Gender, Crime and the Criminal Justice System Flashcards

1
Q

Which gender is more likely to be a victim of crime in general?

A

Men with 24% vs Females with 20%

But risk does vary with crime type

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2
Q

Which gender is more likely to be a victim of Violent crime? And what age range are most at risk?

A

Men with 4% vs females with 2%

Ages 16-24

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3
Q

What crimes are women more likely to be victims of?

A

Domestic crimes 7.2% vs. 5%
Intimate crimes 7% vs 5%
Sexual violence crimes 3% vs. 0.3%
Stalking crimes 4.2% vs. 2.75%

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4
Q

Where is victimisation data derived from? Give issues with this?

A
  • Survey data (BCS), Police stats and Academic research
  • Crime victimisation is highly subjective
  • Can be a victim without knowing or ability to remember
  • unreported/dark figure
  • methodological issues
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5
Q

What is positivist victimology?

A
  • Defines victimology according to the law
  • ideas of victim-precipitation/blaming
  • biological theories and human nature e.g. women should cover themselves up as men cant help it
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6
Q

What is radical victimology?

A
  • Includes victimisation beyond the confines of criminal law - larger society
  • Human rights and the role of the state
  • Led by feminism and left realists
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7
Q

What is critical victimology?

A
  • Looks at the experiences of victims and the influence of social-political powers on them
  • marxist and feminist influence
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8
Q

What is the contemporary approach to victimology? And what victim populations are mapped?

A
  • Structurally-informed accounts of victims experiences

mapping child, male, LGBT and HBV victims

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9
Q

What is situational crime prevention and the issues surrounding it?

A
  • Based on target-hardening and the removal of the victim therefore need to target harden vulnerabilities such as women e.g. cover up, walk home in groups, etc.
    Problems:
  • ignore male and wider victims
  • ignores the offender
  • victim-blaming
  • inaccurate and narrow-minded as assume women that are raped are solely raped by strangers
  • Study of sex offending (Wortley and Smallbone, 2006)
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10
Q

What did Qing Li (2006) cyberbullying show about gender, traditional bullying and cyberbullying?

A
  • 1in5 11-19 yrs have been cyberbullied
  • traditionally, males are more likely to be bullied for atypical gendered behaviour
  • Females are traditionally bullied regarding ‘attractiveness’
  • 1/2 are bullied offline/traditional
  • 1/4 bullied online
  • 1/2 know someone who has been bullied online
  • Online cyberbullying is very similar in gender relations to traditional bullying - Males are usually the perpetrator
  • Female cybervictims are more likely to tell an adult
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11
Q

When has male rape been established, and is it treated equally to women?

A

only considered illegal in 1994

Women still only recieve 10 years max vs. 25 years for male-female rape cases

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12
Q

How many male rapes are reported? And why is this complicated?

A

1/10
still huge dark figure
men refute the role of the victim and vis-versa with females obtaining the offender role

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13
Q

Are male rapes homosexual?

A

no often straight men, not about attraction but more about dominance

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14
Q

What is a cultural myth about male rape victims?

A

Culturally not accepted and biologically impossible - wrong

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15
Q

Is male rape always violent?

A

NO
High proportion are, but it is not necessary to be a ‘legitimate’ victim
There is a gendered/hetrosexualised hierarchy or harm in our society

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16
Q

Women as offenders compared to men
Who commits more crime?
Who commits more severe crime?
Who desists readier?
Who peaks earlier at offending age?
Who is more likely to be a professional criminal?
Who is less likely to report committing a crime? and why?

A
men
men
females
females
men
females, due to shame and remorse whereas men are more likely to exaggerate
17
Q
How is more likely to...
Receive a fine?
non-custodial sentence?
custodial sentence?
discharge?
immediate custody?
A
females
males
males
similar rates
males
18
Q

What percentage of arrests are women? Also 1/? of arrests are women?

A

15%

1/5

19
Q

What is the most common offence for a women to be arrested for?

A

Violence against the person

20
Q

What is the most common offence for women to be found guilty of?

A

theft and handling stolen goods

21
Q

Who is more likely to commit crimes of:
violence against the person?
theft and handling stolen goods?
fraud and forgery?

A

females 34% vs men 31%
Females 30% vs men 20%
Females 4% vs men 2%

22
Q

What does it mean to say that criminology is ‘gender-blind’?

A

criminology is very male-centric and male theories and policies are made to ‘fit’ women - however this brings problems with generalisability

23
Q

What did Carol Smart (1976) say about gender and criminology??

A

We must study more than just men and crime, but female and crime too to be able to have a better understanding of why crime happens and develop our understanding

24
Q

Who said our associations between gender and crime as ‘profound, persistent and paradoxical’?

A

Heidensohn and Gelsthorpe 2008

25
Q

What is the classical/biological theory of female offending?

A
  • Lombrosco and Ferrero (1885) female offenders stand out cos they dont fit feminitiy
  • Pollack (1950) they are monsters and unintelligent, men can be offenders but female offenders are inherently evil because women cant be offenders
26
Q

What is the socialisation theory of female offending? Give a criticism

A
  • Smart (1977); Heidensohn (1985-2002)
  • in line with feminism, cant study women through a male-perspective/lens
  • The nurture argument: men and females are socialised differently from a young age, hence act differently in later life
  • However, doesnt explain crime beyond simply bad socialisation
27
Q

What is the female emanicpation theory of female offending? Give a criticisms
(structural theory)

A
  • Liberation causes crime (Adler, 1975; Simon; 1975)
  • More opportunities for women to commit crime because they are no longer tied to house keeping and child rearing and access to the labour market
  • Men are less likely to commit crime in the presence of women
  • However, too deterministic
  • and women do not have equal opportunities yet - very rash assumption
28
Q

What is the female marginalisation theory of female offending?
(structural theory)

A

Leventhal (1977)

- Females are too restricted and marginalised therefore are more likely to commit crime as a result

29
Q

Feminist methodology:

What is feminist empiricism?
What is feminist standpointism?
What is feminist deconstructionism?

A
  • shift in ontology and epistemology
  • Disagrees with objectivity and quantitative, movement towards qualitative and experiences
  • Empiricism: giving females a voice, looking at their experiences, not just looking at men and male experiences
  • Standpoint: womens experiences and ‘voice’ is the central to study and knowledge production
  • Deconstructionism: focuses on post-modern issues like language, and gender is seen as a social construct not a statistical variable
30
Q

What did Byrne and Trew (2005) study about gender and offending?

A
  • studied offender accounts of why they committed the crime? how they orientate themselves to crime.
    1) positive orientation: crime is accepted, positives are valued and forms a coherent part of their identity
    2) negative orientation: rejection or distancing from crime, seen as unexpected and conflicts with ones identity
    3) ambivalent/neutral orientation - crime neither good nor bad, or secondary to other problems
  • Male findings: rarely problematic, didnt cause too much conflict elements of identity, important/accepted part of life
  • Female findings: often very problematic, negative feelings of shame and remorse, positive evaluations were made only if in relation to personal or financial issues
31
Q

Why does Messerschmidt argue men commit crime?

A
  • gender is a situational accomplishment
  • crime is a means of doing gender as it is a performance of masculinity, compensates for threatened masculinity
  • gender, race and class are categorises of structured action (however criticised for not using age or disability as categories of structured action)
32
Q

What did Heidensohn (1996) say about women, femininity and crime?? (5)

A

1) Crime is not such a useful resource for achieving/doing femininity (compared to males, which it is)
2) Women face different opportunities, rewards and pressures than men
3) female roles mean that women often invest a lot in maintaining the social order e.g. primary caregiver
4) crime is less straightforward and less rewarding for women - harder to identify with, more problematic, etc
5) Suggested that it is the female situation which pushes them to commiting crime