key studies in gender

Question 1

Who came up with the chivalry thesis?

Answer 1

= Most agents of justice are men, and men are socialised to act in a ‘chivalrous’ protective way towards women.

Otto Pollack (1950) said men hate to accuse women…police officers dislike to arrest them, district attorneys to prosecute them, judges and juries to find them guilty, and so on.

Question 2

Who came up with the functionalist sex role theory to explain female crime?

Answer 2

Functionalist Parsons traces differences in crime and deviance to gender roles in the traditional nuclear family. While the mother takes on the expressive role, the father takes on the instrumental role of breadwinner, performed largely outside the home.

This means boys often lack a male role model in the home, and reject feminine models of behaviour that include gentleness and emotion. Instead they seek to distance themselves from this through compensatory compulsory masculinity through aggression and anti-social behaviour.

Question 3

What does A.K Cohen say about a lack of a male role model in the home?

Answer 3

He said that this means fathers are less likely to socialise their children. This means boys are more likely to turn to male street gangs as a source of masculine identity.

Question 4

What theory is this similar to?

Answer 4

New Right theory who argue the absence of a male role model in matrifocal lone parent families leads boys to turn to gangs as a source of status and identity.

Question 5

Who criticises Parson’s functionalist sex role theory?

Answer 5

Sandra Walklate criticises sex role theory for its biological assumptions: just because women have the biological capacity to bear children, doesn’t mean they are best suited to the expressive role or that men are best suited to an instrumental role.

Question 6

Who came up with the patriarchal control theory?

Answer 6

Heidensohn argues that women conform more and commit less crime due to the greater control society exercises over women.

• Control at home = men exercise control through financial power over women and through domestic violence. Dobash and Dobash show that many violent attacks stem from husband’s dissatisfaction with their wives performance of domestic tasks. Daughters are less likely to come and go as they please so adapt a bedroom culture.
• Control in public = women are controlled by the threat of male violence. For example, the Islington Crime Survey found that 54% of women avoided going out after dark for fear of being victims of crime compared with 14% of men. Females are also controlled in public by their fear of being seen as not respectable.
• Control at work = women at work are controlled by male supervisors and managers. Sexual harassment is widespread and helps keep women in their place. Equally women are less likely to progress to senior positions where there is greater opportunity of crimes like fraud.

Overall, Heidensohn argues patriarchal control over women means they have fewer opportunities to commit crime.