinity and crime - Winlow (2001)
A
- Study of bouncers in Sunderland, area of high unemployment - provided men with paid work and oppurtunity for illegal business ventures in drugs and alcohol, as well as the app to demonstrate their masculinity through violence.
- Draws on Cloward & Ohlin’s distinction between conflict and criminal subcultures.
- This study is useful as it shows how expression of masculinity changes with the move from a modern industrial society to a post modern de industrial society.
31
Q
Bodily capital
A
- To maintain reputation and employability, men must use bodily capital e.g. bouncers seek to develop physical assets such as bodybuilding.
- Maintain sign value of their bodies ‘looking the part’ to discourage competitors from challenging them.
