GENDER & CRIME Flashcards
Pollak - biological element.
Women are compelled to commit certain crimes due to their hormones and menstrual cycle.
Pollak - myth.
The notion that men commit more crime than women is a myth, women can just manipulate men into committing crime for them.
Lombroso - biological explanation.
Argues women do not poses enough intelligence to break the law.
Thomas - biological explanation.
Argued that men and women essentially have different personality traits. Men are more active, and women more passive.
Opposition to biological explanations.
Most sociologists consider the expectations of society and the process of socialisation to have a more significant impact on criminality.
Smart - feminist explanation.
Looked at the stricter socialisation and control over girls within the family.
Smart - roles.
For men committing crime is ‘role-expressive’ while, for women it is ‘role-distorting’.
Adler - changes in female criminality.
There would continue to be an increase in female crime, as women leave the domestic sphere.
Jackson.
‘Ladettes’ demonstrates this change in female criminality.
Denscombe.
Teenage girls are adopting more traditionally male values.
Home Office - changes in female criminality.
In 2013 males still accounted for 82% of arrests.
Chesney-Lind - changes in female criminality.
Poor and marginalised women in the USA are more likely to be ‘criminals’ than ‘liberated’ middle class women.
The chivalry thesis.
The male dominated CJS has a paternalistic attitude towards women.
Speed & Burrows - evidence of chivalry.
Sentencing for shoplifting in 2004/5: male offenders were twice as likely to receive sentences.
Klein - critique of chivalry.
Argues that the concept of chivalry is classist and racist, as it is only applicable to white, middle-class women who are seen as ‘ladies’.
Heidensohn - chivalry thesis criticism.
Female offenders who conform to this maternal instinct will be treated more leniently, while those who do not will be treated more severely.
Farrington and Morris - chivalry thesis.
Female offenders were far more likely to be first-time offenders and plead guilty.
Hedderman & Gunby - chivalry thesis.
Awareness that female offenders have much more complex problems.
Example for chivalry thesis.
Myra Hindley.
Sex-role theory.
Contends that boys and girls are socialised differently, resulting in boys becoming more delinquent.
Sutherland - sex-role theory.
Girls are supervised and taught to be more passive, while boys are encouraged to take more risks.
Parsons - sex-role theory.
Girls have their role-model readily available, while boys do not, resulting in this ‘status anxiety’.
Heidensohn - control theory.
Women experience four forms of control: at home, in public, at work and in social policy.
Carlen - control theory.
Challenges it saying, the costs of criminal behaviour will usually outweigh the benefits for women.
Messerschmidt - masculinity.
Looks at hegemonic masculinity and the pressures to accomplish this.
Mosher - masculinity.
Characterises hegemonic masculinity as ‘hyper masculinity’.
Baird - masculinity.
Young males tend to reproduce the existing versions of masculinity they are exposed to while growing up.
Winlow - masculinity.
Found evidence of ‘crisis of masculinity’ in his study of working-class masculinity in Sutherland.
Hanmer & Saunders - Leeds.
Unstructured interviews with women in Leeds, 20% of all respondents had been victims of sexual assault but not reported it.
