GENDER AND CRIME: Females

Question 1

What does the official statistics say about gender and crime?

Answer 1

That: 4/5 convicted offenders in England and wales are males.

Question 2

The chivalry thesis?

Answer 2

*That men act chivalrous towards women.
*The criminal justice system is more lenient with women so their crime are less likely to end up in official statistics.
* Females are more likely to be cautioned rather than prosecuted.

Question 3

Criticism against the chivalry thesis?

Answer 3

• Farrington and Morris study of sentencing of 408 offences of theft in a magistrate court and found out that women were not sentenced more leniently for comparable offences.

Question 4

Bias against woman?

Answer 4

• Heidersohn argues, the courts treat females more harshly than males when they deviate from gender norms.
  *Pat Carlin argues that when women are jailed, it is less for the seriousness of their crimes and more according to the courts assessments of them as wives, mothers and daughters.
• Double standards exist because the criminal justice system is patriarchal.

Question 5

Sex role theory?

Answer 5

• Is when men take the instrumental, breadwinner role, performed largely outside the house, whereas women perform expressive roles where they take the main responsibilities in socialising children at home.

Question 6

Patriarchal control?

Answer 6

• Heidensohn, argues that the most striking thing about women behaviour is how they commit fewer crimes than men.
• She believes that this is because patriarchal society possesses greater control over women and that reduces the opportunities to commit crime.

Question 7

PATRIARCHAL CONTROL: Control at home

Answer 7

• Women’s domestic roles imposes restrictions on their time and movement and confines them at home for a long period, which reduces their opportunity to commit crime.

Question 8

PATRIARCHAL CONTROL: Control in public

Answer 8

• Women are controlled in public by the threat of male violence against them, especially sexual violence.
• The islington crime survey found that 54% of women avoid going out after dark for fearing of being victims of crime.

Question 9

PATRIARCHAL CONTROL: control at work

Answer 9

• Women’s behaviour at work is controlled by male supervisors and managers.
• Sexual harassment is wide spread and helps keep women in their place.
• Glass ceiling: prevents women from rising to senior positions where there is a greater opportunity to commit fraud.

Question 10

Carlen: Class and Gender deal

Answer 10

Carlen argues that working class women are generally conformed through the promises of two types of deals:
* The Class deal
* The Gender deal

Question 11

Gender Deal

Answer 11

Patriarchal ideologies that promises women material and emotional rewards from family life by conforming to the norms of the conventional domestic gender role.

Question 12

The Class Deal

Answer 12

• Women who work will be offered material reward, with a decent standard of living and leisure opportunities.