Intersections of Race and Violence

Question 1

Gender and Crime Rates

Answer 1

• Gender is the best single predictor of criminality

- Rates of criminality between men and women have remained consistent over decades

Question 2

Gender and Crime Rates

Answer 2

• Rate of female criminality especially in terms of property crime, has increased significantly 1960’s

Question 3

Feminization of Poverty

Answer 3

Increase in number of poor, female single parents leads to increased marginalization

Question 4

Gender and Homicide Rates in Canada

Answer 4

Social-Psychological Explanation

• men kill out of need to control, women kill because they have lost control over themselves
• women, as a group, more controlled than men, especially in terms of their experience and expression of anger

Question 5

Mainstream View of Female Criminality

Answer 5

Traditional arguments used to explain low rates of female criminality has tended to emphasize:

• cultural factors, including early socialization
• role expectations
• reluctance among criminal justice officials to arrest and prosecute women
• biological propensity toward crime and aggression among men is lacking in women

Question 6

Feminist Criminology

Answer 6

• Theory aims to redirect thinking of mainstream scholarship to include gender awareness
• Emphasis on patriarchy

Question 7

Early Feminist Scholarship

Answer 7

Freda Adler and Rita Simon attempted to explain existing differences in crime rates between men and women as due primarily to socialization rather than biology

• claim women taught to believe in personal limitations, face reduced socio-economic opportunities and then suffer from lower aspirations
• believes that as gender equality increased male and female criminality would take on similar characteristics

Question 8

Kathleen Daly & Meda Chesney-Lind

Answer 8

• contemporary scholars who point out that “gender differences in crime suggests that crime may not be so normal after all”
• identify 5 elements of a feminist thought

Question 9

Kathleen Daly & Meda Chesney-Lind

5 Elements of Feminist Thought

Answer 9

1) gender is not natural fact but complex social, historical, and cultural product
2) gender and relations order social life and social institutions in fundamental ways
3) gender relations constructs of masculinity and feminity are not symmetrical but are based on organized principles of mens superiority and their socio and political economic dominance over women
4) system of knowledge reflect men’s view of natural and social world; the production of knowledge is gendered
5) women should be at the centre, not the periphery of intellectual inquiry; they should not be invisible or treated as appendages to men

Question 10

Hagan’s Power Control Theory

Answer 10

• Theory suggests that family class structure shapes the social reproduction of gender relations, and in turn the social distribution of delinquency
• Fact majority of women identified ‘need’ as cause of lawbreaking behaviour, Sommers concludes women’s criminality based on two underlying issues
  1) effort to maintain connections within relationships (such as between mother and child)
  2) personal quest for empowerment (ability to provide for themselves and children)

Question 11

Intersectionality

Answer 11

Explicitly recognizes the complexity of women’s lives and the ways in which they are shaped not only by gender but also, simultaneously, by other systems of power - most notably race and class

Question 12

The Plight of Aboriginal Women

Answer 12

• 2014 GSS shows violent victimization rates were especially high among Aboriginal females

Question 13

Violence Against Women in Canada
What the Data says
Male Aggression Against Females

Answer 13

• is relationship between persistence of gender inequality and perpetuation of serious acts of male aggression against females
• ## females are victims in more than 8 out of 10 sexual assaults, including acquaintance rape

Question 14

Violence Against Women in Canada
What the Data says
Male Aggression Against Females

Answer 14

• Canadian study reported more than fifth of female postsecondary students indicates they were victims of acquaintance rape

Question 15

Violence Against Women in Canada
What the Data says
Male Aggression Against Females

Answer 15

• Naturalness and rightness of male aggression reflected in daily pattens of gender domination that are built into norms related to courtship, sex, family and work
• while not all men support male dominance, our culture still legitimizes frequent and routine reinforcements of male authority (porn, dumb blonde jokes, leering)
• leads some men to believe they have the right to assault women physically and/or sexually
• demonstrates connection between male aggression and gender inequality

Question 16

Factors in Sexual Assault

Answer 16

• principle motives in all forms of sexual assault involve domination and humiliation
• can arise from early childhood experiences including:
  a) physcial and sexual abuse
  b) perception of mother as either potentially hostile or object from male gratification
  c) subjection to emotionally cold and distant fathers

Question 17

Factors in Sexual Assault

Answer 17

Rates of aggression with certain social situations such as:

a) war
b) overly macho male fraternities
c) participation in athletics, particularly combative contact sports (notably football)

Question 18

Male Perpetrators Tend to Act Alone

Answer 18

• Male stranger acting alone most often responsible for unwanted sexual behaviour in public
• women were slightly more likely than men to state that only one person was responsible (81% vs 74%)
• nine in ten (88%) women said that, when it came to the most serious instance they experienced, a man was that person responsible

Question 19

Sexual Assault on University Campuses

Answer 19

• 1 in 10 (11%) students identified as women at Canadian postsecondary schools were sexually assaulted in postsecondary setting in 2019 compared to 4% of men

Question 20

Sexual Assault on University Campuses

Answer 20

• more women (45%) than men (32%) personally experienced these kinds of behaviour, which include inappropriate verbal or non-verbal communication, sexually explicit materials, and physcial contact or suggested sexual relations

Question 21

Sexual Assault on University Campuses

Answer 21

• 71% of students witnessed or experienced unwanted sexualized behaviours - either on or off campus or in an online situation that involved students or other people associated with the school

Question 22

Sexual Assault on University Campuses

Answer 22

• in 2019, sexual assaults in postsecondary setting most often took form of unwanted sexual touching
• majority of sexual assaults were perpetrated by fellow students

Question 23

Sexual Assault on University Campuses

Answer 23

• Large gap between women and men were with unwanted sexual attention such as whistles and “catcalls” and unwelcome physcial contact or getting too close

Question 24

Sexual Assault on University Campuses

Answer 24

• Few students who experienced unwanted sexualized behaviours spoke with someone associated with the school - such as faculty, student support, security - about what happened (9% women, 4% men)
• Many stated that what happened was not serious enough to report (74% of women, 72% of men) - and some indicated that they were not aware that this type of incident could be reported (26% women, 10% men)

Question 25

Debunking Myths About Rapists

Answer 25

• “Rapists are abnormal or sick”
  It is a behaviour NOT confined to few “sick” serial rapists. It is a learned behaviour
• Rape is “produce of sexual desires & needs”
  Besides being primarily a crime of violence, research suggests that rapists engage in act for variety of reasons; however, three themes arise: power, anger and sexuality

Question 26

Debunking Myths About Rapists

Answer 26

While there are certainly serial rapists who prey on innocent victims, research does show that many rapists are often married or dating, hold down jobs, and to all outward appearances look like decent law-abiding citizens

Question 27

Criminalization of Sex Work and Consequential Violence

“Prostitution laws struck down”

Answer 27

• prostitution had largely gone down unchanged since early 19th century despite frequent commissions, studies and constitutional changes.
• in 2010, a judge in Toronto essentially struck down Canada’s prostitution laws by findings that the provisions meant to protect women and residential neighbourhoods were endangering sex worker’s lives

Question 28

Criminalization of Sex Work and Consequential Violence
“Prostitution laws struck down”
3 Laws Unconstitutional

Answer 28

• On Dec 20, 2013 - Supreme Court of Canada found 3 laws unconstitutional
  1) Prohibiting brothels,
  2) Public communication for the purposes of communication
  3) Living off of the profits of prostitution

Question 29

Changes to Canada’s Prostitution Laws

Bill C-36

Answer 29

• Supreme court of Canada strikes down country’s laws prohibiting brothels, street walking and living off the avails of prostitutions