Gender And Crime

Question 1

Who commit more crime

Answer 1

Men

Question 2

What were male offenders more likely to be convicted for

Answer 2

Violent and sexual offenders where a higher proportion of women were convicted for property offences

Question 3

Female crimes are…

Answer 3

Less likely to be reported than violent crime

- even when reported or detected they are less likely to be prosecuted or let off lightly

Question 4

Chivalry thesis

Answer 4

Criminal justice agents are men - socialised into being ‘chivalrous’ towards women

Question 5

Otto Pollak

Answer 5

Men have a protective attitude towards women and are therefore more lenient with them

Question 6

Heidensohn

Answer 6

Courts treat females more harshly when they deviate from gender norms

• courts punish girls for premature/ promiscuous sexual activity but not boys
• women who don’t conform to monogamous heterosexuality and motherhood punished harshly

Question 7

Carlen

Answer 7

Women jailed not for the severity of their crime but on the courts assessment of them as wives/ mothers/ daughters

Question 8

Walklate

Answer 8

Women have to prove respectability to have their evidence respected

Question 9

Prove respectability

Answer 9

Walklate

Question 10

Not jailed for severity of crime but the courts assessment of them as wives/ mothers and daughte

Answer 10

Carlen

Question 11

Sex role theory

Answer 11

Socialised into different ways

Question 12

Parsons

Answer 12

Nuclear family

• girls have access to role models whilst boys reject feminine models of behaviour
• boys distance themselves from this by engaging in ‘compensatory compulsory masculinity’

Question 13

Nuclear family - socialisation

Answer 13

Parsons

Question 14

Biological essentialism

Answer 14

Women are biologically nurturers - not wired to offend- shocking when they do

Question 15

Heidensohn

Answer 15

Control theory

• patriarchal control over women reduces opportunity to offend
• control at home
• control at work - male managers
• control in public - controlled by threat of male violence

Question 16

Control theory

Answer 16

Heidensohn

Question 17

Carlen : class and gender deal

Answer 17

Working class women led to conforn through promise of two types of deals 
The class deal- women who work will be offered material reward, decent standards of living and leisure opportunities 
The gender deal- women who confirm to domestic role are promised material and emotional reward - 
- women who failed resorted to crime

Question 18

Class and gender deal

Answer 18

Carlen

Question 19

Alders liberation thesis

Answer 19

If patriarchy prevents women from offending as society becomes less patriarchal then female crime should become similar to male
- changes in society and typical gender roles are to blame for increased female offending

Question 20

Liberation thesis

Answer 20

Adler

Question 21

Criticism of liberation thesis

Answer 21

Female criminals wc- group least likely to be inflicted by women’s liberation
- overestimates the extent to which women have become liberated

Question 22

Messerschmidt

Answer 22

Men often commit crime to assert their masculinity

Question 23

Men asserting masculinity through committing crime

Answer 23

Messerschmidt