Gender & Crime Flashcards
Sex Differences in Offending
Men are ()x more likely than women to commit:
* Sexual Offences: 60x
* Robbery: 14x
* Weapons Possession: 13x
* Public Order Offences: 10x
* Violence against a Person: 8x
* Criminal Damage: 7x
* Theft: 4x
Carlen (1988): Gender & Class Deals
- Class Deal: Being a good employee enables women to acquire objects of financial status
- Gender Deal: performing expressive role in family gives women a man’s support & emotional fulfilment
Carlen (1988): Deviating from Class & Gender deals
- Women who don’t stick to deals are deviant - broken social contract
- More likely if: unemployed, poorly educated, lack functional family ties
- Turn to crime to gain ‘illegitimate class & gender deals’
- Similar to Murray’s ‘Underclass’
Heidensohn (1996): Socialisation theory
- Women socialised away from crime - harsher punishments - stigma & shame
- Women who diverge from consensus norms risk being stripped of social protections afforded to them
- Men can be successful and harmful - women are failures even if they’re successful criminals
Heidensohn (1996): Spheres of Control
Aspects of a woman’s life which contain criminal urges
* Private: Own home, constrained by patriarchal values - mother’s chores, supervision of daughter
* Public: constrained by threats of violence if out at night - when most crime takes place
* Relational: At greater risk of losing reputation through crime/deviance
Pollak (1950): Chivalry Thesis
- Women treated with more leniency - CJS is largely male and takes pity on them
- Courts reluctant to remove mothers from children
- Female crimes more often non-violent - ‘fatherly duty’ to educate
- Male police officers don’t want to be seen as violent towards women
Adler (1975): Liberation Thesis
Female crime increasing because:
* Feminism changed gender roles - crime more acceptable
* Social control of women weakening - girls able to socialise in the same way as boys
* More women working, less with families - spheres of control weakening
* ‘Ladette’ culture - celebrates masculinised women
Sex-role Theory and Gender Socialisation
- Men socialised into ‘instrumental’ role (Parsons)
- Functionalist theory - this gives men some incentive to commit criminal acts to provide for family
- This crime is natural - male sex-role inventory
Connell (1987): Masculinity Thesis
- Men given easy ride in society - world built in ‘hegemonic masculine’ structure
- LibFems argue this is outdated - no evidence
- Men who want to succeed need to show masculine traits - aggression, risk-taking, competitiveness
Connell (1987): Masculinity Thesis - What happens when men can’t succeed legally?
- More prone to turn to crime - sex role theory
- May also turn to violence to assert masculinity
- Male role models in media often violent, deviant, competitive - may reinforce these behaviours
Connell (1987): Masculinity Thesis - Biology
- Men more likely to fight/flight when stressed - may be due to socialisation
- Evidence shows defining physical attributes of each sex predispose them to different reactions to threat
Rational Choice Theory
Criminals know what they’re doing, realise it’s wrong, and choose to do it regardless - don’t deserve sympathy, can’t be easily reasoned with
Rational Choice Theory: Cornish & Clarke (1986)
- Recommend heavy policing, harsh punishments, making examples of those caught
- Might apply more to men - less to lose socially if caught
Opportunity Theory
- People choose to commit crime only when there’s good cost/benefit opportunity or if it’s easy
- Can reduce crime by reducing opportunities
- Men might have more opportunity - out more often at night, less tied to traditional families, less closely supervised in society
