Gender And Crime

Question 1

Key words

Answer 1

Cautioned, sex role theory, socialisation, rational choice, private and public sphere, chivalry thesis, ladette culture, stereotyping, hegemonic masculinity, rational choice

Question 2

Key names

Answer 2

Lying, connell, Messerschmidt, duscombe, Adler, carlen, Otto pollak, heidensohn

Question 3

Heidensohn

Answer 3

Self reports studies indicate that in 1999 the male to female crime ratio was 3:1 as opposed to 3:6 shown in crime to statistics

Question 4

Sex role theory and gender socialisation

Answer 4

Explanation 1: Sex role theory and gender socialisation Sex role theory is concerned with gender socialisation and the roles men and women have in the family and in society. Women’s traditional role is the expressive role and involves caring for other (family members, taking the responsibility of the)housework and also balancing paid employment Heidensohn suggests that women have more to lose than men if they get involved in crime and deviance. They risk greater stigma and shame.

Carlen argues that women are socialised into performing the role of GUARDIANS OF DOMESTIC MORALITY and they risk social disapproval when they fail to do so. Women who commit a crime face the double jeopardy of being condemned for
committing the crime and also for being in a way that does not fit the feminine ideals behaving unlike a proper woman’. Men do not have the same expectations placed upon them and it is almost accepted in society that male criminality stems from socialisation into masculine aggressive traits as a child.

Question 5

Carlen

Answer 5

The class and gender deal

Carlen (1998) conducted a study of working class women with criminal convictions and suggested that women conform to the class deal and the gender deal. She used Hirschi’s control theory to argue that women act rationally, when offered a reward for conforming they do not commit crime, yet will commit crime if the rewards are greater than the risk. She says women gain rewards through two deals:

1) The class deal = rewards that arise from working in paid employment and the ability to buy
consumer goods.

2) The gender deal= is the rewards that come from working in the home and family life such as
emotional rewards and financial support.

these rewards/deals are not available, then this is when crime becomes likely.

Question 6

Heidensohn spheres

Answer 6

Agencies of social control work to discourage people from choosing crime over conformity. Heidensohn (1996) suggests there is an ideology of different spheres with men dominating public
spheres of pubs and clubs in which most crime is committed and women the private sphere of the home. The different agencies include:

1) Private domestic sphere of the home- responsibilities for childcare and housework leave little time and opportunity for crime.

2) In the public sphere outside the home women are controlled by the fear of sexual violence and harassment which limits options to deviate.

3) Women face the threat of their reputation being destroyed if they engage in deviance with the applications of labels such as ‘slag’ or ‘slapper’.

Question 7

Chivalry thesis and Otto pollak

Answer 7

Explanation 4: Chivalry Thesis
The chivairy thesis suggests that more paternalism or sexism on the part of the CJS, sUch as the male dominated courts, means women are treated more leniently than men.

Otto Pollak (1950)
argues that men have a protective attitude to women and they dislike accusing and punishing women; from the police all the way to judges. Evidence for this is that crimes from the Home Office who found that females are half as likely to get a custodial sentence as their male Counterparts.

Female offenders are also seen as less serious by the police and therefore may be given a lesser sentence by the police such as a warning.

Question 8

Carrington and Morris

Answer 8

Carrington and Morris disagree with Otto pollak, and studies 408 offences, of males and females and found there was no difference in sentences

Question 9

What is evidence to disagree with chivalry thesis

Answer 9

Ghislaine maxwell

Question 10

Adler

Answer 10

Liberation thesis

Adler (1975) argues that growing female criminality may be a result of changing gender roles. Women in Britain have now got more rights and a more successful in education and the labour market.

Question 11

Denscombe

Answer 11

Liberation thesis

Denscombe (2001) found that there is a much more masculine ladette culture. Women are now binge drinking, risk taking and becoming involved in gang culture.

Question 12

Examples of women in crime

Answer 12

sOURCE 3: Myra Hindley in 2002 confessed to her prison officer that she was more
wicked than her fellow Moors murderer, Ian Brady, as she admitted she knew what
she was doing was wrong. She expressed her love for the elderly and children,
despite being one of the most infamous child killers in the last 100 years.

SOURCE 4: A male and female in Rochdale have been charged with slavery offences as they kept domestic slaves. The woman was thought to have been humiliated, given barley any clothing and not paid. She did all the housework despite the wife being at home.

soURCE 5: Maxine Carr was given 3 % years in prison after perverting the course of justice whilst covering for her boyfriend lan Huntley when he murdered school girls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman. She was released after serving half of her sentence and given a new identity.

SOURCE6: Sadie Hartley of Helmshore was stabbed January 2016 by two women from Chester, this was an unusual attack as two women working together. It was premeditated as Sarah Williams had been having an affair previously with Sadie’s partner, she had become obsessed with him.

Question 13

Schwartz

Answer 13

Females and violent crime
During the period from the year 2000-2008 the number of female arrests for violence rose by an average of 17% per year.

Schwartz (2009) argues that rather than this reflecting more violent
female crime it actually shows that the criminal justice system is widening the net.

Question 14

Lind

Answer 14

Lind (2006)
agrees suggesting that policies that encourage more arrests has led to a steep rise in females appearing in violent crime statistics

Jock young refers to this as DEFINING DEVIANCE UP to catch trivial offences in net

Question 15

Winlow

Answer 15

Winlow (2001) studied bouncers and argued that this allowed for both illegal and legal activities.

The legal side is being the bouncer, the illegal may be dealing in drugs, duty free tobacco and Using violence to assert authority.

He argued that men now Use bodily capital- they use their physical appearance through body building to look the part.

Question 16

Heidensohn and silvestri

Answer 16

Heidensohn and SiIvestri (2012) called the 2 themes of ‘amnesia’ and ‘neglect and distortion”

gender issues and female offending were forgotten or ignored in sociological theory until recently. MoST research has been based
on male offenders and there has been little attempt to understand female offending
and explain the gender gap and female deviance.

Feminists also point out that female victimisation is often ignored and particularly sexual and domestic violence. Feminists saw the dominance of men in society reflected in the dominance within ‘male stream’ Sociology.

Question 17

Heidensohn on invisibility of women

Answer 17

Heidensohn (1996) suggests various reasons for the invisibility of females:

Academics in Sociology were predominantly men

There is less to study due to lower female crime rates

and the nature of the crimes may be harder to detect (shoplifting/prostitution)

Male stream middle class sociologists had a romanticised male preconception with macho working class deviance -they argued it increases their glamour and street cred.

Question 18

Smart

Answer 18

Smart pointed out that women offenders are seen as doubly as deviant as they break both laws and traditional gender roles.This means their crimes are highly stigmatised in comparison to males even when they are lesser offences.

This concept of gender identity has allowed feminists to explore how conceptions of femininity and female gender roles may lead to women being less deviant than men and at the same time explain why men are more deviant than women.

Question 19

Messerschmidt - domestic violence

Answer 19

Messerschmidt (1993) conducted research into domestic violence and how this can be a means of accomplishing masculinity for men who have failed to achieve this in other areas of their lives.