Gender And Crime And Deviance Flashcards
Gender patterns in crime (Heidensohn & Silvestri)
Most crime appears to be committed by males. As Heidensohn & Silvestri (2012) observe, gender differences are the most significant feature of recorded crime. E.G official statistics show that:
Four out of five convicted offenders in England and Wales are male.
By the age of 40, 9% of females have a criminal conviction, against 32% of males.
Facts
A higher proportion of female than male offenders are convicted of property offences (except burglary).
A higher proportion of male than female offenders are convicted of violence or sexual offences.
Males are more likely to be repeat offenders, to have longer criminal careers and to commit more serious crimes. For example, men are about 15 times more likely to be convicted of homicide.
Do women commit more crime
Typically, female crimes are less likely to be reported. E.G shoplifting is less likely to be noticed or reported than violent or sexual crimes and prostitution is unlikely to be reported by either party!
Even when women’s crimes are detected and reported, they are less likely to be prosecuted, or, if prosecuted, more likely to be let off relatively lightly.
POLLACK (1950) THE CHIVALRY THESIS:
It argues that most criminal justice agents- such as police officers, magistrates and judges – are men, and men are socialised to act in a ‘chivalrous’ way towards women.
Men hate to accuse women and thus send them to their punishment
Evidence from self report studies (Graham & Bowling 1995)
carried out research on a sample of 1,721 14-25 year olds and found that although males were more likely to offend, the difference was smaller than recorded in the official statistics.
Evidence of the chilvary thesis
Oxford medical student Lavinia woodward was spared jail time due to a promising medical career
Woodward stabbed her boyfriend in the leg
Woodward has a history of drug and alcohol abuse
Judge praised her determination to overcome addiction and her promising career
Evidence from official statistics
court statistics appear to support the chivalry thesis. E.G: Females are more likely than males to be released on bail rather than remanded in custody.
They are more likely than males to receive a fine or a community sentence, and less likely to be sent to prison. (They are also likely to get shorter sentences anyway!)
Only 1 in 9 female offenders receive a prison sentence for shoplifting, but 1 in 5 males.
Similarly, Hood’s (1992) study of over 3,000 defendants found that women were about one third less likely to be jailed in similar cases.
Evidence against the chivalry thesis: Farrington & Morris
Farrington & Morris’ (1983): Studied sentencing of 408 offences of theft in a magistrates court and found that women were not sentenced more leniently.
Evidence against the chivalry thesis: Buckle& Farrington + Hales et al
Buckle & Farrington (1984): Conducted an observational study of shoplifting in a department store. It witnessed twice as many male shoplifters than female ones, yet the number of prosecutions in the official statistics showed an equal level. This demonstrates that actually, female shoplifters may be more likely to be prosecuted than men!
SELF-REPORT STUDIES: Hales et al (2009) found that men were more likely to commit more offences. Young men were more likely to report binge drinking, taking illegal drugs or engaging in disorderly conduct.
Evidence against the chivalry thesis
UNDER-REPORTING OF MALE CRIMES AGAINST WOMEN: In 2012, only 8% of females who had been victim of a serious sexual assault reported it to the police.
Yearnshire (1997) Women on average suffer 35 assaults before going to the police.
Crimes of the powerful are also under-reported and are more likely to be committed by males.
It could also be due to the fact that females tend to commit less serious crimes and thus are less likely to go to trial! Women also tend to show higher levels of remorse for their actions than men.
Bias against women
Many feminists claim that the criminal justice system is not biased in favour of women, but biased against them.
Heidensohn (1996) argues that the courts treat females more harshly than males when they deviate from gender norms. E.G: women are more likely to receive a harsh sentence for cases of child abuse and neglect
Sharp: sexual activity
Double standards: Courts punish girls but not boys for premature or promiscuous sexual activity. ‘wayward girls’ can end up in care without ever having committed an offence.
Sharpe (2009) found from her analysis of 55 youth worker records, that 7/11 girls were referred for support because they were sexually active but none out of 44 boys!
Stereotypical
Stewart (2006): Magistrates perceptions of female defendants’ characters were based on stereotypical gender roles.
Pat Carlen (1997): When women are jailed, it is less for ‘the seriousness of their crimes and more according to the court’s assessment of them as wives, mothers and daughters.’
Girls whose parents believe them to be beyond control are more likely to receive custodial sentences than girls who live more ‘conventional’ lives.
Carlen found that Scottish judges were much more likely to jail women whose children were in care than women who they saw as ‘good mothers’.
Feminists argue these double standards exist because the criminal justice system is patriarchal. Nowhere is this more evident than in the way the system deals with rape cases.
Carol Smart (1989) quotes judge wild:
“ Women who say no do not always mean no. It is not just a question of how she says it, how she shows and makes it clear. If she doesn’t want it she only has to keep her legs shut.”
Sandra Walklate (1998): In rape cases, it is not the defendant who is on trial, but the victim since she has to prove her respectability in order to have her evidence accepted. Adler (1987) claims women deemed to lack respectability have a hard time doing so!
Functionalist: sex role theory (parsons)
Parsons (1995): Traces differences in crime and deviance to the gender roles in the conventional nuclear family. (Instrumental and expressive)
This gives girls access to an adult role model, but it tends to mean boys reject feminine models of behaviour that express tenderness, gentleness and emotion. This results in boys distancing themselves from such models by engaging in ‘compensatory compulsory masculinity’ through aggression and anti-social behaviour.
Functionalist sex role theory: Cohen
Albert Cohen (1995): This relative lack of an adult role model means boys are more likely to turn to all-male street gangs as a source of masculine identity. (This is echoed by New Right theorists)
Walklate (2003): Criticises sex role theory for its biological assumptions. Although it tries to explain gender differences in terms of behaviour learned through socialisation, it is ultimately based on biological assumptions.
HEIDENSOHN (1996) PATRIARCHAL CONTROL:
Heidensohn argues that the most striking thing about women’s behaviour is how conformist it is- they commit fewer and less serious crimes than men. This is all to do with patriarchal society imposing greater control over women.
Different areas of control
Control at home
In public
At work
Control at home
Women’s domestic role imposes severe restrictions on their time and movement, often confining them to the home for long periods, thus reducing opportunities to offend.
As Dobash & Dobash (1979) show, many violent attacks result from men’s dissatisfaction with their wives’ performance of domestic duties. Men also exercise financial control too which restricts leisure time outside of the home.
Daughters are also subject to this control. Girls are less likely to be allowed to come and go as they please. (Link this to bedroom culture and how this might reduce likely opportunities to offend! )
Control in public
Islington Crime Survey: 54% of women avoided going out after dark for fear of being victims of crime, against only 14% of men.
Females are also controlled in public by their fear of being defined as ‘not respectable’. Dress, make-up and demeanour as well as ways of speaking and acting deemed as inappropriate can gain a woman a ‘reputation’.
Lees (1993) notes that in school, boys maintain control through sexualised verbal abuse. E.G: Calling girls ‘slags’!
Control at work
Behaviour is controlled by supervisors and managers. Sexual harassment is widespread and helps keep women ‘in their place’.
Also, women’s subordinate position reduces their opportunities to engage in major criminal activity at work. E.G: the glass ceiling prevents women getting into senior positions where there is a great opportunity for white collar crimes like fraud!
CARLEN IDEALS:
The class ideal
The gender ideal
The class ideal
Women who work will be offered material rewards with a decent standard of living and leisure opportunities.
The gender ideal
Patriarchal ideology promises women material and emotional rewards from family life by conforming to the norms of a conventional domestic role.
Evaluation for Carlen
EVALUATION: This ignores the importance of free will and choice in offending. Furthermore, Carlen’s sample size was small and may therefore be unrepresentative.
Liberation thesis
Adler (1975): If society becomes less patriarchal and more equal, women’s crime rates will become similar to men’s.
Women have started to adopt traditionally ‘male’ roles in both legitimate activity (work) and illegitimate activity (crime).
Women now also commit crimes of violence and white collar crimes. This is all to do with women’s greater self confidence and assertiveness. As they break through the glass ceiling, opportunities for crimes such as fraud become greater.
Evidence to support the liberation thesis
Between the 1950’s and 1990’s, the female share of offences rose from one in 7, to one in 6.
Studies shown rising levels of female participation in crimes such as embezzlement and armed robbery.
Growth recently of ‘girl gangs’. Denscome (2001) studied Midlands teenagers and found they were just as likely to engage in risk-taking behaviour as boys to ‘look hard’!
Criticisms of the liberation thesis
The female crime rate began rising in the 1950’s- long before the women’s liberation movement which emerged in the late 60’s.
Most female criminals are W/C- the group least likely to be affected by women’s liberation. (Chesney-Lind 1997).
Women only engage in drugs because of their link with prostitution- a very ‘un-liberated’ female offence.
Females and violent crime
(Hand & Dodd)
Hand & Dodd (2009): Between 2000 and 2008, police statistics show the number of females arrested for violence rose by an average of 17% each year. Similar statistics can be found in the USA, Australia and Canada.
The criminalisation of women
Other evidence paints a different picture. E.G: In the USA, Steffensmeier & Schwartz (2009) found that while the female share of arrests for violence grew from one-fifth to one third between 1980 and 2003, this rise was not matched by the findings of victim surveys.
NET-WIDENING: It was more all to do with the fact that the police had widened its net- arresting and prosecuting females for less serious forms of violence than previously.
How does female violence affect the criminal justice system
Sharpe (2009): Found that judges, probation officers and police were influenced by media stereotypes of violent ‘ladettes’ and many believed that girls’ behaviour was getting worse.
Steffensmeier et al (2005): In the USA, media-driven moral panics about girls were affecting sentencing decisions. It creates a self-fulfilling prophecy and a deviance amplification spiral!
