gender sociologists Flashcards
Pollack
-women can deceive ppl so convicted less
Chivalry thesis
-more credible than Pollack
-The CJS is ran by men, men have been socialised into being chivalrous therefore women are treated more leniently
-evidence for: haralambos, hood
-evidence against: farrington & morris, Walklate
Haralambos and holborn
-women to be given cautions and less likely to be sent to prison
Hood
Women 1/3 less likely to be jailed in similar cases to men as were seen as a less serious threat
Farrington & Morris
in 408 sentences of theft, women were not sentenced more leniently
Walklate
in rape trials women aren’t treated seriously and the victim is put on trial, not the defendant
Heidensohn
women criminals are seen as double deviants as they break both the general norms in society but also the expectations of how they should behave. Double deviants e.g. sexually promiscous girls often end up in care more then boys
Hedderman
differences in offending dont show bias but rather reflect how impactful if a woman went to jail compared to a man e.g. childcare
Parsons
-girls have a clear role model as most childbearing done by mothers
-sex role theory- values girls are brought up with don’t lead to crime
Cohen
delinquency carried out by boys because women have main role in socialisation so lack a role model
Farrington & Painter
female offenders more likely to have erratic parenting
Caddle and Crisp
-many reasons not linked to sex role theory
-e.g. having no money was a cause of 55% of crimes compared to 38% of crimes for child support
Denscombe
due to changing female roles, they’re more likely to engage in risk taking
westwood
idea of a fixed female identity has limited our understanding of crime, need to look at how their identities are changing to be more confident/ forceful
Heidensohn (etv on liberation thesis)
convicted offenders score higher on psychology tests of femininity, implying they haven’t taken on male roles & female criminals are likely to be those who haven’t experienced liberation e.g. poor
Heidensohn & Silvestri
-increase in female criminals could be due to the criminalisation of women bc of media sensationalising female crime
-men still commit proportionately more crime
Heidensohn (radical feminism)
women less likely to commit crime bc they’re subjected to social control and informal sanctions prevent them from taking part in ‘improper’ behaviour. Looked at the 3 places where women are controlled (home, public, work)
toor
low rates of crime among Br Asian girls due to strong idea of izaat and fear of being ostracised
etv of heidensohn
-outdated
-lib fem= greater freedom from social control means its hard to explain low female crime rates
Carlen
class and gender interacted to influence offending. W/C women rejected both gender and class deals as they had little reason to conform to norms
etv of carlen
-small study but lots of evidence
-corston report= 40% of women in prison have been out of work for 5+ years
-neg= factors aren’t restricted to women
Messerschmidt
-normative masculinity exists and relates to the idea of what a ‘real man’ is e.g. w/c man may have no status at work so express masculinity through violence
-men struggle to live up to expectations
-e.g. low status man have no power at work so look at DV for control
jefferson (etv of messerschmidt)
why not all men?
stats
-85% male vs 15% female prison
-85-90% male criminals commit serious crimes
-men 60x more likely to be found guilty for sex offences
