Gender and Crime THEORIES

Question 1

Heidonsohn and Silestri

Answer 1

• Four out of five offenders are men
• Women are more likely to be convicted for property offences, whereas males are more likely to be convicted for violent or sexual crime.

Question 2

The Chivalry Thesis

Answer 2

• Female crimes are less-likely to be reported because they are seen as not as important or dramatic.
• Women are more likely to get let off lightly.

Question 3

Pollak (1950)

Answer 3

“Men hate to accuse women and thus send them to their punishment, police officers dislike to arrest them…”

Question 4

Graham and Bowling (self-report studies)

Answer 4

Men are 2x more likely to offend than women.
However, official statistics found men are 4x more likely to offend than women.

Question 5

Official statistics

Answer 5

Women are more likely to be released on bail.
- 1 in 9 female offenders get arrested for shoplifting
- 1 in 5 males do

Question 6

Buckle and Farrington

Answer 6

• Numbers of men and women shoplifting is about the same.
• They studied twice as many men, potentially shows men get away with more.

Question 7

Sharpe

Answer 7

Double standards =
- Studied youth worker records,
7 out of 11 girls were referred for support because they were sexually active.
but none out of 44 boys.

Question 8

Carlen

Answer 8

Women who commit crime are less-feminine.
E.g. Myra Hindley and Ian Brady (murderers) = Hindley is reported on the most and is seen as worse because she goes against traditional gender norms.

Question 9

Amanda Knox and the murder of Meredith Kercher

Answer 9

• In 2007, Amanda Knox was found guilty of murdering her housemate, Meredith Kercher.
• The trial attracted lots of media attention.
• She was nicknamed Foxy Knoxy - a virgin whore dichotomy was created; she was over-sexualised and represented as evil because she was hyper-sexual.

Question 10

Cesare Lombroso (woman hater)

Answer 10

Argued that ‘normal’ females have a disposition that repels them from deviant and criminal behaviour.

Question 11

Heidonsohn Patriarchal Control Theory

Answer 11

• Women do not commit a lot of crime because they do not have the opportunity to.
  3 places where women are controlled:
• Home
• Public
• Work

Question 12

Parsons Functional Sex Role Theory

Answer 12

• Because women are at home looking after babies, girls grow up with a role model.
• Boys distance themselves from their mums, compensatory compulsory masculinity.

Question 13

Adler The Liberation Thesis

Answer 13

• Predicts as women gain more freedom, they will commit more crime.
• Between 2002 and 2006, recorded crime by young women rose by 39% and only 7% for men. (Sharpe + Gelsthorpe)

Question 14

Carlen Class and Gender deals

Answer 14

• Argues the most serious crimes committed by women are done by W/C women.
• “Most women will find a nice man and settle down.”
• “Most will have a nice career, which means they won’t commit crime.**

Question 15

Messerschmidt Maculinity & Crime

Answer 15

White middle-class youths =have to subordinate their masculinity at school & have to listen to female teachers. Outside school their masculinity takes an oppositional form: drinking, pranks and vandalism.
White working-class youths =have less chance of educational success, so their masculinity is oppositional in and out of school. Links to Willis’ study.
Black working-class youths =few expectations of a reasonable job, may use gang membership and violence to express their masculinity.

Question 16

Winlow

Answer 16

Globalisation has led to a shift:
modern industrial society -> postmodern de-industrialised society.
- Men express their masculinity through jobs such as in the night-time economy e.g. being a bouncer.