Gendr And Crime

Question 1

What are some official stats about women and crime?

Answer 1

• 4/5 convicted offenders in England and wales are men
• Higher proportion of male than female are convicted of violence or sexual offences
• Males are more likely to be repeat offenders, have a longer criminal career and 5x more likely to be convicted of homicide then women

Question 2

What are some issues with gender official stats?

Answer 2

1. Female crimes less likely to be reported: eg shoplifting less likely to be noticed than violent or sexual crimes. Prostitution also unlikely to be reported
2. Even when women’s crimes are detected they less likely to be prosecuted and get off lightly

Question 3

What does the chivalry thesis state?

Answer 3

Most people who work in crime justice system are men and socialised to be chivalrous towards women so criminal justice system lenient to women

Question 4

What is some evidence for chivalry thesis?

Answer 4

• Flood and page found while only 1 in 11 self reported female offenders were cautioned or prosecuted it was over 1 in 7 for males
• Hood studied 3,000 offenders and found women 1/3rd less likely to be jailed then men for similar criminal beh and shorter custodial sentence
• Louck did interviews with magistrates and found no deliberate gender discrimination but more inclined to consider family circumstances for female offenders and given lenient sentence than males if they had dependants

Question 5

What is some evidence against chivalry thesis

Answer 5

• Farrington and Morris studied over 400 offences of theft and found no significant gender diff in treatment of men and women
• Farrington and Buckle also did observation study of shoplifting and saw 2x as many male shoplifters as females. Despite official stats showing similar convictions rates so women treated less favourably for shoplifting

Question 6

In 2016 what % of rape/sexual assaults
Unreported

Answer 6

8%

Question 7

How is the criminal justice biased against women?

Answer 7

Criminal justice system treats women more hardhley when they deviate from gender norms:

• women who don’t conform to heterosexual and motherhood standards are punished harsher, Sharpe found magistrates perceptions of female defendants were based on stereotypical gender roles
• Carlen found Scottish courts jail women more who had children in care than those they perceived to be ‘good mothers’

Question 8

What do feminists say about the criminal justice systems bias against women?

Answer 8

Feminists these double standards of female offenders exist cause it’s patriarchal:

• Edward did a study of women in Manchester magistrates court and found they subjected to oppressive and paternalistic form of justice in relation to how much their crime deviated from appropriate female beh
• Rape victims seen as partly responsible Walkate argued in rape trials the female offender seems to be on trial to approve her respectability to get her evidence accepted
• Adler found women who are deemed to lack respectability ljke single parents, punks or peace protesters have it hard to have their testimony believed

Question 9

What is the idea of double deviance for women offenders?

Answer 9

Feminists say evidence shows crim justice system biased again women and are actually being punished twice by the system:

• once for their actual criminal behaviour
• second time for deviating from traits associated with stereotypical femininity

Question 10

What do functionalist say about boys and crime?

Answer 10

Parsons says gender diffs in crime and deviance due to roles in nuclear family. Men take instrumental role largely oustide home, women perform expressive role in home taking main responsibility in socialising children

This gives girls an adult role model but means boys reject these feminine models and engage in “compensatory compulsory masculinity” through aggression and anti social beh which can spill over to acts of delinquency

Cohen would agree and say cause of absence of male role models it leads to boys to turn to street gangs for a masculine identity and making social status through anti social subcultures

Question 11

How does Mc Robbie say about teenage girls and bedroom culture explain crime rates

Answer 11

Mc Robbie suggest teenage girls engage in “bedroom culture” (more time in bedroom) so have less opportunity to commit crime.

However this can be seen as outdated as boys now spend more time in their rooms than oustide. But these activites are still different

Women tend to read and do homework and watch TV where boys tend to play violent video games which can be seen as encouraging aggression and anti social behaviour

Could also link to mitosis and brown and courswork

Question 12

What is Liberation thesis?

Answer 12

If patriarchal society makes women not deviant then if society becomes less patriarchal then women’s crime would be similar to men’s

Alder says Feminist movement brought progressive changes to structure of society and status of women in areas like family/employment

So as patriarchal control has lessened women have adopted traditionally male roles in legitimate activities (work) and illegitimate (crime)

So women don’t just commit traditional female crimes like shoplifting but also male crimes like violence or white collar crimes cause of women’s self confidence and assertiveness. Eg more women in higher positions at work

Question 13

How does descombes study support liberation thesis

Answer 13

Found female teenagers are just as likley ti partake in risk taking behaviour as males.

They were adopting a ‘male’ stance on their desire to be in control and look ‘hard’ which could explain growth of female gangs

Question 14

What is critisms to liberation thesis?

Answer 14

Rise in female crime rates began in 1950s beforr women’s liberation from patriarchal control

Illegitimate opportunity hasn’t opened up for women as Hunt found that women in gangs were still expected to conform to female roles

Question 15

What is the moral panic about girls?

Answer 15

Some argue females participantion in violent crime is socially contradicted and result of moral panic over their behaviour

Burma and Batchelor point to media depictions of young women as “drunk and disordelry, out of control and looking for fights”

Reports of girl gangs and binge drinking Aalto effect crum justice system as Sharpe found judges and police influenced by media stereotypes of violent ‘laddettes’ and believed girls beh was getting worse

This overall leads to self fulfilling prophecy and amplification spiral as reports of girls make courts and police take tougher stance leading to further negative media coverage

Question 16

How does police stereotypes explain higher men crime rates

Answer 16

Labelling theories say police more like i to see men as potetinal offenders and label their beh as criminal and press charges

So male offending rates more likely to over represented in official stats

For example in Lanchashire 2015, stop and search was carried out on 94% of males compared to 6% of females

Question 17

What is Winlows theory of postmodernity, masculinity and crime?

Answer 17

Globalisation has shifted from industrial society to postmodern de-industrialised society. Loss of tradiontal manual, masculine jobs and expansion of service sector like clubs pubs and bars

Winlow studied bouncers in de-industrialised Sunderland. Provided men with paid work and opportunity for illegal ventures in drugs, alcohol while allowing them to demonstrate their masculinity through violence

Draws on Cloward and Olins ideas and argues that in modern society there is violent conflict subculture in Sunderland where ‘hard men’ earn status when use violence

Then in postmodern society a professional criminal subculture has emerged cause of illicit business opportunities caused by nighttime economy, violence booms as way of displaying masculinity and to earn a living

Question 18

What is idea of bodily capital?

Answer 18

To maintain their reputation and employability men must use bodily caorial as banners.

In nighttime economy subculture it’s important to use violence to maintain tough image and so masculinity becomes a commodity

Question 19

How does control at home lead to lower women’s crime rates

Answer 19

Heidensohn says women’s domestic role of carrying housework and childcare imposes restrictions on their time and movement in their houses so don’t have opportunities to offend
Women who try to reject domestic role are imposed it through force like domestic violence

Dobash and dobash agree and say violent attacks result from men dissatisfaction of wives performance of domestic duties. They exercise control through financial power like denying funds for leisure activity

Question 20

How does control in public lead to lower women’s crime rates

Answer 20

Heidensohn says Women are controlled in publicnby threat of male violence eg Islington (J.C less gooo) found 54% of women avoided going out at night to 14% of men and media reporting frighten women to stay home

Females also controlled by fear of being defined as not respectable with their makeup, demeanour and speaking which can give women a ‘reputation’ so avoid places to not been as prostitutes

Question 21

How does control at work lead to lower women’s crime rates

Answer 21

Heidensohn says women’s work controlled by male managers and sexual harrasment h keeps women in their place which also reduces their opportunities to engage in cfminal activity At work

Eg “glass ceiling” prevents from rising to senior position where more opportunities to commit crime

Question 22

How does Heidesohn patriarchy can push women into crime

Answer 22

Patriarchy does put restrictions on women’s lives making them have fewer öopportunities to commit crime

However she notes it can also push women into crime as gender inequalities in labour market make women poor so may turn to theft or prostitution to gain standard of living

Question 23

What is Carlens class and gender deal theory?

Answer 23

Conducted unstructured interviews with 39 working class women convicted of serious crimes like theft or violence

She uses control theory to explain crime which says human beh is rational and weighed against costs and benefits of conforming to social roles

Carlen say wc women led to conform through promise do two deals:

• class deal: women offered material rewards for decent standard of life
• gender deal: patriarchal idekoogy promises women rewards for being domestic woman

If these aren’t met women more likely to do crime eg class deal made it so they couldn’t make money and used crime to escape poverty

Whereas gender deal they either didn’t have opportunity to conform to patriarchal norms or didn’t like the disadvantages so resorted to crime