Gender And Crime Flashcards
Carol smart
In 1977 smart put forward the following reasons to explain the neglect of women in criminology:
1. Women tend to commit less crime than men
2. Most crimes committed by women appear to be of a comparatively trivial nature
3. Sociology and criminology tend to be dominated by men
4. Traditional criminology is motivated by a desire to control probes behaviour - as women’s behaviour is less of a problem than mens is receives less attention
The chivalry thesis
Pollak - ‘men hate to accuse women and thus send them to their punishment, police offices dislike to arrest them, distract attorneys to prosecute them, judges and juries to find them guilty and so on’
Campbell - conducted a self report study and found that
1. Female suspects were more likely than suspects to be cautioned rather then prosecuted
2. The rate of male: female juvenile offending was 1.33.1.0 rather than the office figure of 8.95.1.0
Supporting evidence of the chivalry thesis
Self report studies:
- graham and bowling - sample of 14 -25 yr olds found although males were more likely to offend the difference is much smaller than official stats suggest
Flood - self report - 1 in 11 females cautioned, 1 in 7 males cautioned
Ministry of justice - 49% of females cautioned, 30% of males cautioned
Official statistics
- females are more likely to be released on bail
- females are more likely to receive a fine or community service
- women on average receives shorter prison sentences
- 1 in 9 women, 1 in 5 , men receive a prison sentence for shoplifting
- hood - compared the sentencing of men and women and found that men were more likely to be given custodial sentences than women
Evidence against the chivalry thesis
- Farrington and morris conducted a study of sentencing in the magistrates court, although men received more severe sentences than women, the differences disappeared when the severity of offences was taken into account.
- buckle and Farrington observational study - witnessed twice as many males shoplifting as females - even though official stats are almost equal - males mat be more likely to be prosecuted
- box - reviewed the data from self report studies in Britain and the USA and concluded that the official statistics on gender and crime were fairly accurate
- women who committed serious crimes were not treated more favourably
- low self report v prosecution rate me be because of type offences - less serious and less likely to be reports
Self report studies
- shows males commit more offences - binge drinking, illegal drugs etc
- hales et al - significantly more likely to have been offenders in all major categories
- some suggest rear gender gap increases at the offence becomes more serious
Under reporting of male crimes against women
- the chivalry thesis ignores many make crimes go unreported
- 2012 - 8% of females who were victims of serious sexual assault reported it
- yearnshire - women typically suffer 35 assaults before reporting domestic abuse
- crimes of the powerful are under presented, and these are more likely to be committed by men because of their privileged position in the jobs market
Double standards
- heidensohn - argues that the justice system is influenced by attitudes to gender in society as a whole. Women are treated more harshly when they deviate from norms of female sexuality. Sexually promiscuous girls are more likely to be taken into care then similar boys. On the other hand, courts may be reluctant to imprison mothers with young children
- Carlen - argues that women are more likely to be sentenced according to the courts assessment of them as wives, mothers and daughters rather than the seriousness of their crime - girls who’s parents see them as ‘out of control’ are more likely to be convicted than those living ‘conventional’ lives
- in Scotland more likely to jail whose women’s children are in care w
Biological explanations
- earliest attempts to explain female criminality come from lombroso - compare the anatomical feature of female criminals and non. Believed that male criminals could be identified by physical abnormalities such as having an extra toe. Few women have these feature therefore they were not born criminal
- this work has long be discredited. However, biological theories have recently reappeared
- moir and Jessel - explain some violent crime as being linked to premenstrual syndrome (pms). Most sociologist, focus on the social causes of female crime
Functionalism - sex role theory
Parsons - traced back to gender role in the nuclear families
- men = instrumental
- Women = expressive
- socialising can be more difficult for boys as men are not around as much
- girls have access to a role model at home
- boys reject feminine models of behaviour and seek distance - ‘compensatory compulsory masculinity’
Cohen - boys are more likely to turn to all male gangs
- in these Subcultural groups status is earned through toughness/ risk taking/ delinquency
Walklate - makes biological assumptions - just because women bare children does not mean they are better at expressive role
- theory tries to explain crime and deivance differences through behaviour learned through socialisation by ultimately based on biological assumptions about sex differences
Liberation thesis
- alder - claimed that women’s liberation had led to a new type of female criminal and an increase in women’s contribution to crime
- women were taking on male social roles in both legitimate and illegitimate areas of activity. Instead of confining themselves to ‘feminine’ crimes crimes shoplifting, women were getting involved in robbing banks, muggings and even murder
- overall rate of female crime is up
- media talk of ‘girl gangs’
- denscombe - study of midlands teenagers self images found females were as Linley as males to engage in low risk behaviour and girls were adopting more ‘male’ stances’ (desire to be hard)
Evaluation of liberation thesis
- women crime rates began rising before 1950s and women’s liberation movement
- most female criminals - w/c those least likely to benefit from women’s liberation
- chesney Lind - poor and marginalised women are more likely than liberated women to be criminals
- cheseny Lind - found evidence of women branching out into more typically male crimes but usually because of links with prostitution
- little evidence that the illegitimate opportunity structure of professional crime has opened up to women
Feminist perspective on crime
- control theory
- control at home
- control of women at work
- control in public
Control theory
- heidensohn attempts to explain why women commit fewer crimes than men, she argued that patriarchal societies control women effectively than men effectively than men, making it more difficult for them to break the law
Control at home
- the time spent on housework and caring for children means that women have little time for Crome
- dobash and dobash - many violent attacks result from dissatisfaction with domestic duties
- daughters are given less freedom thanks sons to come and go as they please
