Gender And Crime

Question 1

What fraction of offenders in England and Wales are male?

Answer 1

Four fifths

Question 2

Name the 3 reasons why females commit less crime (with sociologists if there is one)

Answer 2

Crimes are less detectable
Sex role theory - Parsons
Patriarchal control - Heidensohn

Question 3

Which functionalist came up with sex role theory as reason for gender crime differences?

Answer 3

Parsons - women are socialised into the expressive role of being caring, emotional and cautious. Whereas boys are encouraged to be tough, competitive and risk taking. Also as the father isn’t in the home with the children as much as the mother boys lack a masculine role model.

Question 4

Give a piece of positive and negative evaluation for sex role theory

Answer 4

+ Murray agrees that the lack of a male role model leads to deviancy
- outdated now as there are more symmetrical families and children can be raised in a similar way

Question 5

What is patriarchal control theory? (What are the 3 sections)

Answer 5

This theory is the idea that women have less opportunity to commit crime as they are controlled by the patriarchy. This is control in the home - chores and childcare: domestic violence
Control in public - fear of violence restricts choices and they are judged to a higher standard
Control in work - sexual harassment or lack of promotions restricting corporate crime

Question 6

Give a piece of evaluation for each section of Heidensohn’s theory

Answer 6

+ Dobash and Dobash - found that when women challenge their role as housewife they suffer more violence
+ Lees - boys control girls behaviour in public through verbal abuse like “slags”
- women are now CEOs and can be high up at work so it’s a little outdated - dual earners etc

Question 7

How do women have less detectable offences?

Answer 7

They tend to do low level crimes like shoplifting and when they steal it’s not expensive things like TVs more food or clothing

Question 8

What Carlen’s reason for why females commit crime - how did she research this?

Answer 8

She did unstructured interviews with 39 female convicts and found out that women will conform as long as the Gender Deal and Class Deal are promised. This is the idea that through being a hard worker or a good wife and mother that you will achieve a decent standard of living. When this doesn’t happen these women have nothing to lose from criminality.

Question 9

Give a piece of positive and negative evaluation for Carlen’s theory

Answer 9

+ similar to Rational choice theory as crime is decision made as the rewards outweigh the risks
- it is a small sample of high level offenders - not representative

Question 10

Who argues that women are committing more crime and why is that?

Answer 10

Adler - Liberation Thesis - since the 70s feminist movement patriarchal control has loosened so women have adopted legitimate male roles (work) and illegitimate male roles (crime)

Question 11

Give a statistic and a contemporary example to support Adlers theory

Answer 11

Between 1950-90 female crime went from 1 in 7 offenders to 1 in 6.

Aileen Wournos - violent murderer (but could eval with the fact she was a prostitute)

Question 12

Give 2 pieces of negative evaluation for Adler’s theory

Answer 12

Most female criminals are working class and they have arguably not been ‘liberated’

There’s definitely still a glass ceiling in the workplace

Question 13

Who disputes that women have become more criminal - and what do they think has actually happened?

Answer 13

Steffensmeier and Schwarts - although female arrests grew from 1/5 to 1/3 between 1980-2003 victim surveys didn’t show an increase in female offenders. This suggests women are committing no more crime than before but they are now being penalised more equally = NET WIDENING

Question 14

Give a piece of evaluation for Steffensmeier and Schwarts

Answer 14

Young - agrees - says we’ve been ‘defining deviance up’ to include more trivial offences

Question 15

How does the moral panic about female deviancy lead to female crime rates rising?

Answer 15

Self fulfilling prophecy - the media are depicting girls more as aggressive ‘ladettes’ - this affects professionals like judges and police who look more for female crime and take tougher stances as a deterrent - this means more convictions and more negative media coverage

Question 16

Name the 6 reasons why men commit more crime with the sociologists

Answer 16

Sex role theory - Parsons
Hegemonic masculinity - Messerschmidt 
Police stereotypes - Cicourel
Patriarchal control theory - Heidensohn
Rational Choice theory - Clarke
Postmodern masculinity - Winslow

Question 17

Briefly outline how Heidensohn and Parsons apply to male crime

Answer 17

Heidensohn - men have less controls placed on them within the home, public and work.

Parsons - men are socialised to be more tough, aggressive and risk taking and to spend time outside of the home

Question 18

How does Cicourel say police stereotypes affect gender crime differences?

Answer 18

Self fulfilling prophecy - due to official statistics police are more likely to see men as possible offenders so search more men = find more to convict and therefore they are overrepresented in official statistics

Question 19

Give a statistic to support Cicourel’s theory of police stereotypes

Answer 19

In Lancashire in 2015 - 94% of those stopped and searched were men

Question 20

What is Messerschmidt’s theory for why men commit more crime? (Outline 2 types)

Answer 20

That masculinity is a social construct that men spend their lives aspiring to. There is hegemonic (dominant form) masculinity which includes paid work, toughness, heterosexuality and subordination of women.
Or Subordinated masculinity - men who have no desire or resources to achieve hegemonic mascpoolinity

Question 21

What were the 3 groups that shift to crime to achieve hegemonic masculinity and how did they do it?

Answer 21

White MC males - are emasculated in school by having to subordinate so act out outside of school, drinking drugs etc

White WC males - little chance of educational success - act out everywhere - disrespecting teachers, sexism, vandalism etc

Black WC males - more poverty and little chance of educational success - use gang violence or property damage to achieve masculine goals

Question 22

Give 2 pieces of positive evaluation for Messerschmidt

Answer 22

Willis’ study of the Lads - supported the behaviour described of WC boys

Shows men don’t all respond the same way

Question 23

Outline which perspective uses rational choice theory and how it explains male crime

Answer 23

Right realists - Clarke - for men the rewards of crime outweighs the risks as they gain a masculine reputation (not the same for women), they get less severe social judgement and often have fewer dependents

Question 24

Who spoke of masculinity in the postmodern world - how has male crime changed?

Answer 24

Winslow - the shift to de-industrialised economy meant a loss of traditional manual jobs that confirmed masculinity for the working class men. However as we’ve moved to the nocturnal economy and the service industry (clubs and pubs etc) there is the opportunity for these men to become bouncers. Winslow looked into Sunderland and found this career provided paid work, for illegal business and the opportunity of showing “body capital” (violence or toughness)

Question 25

Give a piece of positive evaluation for Winslow’s theory

Answer 25

Cloward and Ohlin - violent subcultures will always exist but it depend on differential opportunity if there’s little organised crime it can form through jobs like being a bouncer

Question 26

What is the chivalry thesis?

Answer 26

The idea that the justice system is populated mainly by men who have been taught to be chivalrous towards women - resulting in better treatment

Question 27

Who did a study questioning gender differences in official statistics?

Answer 27

Graham and Bowling - interviewed 1721 14-25 year olds and found men only admitted to twice as much crime as women not 4 times as OS suggest

Question 28

How many self reported women were cautioned or prosecuted according to Flood-Page et al compared to men?

Answer 28

1 in 11 women

1 in 7 men

Question 29

How did Hood support the chivalry thesis?

Answer 29

He studied 3000 offenders and found women were a 1/3 less likely to be jailed for similar crimes and more likely to get a shorter sentence

Question 30

Who looked into why judges give women less jail time? What were the reasons?

Answer 30

NACRO (National Association for the Care and Resettlement of Offenders) - questions were things like, are they the sole head of a household, do they have dependents, are they pregnant?

Question 31

How did Farrington and Morris argue against the chivalry thesis saying instead that it is equal?

Answer 31

Studied 408 incidents of theft and found no difference in how men and women were treated

Question 32

Give positive evaluation for Farrington and Morris’ study

Answer 32

Theft is quite a gender neutral crime so it is an equal playing field unlike rape for example

Question 33

Who argued that there’s no bias men just commit more crime?

Answer 33

Hales et al - they are more prone to public crimes like anti social behaviour, binge drinking and drugs and also serious offences like assault and murder

Question 34

Which perspective tends to argue that women are treated more harshly by the justice system?

Answer 34

Feminism

Question 35

What does the term “doubly deviant” mean?

Answer 35

That women commit a crime they are punished twice once for the offense itself but also again because they went against their prescribed gender role

Question 36

Give the statistics that show sexual assault is extremely under convicted

Answer 36

20% of women by the age of 16 have experienced sexual assault > of that figure only 20% report it > of those that report it only 1.7% are charged > of those charged only 2-3% are convicted

Question 37

Who did an observational study on shoplifting and found a bias against women?

Answer 37

Buckle and Farrington - found that twice as many males shoplifted but that women were actually more likely to be prosecuted

Question 38

Give a disadvantage of the shoplifting observation?

Answer 38

Very small sample as it was just in one department store - makes it not very representative

Question 39

How does carlen argue that women are treated as doubly deviant?

Answer 39

In Scottish courts women are more likely to be jailed if they have a child in care than if they are perceived to be a “good mother”

Question 40

How did Sharpe show bias against women?

Answer 40

That girls are punished for premature sexual activity - in 55 youth worker records 7 out of 11 sexually active girls were referred for support but none of the 44 boys.

Question 41

Who studied the particular discrimination against women at rape trials?

Answer 41

Walklate - said that often it seems that victim is on trial as they are judged for drinking, dressing inappropriately or acting in a provocative
way.

Question 42

Give a recent news story to support women being treated harshly during rape trials?

Answer 42

The Irish court case in 2018 where the victim’s underwear was used by the defence