Gender + Crime

Question 1

Gender + Crime - Patterns

Answer 1

• Men more likely to commit crime (74%) than females (26%)
• Men and women commit different crimes
- Men –> violent crimes (90% of murder)
- Women –> theft, fraud, truancy

Question 2

Gender + Crime - Patterns - Heidendohn + Silvestri

Answer 2

• Gender differences are most significant features of recorded crime
- 95% prisoners men, 5% female
- more females commit property offences
- Women are more likely to be domestic abuse victims (28.9% compared to 13.2%)

Question 3

Gender + Crime - Female Crime - Chivalry Thesis Explanation - Pollock

Answer 3

• Most police men are socialised to act chivalrous to women
- criminal justice system is more likely to be lenient towards women

Question 4

Gender + Crime - Female Crime - Chivalry Thesis - Graham + Bowling

Answer 4

• Analysed 1.7k self report surveys from 14-25 year olds
- Males 4x less likely to have committed a crime than official stats claim

Question 5

Gender + Crime - Female Crime - Chivalry Thesis - Evaluation

Answer 5

• Lack of evidence
• Self-report studies still show men committed more Crime but its overstated in official stats
• Ignores male Crime gets unreported too
- 8% of women don’t report sexual abuse

Question 6

Gender + Crime - Female Crime - Chivalry Thesis - Evaluation - Feminists

Answer 6

• Criminal justice system is biased towards women
- Double Standards –> courts punish females but not males for promiscuous/premature sexual activity
- Sharpe - girls more likely to be referred to a youth worker than boys
• 7/11 girls, 0/44 boys

Question 7

Gender + Crime - Female Crime - Functionalists Sex Role Theory - Parsons

Answer 7

• Early socialisation diff
- men –> tough, aggressive, risky
• Differences in Crime compared to gender roles in nuclear family
- Men –> Breadwinners, instrumental
- Women –> Expressive, socialises
• Girls access role models, boys reject feminine models - seek to distance by engaging in masculin (aggression + anti- soc beh)

Question 8

Gender + Crime - Female Crime - Functionalists Sex Role Theory - Cohen

Answer 8

• Boys more likely to turn to all-male Street gangs as a source of masculine identity
- status through tough, risks

Question 9

Gender + Crime - Female Crime - Functionalists Sex Role Theory - Evaluation - Heidensohn

Answer 9

• Parsons ignores Role of power and control shaping socialisation + expectations places on women’s beh

Question 10

Gender + Crime - Female Crime - Feminist Patriarchal Control - Heidensohl

Answer 10

• Women’s beh is conformist
- commit fewer + less serious crimes
- patriarchal soc impose greater control over women reducing opportunity to offend

Question 11

Gender + Crime - Female Crime - Feminist Patriarchal Control - Dobash + Dobash - Control at home

Answer 11

• Violent attacks result from men’s dissatisfaction with women’s performance of domestic duties
- men Control through financial power
• deny funds for wife
- daughters controlled –> not let out late = bedroom culture
• less opportunity to be deviant (trapped at home)

Question 12

Gender + Crime - Female Crime - Feminist Patriarchal Control - Heidensohn - Control in public

Answer 12

• Threat/Fear of male violence controls women
- 54% avoid going out at dark, 14% men
• Media reporting rape aids fear
- fear being defined as not respectable

Question 13

Gender + Crime - Female Crime - Feminist Patriarchal Control - Control at work

Answer 13

• Controlled by male supervisors + colleagues
- Not being in Manager positions reduces opportunity to engage in corporate Crime
• Patriarchy can push women into Crime
- more likely to be poor + shoplift/prostitution

Question 14

Gender + Crime - Female Crime - Feminist Patriarchal Control - Carlen - Class +Gender Deals

Answer 14

• Study of 39 15-46 wc women criminals
- 32 in poverty
• humiliation + problems claiming benefits - use Crime to escape poverty
• WC led to conform through rewards
- Class Deal –> material rewards
- Gender Deal –> Material + emotional rewards for family

Question 15

Gender + Crime - Female Crime - Evaluate control Theory

Answer 15

• Right Realists –> Free to chose crime

Question 16

Gender + Crime - Female Crime - Explanations - Liberation Thesis - Adler

Answer 16

• When soc is liberated (less patroarchy) women’s opportunity to commit crime increases
• Gender roles + traditional female crime removed so able to create ‘male’ crime (e.g. White colar)

Question 17

Gender + Crime - Female Crime - Explanations - Liberation Thesis - Evaluation

Answer 17

• Women may commit more ‘male’ crimes (drugs) often paired with female crime (prostitution)

• Women participate in gangs - Relationships with male gang members

• Batchelor –> Women are often ‘girls in gangs’ rather than being part of a female gang + adopt traditional sex role such as sex objects for gangs
- challenges Liberation

Question 18

Gender + Crime - Masculine Crime - Intro

Answer 18

• Men socialised into more aggressive + Risk taking beh
• Socialised to be selfish so subcumm to the pleasure of crime
• Shift in family structures = more men socialised without father figure (Murry)
• Crisis in masculinity –> try resolve by conforming to hegemony = crime

Question 19

Gender + Crime - Male Crime - Katz

Answer 19

• Crime is enjoyable and petty Crime will offer a sneaky thrill
• Serious Crime offers pleasure - status + control over victim
• Men commit more Crime due to it being pleasurable

Question 20

Gender + Crime - Male Crime + Postmodernism - Messerschmidt - Identity

Answer 20

• Masculinity is a social Construct
- multiple identities exist
- must construct identity + present to other
- some have more choice

• Hegemonic masculinity is most dominant–> comp, reluctant to show emotions, dominant women
- under pressure to conform to this due to crisis of masc

• Subordinate Masculine identities –> aim to express masc opposite to Hegemonic + don’t have access to opportunities to construct Hegemonic

Question 21

Gender + Crime - Male Crime + Postmodernism - Messerschmidt- Class + Ethnicity + Masculine Crime

Answer 21

• Middle Class –> Achieve Hegemonic identity through being successful breadwinner (white collar crime)

• Working Class –> suffer crisis of masc - loss of employment so turn to crime for alternative (Violent crime)

• Black/Asian WC –> Marginalised, endure racism + more likely to be unemployed (drug pusher, gang member)

Question 22

Gender + Crime - Male Crime + Willow - Bouncers

Answer 22

• Doorstaff able to express macho male through fights they manage
- many involved in illegal activity (drug dealing)
- Men use bodily capital as a sign of Hegemonic masculinity

Question 23

Gender + Crime - Male Crime - Evaluations

Answer 23

• Not all bouncers engage in illegal activity
• Unrepresentative sample in Willis study
• Basic
• over generalises