Gender seminar

Question 1

What is Connell’s (1995) gender order of hierachy? How does this relate to offending?

Answer 1

At the top hegemonic masculinity which values domination and subordination, whilst lower in the masculinity order is subordinated masculinity which is often associated with homosexuals. This gender order has been frequently applied to criminal offending being dominated by the hegemonic male. When considering gender and crime it is important to review it in context of gender relations.

Question 2

What did Thomas in ‘sex and society’ 1907 say about female offenders?

Answer 2

They are pathological

Question 3

How does Freud (1933) explain female offending?

Answer 3

Freud argued that female criminals committed crime because they cannot accept themselves as women and be feminine, they commit crime due to penis envy and/or the desire to be a man

Question 4

How does Cowie, Cowie and Slater explain female criminality (1968)?

Answer 4

a result of a ‘chromosome imbalance’ and that female offenders are imitating male behaviour.

Question 5

What does Carlen et al (1985) argue about how female offenders are presented?

Answer 5

female offenders are presented as ‘others’, they are separate from what a women should be and how they should act. This summarises what all these previous historical explanations are touching on. It is simply women who won’t conform with being a feminine lady.

Question 6

What are the core features of feminism?

Answer 6

all are concerned with explaining the social and experiences through the eyes of a women. Challenging sexism and patriarchy (patriarchy: set of systems and social structures that are dominated by men).

Question 7

What did Smart argue about female offenders in Women, Sexuality and Social Control in 1977?

Answer 7

Stressed the need to look at female offenders as well as male offenders to be able to understand crime

Question 8

What did Tolson (1977) say about studying masculinity?

Answer 8

masculinity is too complex and non-unitary to be able to form an opposite to femininity. He argued that masculinity was a social construction not essential to a sex, and that masculinity was therefore different across cultures and history

Question 9

What is hegemony? What is hegemonic masculinity?

Answer 9

• Hegemony means how one group can dominate society by consent (Gramsci, 1971). Hegemonic masculinity therefore means a group that subordinates other masculinities and women (Connell, 1987). Jefferson (2001, cited by Walklate 2007) defines it as “the set of ideas, values, representations and practices associated with being male which is commonly accepted as the dominant position in gender relations in a society at a particular historical moment” – Socially dominated ‘manhood’

Question 10

How has Katz (1995) explained masculinity and crime?

Answer 10

due to the changing labour market (women working) has threatened traditional ideals of masculinity, therefore men are now trying to prove masculinity through physical strength and violence/actual power.

Question 11

What is the the equal treatment hypothesis’ by Farrington and Morris (1983)?

Answer 11

when tested looking at degrees of severity, types of crime, previous criminal histories, etc. men and women are treated similarly

Question 12

What did Eaton (1986) say about the way some women are treated compared to others when it comes to sentencing?

Answer 12

the penal system is another form of social control that allows more leniency if the women defendants has domestic roles such as child caring and familiar obligations. These women were treated nicer, than women that do not take up these roles such as single mothers, or lesbians.

Question 13

What did Carlen (1983) find about the way Scottish sheriffs sentenced women?

Answer 13

Scottish sheriffs sentenced women differently depending on whether they were ‘good’ mothers or ‘bad’ mothers

Question 14

What did Gelsthorpe and Loucks (1997) say about female offenders?

Answer 14

found that female offenders were seen as ‘troubled’ rather than ‘troublesome’, and they were misled or coerced into committing the crimes

Question 15

How does the way female prisoners differ to male prisoners from the Wahadin reading? (3)

Answer 15

• Traditionally women were trained in prison to be prepared for work outside, this work was domestic roles such as sewing, hairdressing and so on.
• Women are also more regulated and under more surveillance than men (Sim, 1990).
• In prison women are treated as ‘mad’ not ‘bad’ therefore have training in things such as self-esteem and they are taught things that are bounded to the stereotypical female role.

Question 16

What is the selectivity hypothesis?

Answer 16

idea that there is no single male or female experience of prison but different people are discriminated against due to them as an individual, not as a sex. This view takes into account other categorisations such as age, ethnicity, class, etc

Question 17

According to heidensohn (1985) who is the most typical female offender?

Answer 17

‘a young girl, a first offender charged with shoplifting’

Question 18

Why are female offenders often sexualised?

Answer 18

be sexualised in a way that male offending isn’t- female offenders are assumed to be sexually deviant, and women’s crime evokes a punitive response

Question 19

What makes females more likley to be stop and searched?

Answer 19

• Girls were more likely to be stopped in their lifestyles were ‘unfeminine’ (mixed sex groups, involved with drugs and alcohol, more time spent with friends than with parental supervision) - femininity is being policed

Question 20

Why does Mackie (1998) say that women are less likely to be remanded?

Answer 20

• This as apparently because they commit less serious offences, have fewer previous convictions, and are less likely to breach bail, or to be in no fixed abode (homeless)

Question 21

On average how far are female prisoners held from their homes?

Answer 21

55 miles

Question 22

What does Althusser say about ‘repressive state apparatus’ and ‘ideological state apparatus’?

Answer 22

the penal system can be seen as both part of the ‘Repressive State Apparatus’ giving deviant women punitive sanctions and as an ‘Ideological State Apparatus’ that communicates and reproduces sexist ideologies that structures patriarchal society

Question 23

Why was the Fawcett society commission set up?

Answer 23

As result of concerns about the impact of current laws and practices on women in England and Wales. As our criminal justice system was designed by men and the vast majority of defendants, judiciary and senior managers are men. Fawcett set out to ascertain whether women were being treated justly. Women are in a system that doesn’t meet their needs or experiences and they are constantly at a disadvantage

Question 24

In what ways is the Equal Pay Act and Sex Discrimination Act seen in law not in practice?

Answer 24

pay differentials, under-representation in senior positions, ghettoisation in certain areas or professions, sexual harassment, inadequate complaints systems, maternity-related discrimination, and inflexible work arrangements for those with caring responsibilities

Question 25

What methodology did the Fawcett society use?

Answer 25

• The Fawcett was a one year enquiry into the experiences of women in the cjs
• 400 submissions of questionnaires from individual women, organisations, academics and statutory bodies.
• Evidence gathered through hearings and seminars - held a series of closed sessions where individual women could talk to a small group of female Commissioners in private about their experiences of the criminal justice system. The Commission spoke to women in Leeds and London about their experiences of domestic violence, rape and prostitution
• The formed a final report that draws together the findings of three thematic reports on victims and witnesses, offending, and women working in the system, and provides a unique overview of the links across the system

Question 26

What progress for women in the police has the British Association of Women in Policing and the Gender Agenda 2001 do?

Answer 26

• campaigned for alternations in uniform and fitness tests

- incorporating flexible work and recruitment as well.