Gender and crime

Question 1

Femininity and masculinity in crime in crime

Answer 1

. Females commit a lower percentage of violent crimes

. Whereas males commit more sexual offences ( by 70% )

Question 2

Overall the charts show men are much more likely than women to be convicted of criminal offences - why is this?

Answer 2

. Men have a higher capacity ( biologically determined ) for crime as many crimes involve a form of physical strength - e.g. murder / robbery.

.

Question 3

Why are there far fewer women than men that are convicted of sexual offences and violence ?

Answer 3

. Biological strength difference - men have more of a physical capacity to be violent

. men are less likely to report crimes of the nature

Question 4

What crimes are seen within the ’female domain’

Answer 4

. Fruad / Forgery
. Shoplifting

Question 5

why is there a higher rate of women than men that commit - fraud, forgery and theft

Answer 5

fruad and forgery - crimes that can be committed from home and need no physical advantage - easy for women to commit

** theft - usually shoplifting** - women are more in control of ‘household maintenance’

Question 6

By the age of 40 what percentage of females have a criminal conviction ?

Answer 6

9%

Question 7

What is the gender conviction rates in England and Wales ?

Answer 7

Four out of five convicted offenders are male

Question 8

Who are more likely to be repeat offenders, men or women ?

Answer 8

Males are more likely to be repeat offenders, to have longer criminal careers and to commit more serious crimes

. E.g. men are about 15 times more likely to be convicted of homicide

Question 9

What are the sociological explanations for patterns of female offending and victimhood ?

Answer 9

. Parsons - Sex role theory

. Pollacks - chivalry thesis

. Carlens - Class and gender deal

. Adler - Liveration thesis

. Heidensohns - control theory

Question 10

What does Sutherland argue ?

Answer 10

that boys are taught to be ’rough and tough’ which makes them more likely to become delinquent

Question 11

What is Parsons sex role theory ?

Answer 11

the debate that discusses the differences in gender socialisation, gender roles and gendered identities .

• The norms and values associated with traditional femininity are not conductive to crime
• the norms and values associated with masculinity are more likely to lead to crime

Question 12

Parsons sex role theory - female socialisation

Answer 12

Parsons suggests that :

. Women are biologically empathetic - Women being socialised into a expressive role internalise values like caring and empathy which in turn reduce the likelihood of someone committing crime - more emptahetic you are towards someone the less likely you are to harm them

. Women have more bonds to society than men - thus less likely to commit crimes - more to lose if convicted

Question 13

Parsons sex role theory - male socialisation

Answer 13

Parsons argued that masculinity was internalised during adolescence which led to boys engaging in more delinquent behaviour than girls

Question 14

What is Pollaks idea of a ‘Chivalry thesis’ ?

Answer 14

The idea that there is an imbalance in the rates of male and female criminality - as more males are charged and convicted of crime

. Suggests the imbalance of crime conviction rates is a misconception because of paternalistic attitudes of men towards women

Question 15

What is the Chivalry thesis ?

Answer 15

. Police are less likely to record female crimes

. Judiciary less likely to hand down custodial sentences

. Men are socialised into ‘protecting’ women - link to parsons sex role theory

. the assumption that female crimes are not as serious as men’s - prostitution and petty thefts often ignored in comparison to homicides

Question 16

What is a real life example of Pollacks chivalry thesis ?

Answer 16

The oxford medial student - Lavinia woofward - who was spared jail because of her promising medical career

. She stabbed her boyfriend in the leg and has a history of drug and alcohol abuse - but the judge praised her determination to overcome addiction and her promising career

Question 17

What evidence is there against Pollacks chivalry thesis ?

Answer 17

Stewart - argued that magistrates perceptions of female defendant characters were based on stereotypical gender roles

Question 18

What is Heidensohns theory of radical feminism and social control

Answer 18

Argued that females are less likely to commit crime because they are subjugated to closer levels of social control than men are

. They point to a wide range of informal sanctions to discourage women from straying from the ‘proper’ behaviour including gossip, ill repute and the comments of males

Question 19

What is Carlens - Class and gender ‘deal’ ?

Answer 19

The idea that women that commit crime reject the socially approved pathways that women are meant to use in society - The class and gender deals.

. Class deals - Meritocratic system that rewards with a comfortable lifestyle is contrasted by the women in prison that come from poor backgrounds and leave prison with no employment

. Gender deals - Should be domesticated in exchange for love and financial support from a breadwinner

. Both these ’deals’ exploit women - Rejecting these deals or being blocked from them leads to criminality

Question 20

What 4 types of masculinity does Connell identify

Answer 20

. Hegemonic masculinity - heterosexual masculinity - most common

. Subordinate masculinity - Homosexual

. Marginalised masculinity - ’Crisis of masculinity’

. Complicit masculinity - ’New man’

Question 21

What does Winslow identity in their ** bodily capital - ‘guns out’ theory** ?

Answer 21

That to maintain their reputation and employability the men must trade in their bodily capital - by using violence and winning fights but to also ’look the part’ to discourage competitors from challenging them

Question 22

What does Messerschmidt identify ?

Answer 22

. Men are constantly working at constructing and presenting their masculinity to others

. Some men have more ’Resources’ to draw upon than others so they can represent themselves as the ’ideal hegemonic masculinity’

. These ’Resources’ include :
- Role models
- network of male relatives
- higher level of education

. Messerschmidt argued that having these resources allows a male to be more likely to become the male they want to be - thus more likely to commit crime as men are constantly aiming for the ’dominant prestigious / hegemonic type of masculinity’