Gender And Crime

Question 1

What are some statistics regarding crime ?

Answer 1

• 4 out of 5 convicted offenders in England and Wales are male.
• by the age of 40, 9% of females have a criminal conviction, against 32% of males.
• higher proportion for males are convicted with sexual offences.

Question 2

Summarise Campbell chivalry thesis.

Answer 2

-women are treated more leniently than men by the CJS.
- police are more likely to caution a female than to charge her
- courts are likely to acquit lenient sentence.

Question 3

What did Campbell carry out ? What did she find ?

Answer 3

• evidence of the chivalry thesis is that Campbell carried out self report studies which involves individuals being asked about the crimes which they have committed and found that female suspects were more likely to be cautioned rather than prosecuted, women were as likely to be the perpetrator for a crime as a man.

Question 4

What are supporting evidence for Campbell

Answer 4

Farmington and Morris - examined magistrates courts and found that men were more likely to be given prison sentences in comparison to females.
Allen - found women being given slightly more lenient sentences when convicted of motoring offences in comparison to males.

Question 5

How has Campbell theory been useful ?

Answer 5

• lots of supporting evidence to Campbell’s work
• statistics indicate that in the uk today around 20% of all crimes are committed by women but only account for 8% of the prison population
• indicating lenient sentencing for women.

Question 6

Evaluation for Campbell

Answer 6

• Campbell is criticised dye to the fat that crimes committed by men are simply just more severe.
• Box reviewed the data from the self report studies in the UK and USA and concluded that the official figures of crimes were fairly accurate and that men do receive harsher sentences but this is underpinned by the severity of their crimes.
• functionalists would agree due to the fact that they see official statistics as social facts.

Question 7

Who speaks about double deviance ?

Answer 7

• smart and other feminists.

Question 8

What do they believe that is contrary to Campbell ?

Answer 8

• that the CJS is patriarchal due to the fact that patriarchal ideas that dominate patriarchal society.
• the system is biased towards the different genders and in fact treat women harshly.

Question 9

Summarise Smart’s ideas

Answer 9

• argued that when a woman committed a crime she faced increased backlash from the CJS for two reasons:
  . The woman had deviated from social norms (going expected behavioural norms set but society)
• deviated from gender norms (against way a woman is expected to behave submissive caring etc)
• smart labeled this as women being seen doubly deviant by the CJS
• she also added that women were less likely to be sentenced based on their crimes but an assessment on to wta extent they were good wives mothers daughter by the court

Question 10

how can the example of vanessa george be used to support smarts theory ?

Answer 10

• vanessa george a married mother with 2 children who appeared to be a valued member of her community took up a post at little teds nursery.
• some three years later she began a rs with colin blanchard (previously convicted of possessing indecent images of children)
• colleagues noticed a change in her behaviour at this point
• she would find time alone with the kids, sometimes when she changed their nappies
• she sexually assaulted them and used the camera on her mobile to film she often used objects at the nursery she even smuggled in sex toys for one of her attacks
• videos sent to her bf
• it was feared that at one point more than 300 children may have been abused narrowed to 30 by police that she admitted
  -124 images between dec and june

Question 11

how does heindensohn support smarts work

Answer 11

• supports by arguing that the CJS is influenced by attitudes to gender within society as a whole.
• women treated harshly when they deviate from female sexuality norms.
• promiscuous girl more likely to be taken into care than a boy

Question 12

how does cashburn support smart ?

Answer 12

juvenile courts were harsher with some females to correct their deviant behaviour , which flaunts normative expectations as it is challenging family authority and threatens truancy and sexual promiscuity.

Question 13

how has smarts theory been useful ?

Answer 13

• O’brien says the police response to women has changed in the past few years.
• no longer see drunk women in need of protection and will increasingly be picked up by police
• work helps answer why females are demonised in comparison to men with similar crimes.

Question 14

evaluation for smart

Answer 14

• liberal feminist would critique such ideas for failing to recognise the changing position of women today.
• not all institutions remain so patriarchal , women are becoming more equal to men and both genders are being viewed the same so are exaggerating when they claim women are seen as doubly deviant.

Question 15

who speaks about the sex role thesis ?

Answer 15

parson

Question 16

how are girls and boys socialised differently according to parsons.

Answer 16

• boys rough and tough + active
• girls are read to , bedroom culture passive

Question 17

how could this be an explanation to why women commit less crime ?

Answer 17

• boys have a lack of role model during socialisation to set up for them the adequate behaviour needed. murray
• women are docile and haven’t been socialised into a criminal inclined culture

Question 18

how are girls socially controlled

Answer 18

• they are given greater constraints than their male counterparts
• dress sense
  -rs
• curfews

Question 19

boys are encouraged to take risks be tough and aggressive girls are encouraged to adopt feminine characteristics such as being less competitive how does this impact women’s crime rates

Answer 19

• women are more afraid of taking risks in comparison to boys and that risk is being involved in crime .
• fewer opportunities to commit crime than men
• boys are socialised into tough and toughh which can encourage criminality.
• men preform the instrumental role and are largely out of the home.
  -so younger boys lack the male presence during socialisation and reject feminine models of behaviour expressed by their mothers - adopting anti social agressive behaviour that can lead to delinquency

Question 20

how has this theory been useful

Answer 20

• murdock would agree and supput parsons as he aslo sees gender roles as an explanation to why women commit less crime.
• biological diff make women more nurturing caring affectionate and their key roles are reproductive and educational rather than being aggressive which is often a trait in men.

Question 21

evaluation of parsons

Answer 21

• feminists writers would criticise parsons work for failing to take into account gender differences in power
• argue that behaviour of women can only be seen through a lens of male dominance resulting in alt explanations as to why women commit less crimes than men

Question 22

who speaks about control thesis

Answer 22

heindensohn

Question 23

what does she argue ?

Answer 23

• suggests that one reason why women commit less crime than men is down to the level of control placed over women within their lives.

Question 24

explain control in the home

Answer 24

• women are controlled in the home due to responsibilities carrying out the expressive role like child rearing cooking cleaning regulating a mans emotions (ainsley women are takers of shit) which provides women with less time and opportunity to commit crimes.
• she sees the control in the home as a form of detention
• supported by mcrobbies idea of a bedroom culture
• severe consequences if women choose to be involved in crime taking out their children

Question 25

explain control in public places

Answer 25

• outside the home women are often faced with the fear of sexual or physical violence for example catcalling sexual abuse rape kidnapping. Heidensohn found that 60% of women faced sexual harassment at work
• a contemporary example would be the case of sarah everard who was stopped an off duty met police officer wayne couzens who identified himself as an officer handcuffed her and placed her in bus car before driver her to dover where he reaped and strangled her before burning her body and disposing into a nearby pond.
  -women thus have a fear of being attacked and an alienation towards perpetrators making them less likely to commit crime

Question 26

explain control in the workplace

Answer 26

• women are less likely to be given positions of high responsibility in the workplace , so their work is overseen.
  they have less opportunity to engage in middle class crime due to not having the job positons allowing for white collar crime (managerial)

Question 27

how has this theory been useful ?

Answer 27

heidensohns ideas are supported by statistical evidence that women do commit less crime than men was logically the more we control women the less freedom they have to engage in criminal activity

Question 28

evaluation of heidensohn

Answer 28

• the emergence of ladette culture and risk behaviour highlight how women are becoming more involved in criminal activity
• less control in night and public spaces
• o’brien and batchelor discuss the greatest involvement of women in the night leisure culture today - rise in female criminality

Question 29

who theorises crime of the powerless

Answer 29

• carlen

Question 30

summarise carlens ideas

Answer 30

• radical feminist carlen aregues that the crimes of women are crimes of the powerless.
• she conducted in depth interviews with 39 working class women aged 15-46 convicted of a range of offences.
• for the women she interviewed she found crime was a rational choice.
• carlen argues that most women do not commit crime as they accept the rewards that come form conforming to social norms

Question 31

carlen says that women tend not to commit crime due to the deals (rewards) they gain what are these deals.

Answer 31

gender deal - women wish to be seen as respectable so gain benefits from being wife or partner
class deal - women from w/c background expect to earn a good living from a job