Social distribution of crime (gender,ethnicity, class and locality)

Question 1

What do official statistics show in terms of gender and crime ?

Answer 1

4 out of 5 offenders in England and Wales are male.
By the age of 40 9% of females have had a criminal conviction compared to 32% of males.

There is a higher proportion of female offenders in terms of property offences (except burglary).
A higher proportion of male offenders than females in terms of sexual crimes or violent crimes.

Males are likely to be repeat offenders, to have longer criminal careers and to commit more serious crimes e.g. men are 15 times more likely to be convicted of homicide.

Question 2

What are the two feminist approaches in controlling crime ?

Answer 2

Liberation thesis (Adler) and control theory ( Heidensohn)

Question 3

Explain Heidensohn patriarchal control theory

Answer 3

women commit fewer crimes than men because we live in a patriarchal society which imposes greater control over women. She then argues that these controls reduce the amount of opportunity that women have to commit crime.

Question 4

Give an examples of a patriarchal control suggested by Heidensohn.

Answer 4

A good example of the patriarchal control that Heidensohn suggests exists is control inside the home. As a lot of women are conforming to society’s norms and values of the wife playing the housewife role, women have domestic responsibility to then do all the house work. This therefore means that their leisure time is limited, resulting in their opportunity to commit crime being restricted as they’re always in the house.

Males also have financial dominance in a lot of house holds meaning that their partners leisure time outside the house yet again is limited, once more reducing the opportunity to commit crime.

Question 5

Why has Heidensohn been criticised ?

Answer 5

Heidensohns approach to female crime is based on a combination of feminism and control theory which actually has demonstrated that many of these patriarchal controls actually help prevent women from deviating from social norms, therefore meaning that females won’t want to commit crime as society sees it as wrong.

Question 6

Carlen like Heidensohn tried explaining why females commit less crime through control theory, explain Carlens version.

Answer 6

Carlen had adopted Hirschi’ s (1969) control theory to help explain female crime. Hirschi argued that humans act rationally and are controlled by being offered a ‘deal’; in return rewards are given for conforming to social norms, but if these rewards aren’t received people will return to crime or if they believe the rewards of the crime appear greater than the risk they will return to crime. Carlen like Hirschi argues that the working class women are generally led to conform through the promise of reward, but specifically two types of reward; the class deal and the gender deal.

Question 7

Explain the gender deal ?

Answer 7

The gender deal is that patriarchal ideology promises women material and emotional rewards in family life by conforming to the norms of a conventional domestic gender role.

Question 8

Explain the class deal ?

Answer 8

The class deal is for women who work and is that they will be offered material rewards and a decent standard of living and leisure opportunities.

Question 9

Has Carlen got any evidence to support her view point ?

Answer 9

Carlen conducted unstructured tape recorded interviews with 39 working class women who had all been convicted of a range of crimes including theft, fraud, handling stolen goods, burglary and arson. She found that the women either didn’t get the opportunity to make the gender deal or had some factor that put them off the idea of the perfect family life, and in terms of the class deal many of the women had always been in poverty and had been to prison and even earned more qualifications but still struggled to find a legitimate way of earning a decent way of living which has left them feeling powerless, oppressed and victims of injustice which has made crime seem more attractive, if they had the chance to make these deals they would have and would conform to society’s norms and values meaning that the opportunity to commit crime would decrease as they are being provided with these rewards.This therefore shows that most women commit crime because the failure in the patriarchal society to deliver these ‘deals’.

Question 10

Explain Adlers view point ? (liberation thesis )

Answer 10

although women do commit less crime, due to women’s liberation from patriarchy, a new type of female crime has arose and also an increase in female crime has happened.She also argues that changes in the structure of society have led to changes in women’s offending behaviour.

Question 11

Explain why Adler thinks the rise in female crime is happening ?

Answer 11

As patriarchal controls and discrimination lave lessened, and opportunities in education and work have become more equal due to changes in law e.g. Equality act, women have begun to adopt traditionally male roles in both legitimate activity (work) and illegitimate activity (crime). As a result women no longer just commit tradition female crimes such as prostitution and shop lifting, they now commit more male associated crimes such as violent crimes and white collar crimes. Adler argues this is because of women’s greater self confidence and assertiveness, and the fact that they now have greater opportunities in the legitimate structure.

Question 12

Why do critics reject Adlers liberation thesis ?

Answer 12

critics reject Adlers argument (liberation thesis) because there is little evidence that the illegitimate opportunity structure of professional crime has opened up to women. Laider and Hunt (2001) found that female gang members in the USA were expected to conform to conventional gender roles in the same way as non deviant girls.

Question 13

What is Messerschmidts view ?

Answer 13

we should be looking at why men commit more crime than women.

Question 14

What did Messerschmidt say about masculinity ?

Answer 14

Messerschmidt identifies that masculinity is a social construct and men have to constantly work at constructing and presenting it to others. He further identifies that different types of masculinity co-exist and that hegemonic masculinity, one of these types, is the dominant, prestigious form that most men want to accomplish.

Question 15

Describe hegemonic masculinity ?

Answer 15

Hegemonic masculinity has been defined through ‘ work in the paid labour market, the subordination of women, heterosexualism and the driven and uncontrollable sexuality of men’. This therefore means that some men must have subordinate masculinity such homosexuals who have no desire to accomplish hegemonic masculinity, as well as lower class and some ethnic minority men, who lack the resources to do so.

Question 16

Why has Messerschmidt been criticised ?

Answer 16

Messerschmidt however has failed to explain why not all males use crime to achieve masculinity, and he also over works the concept of masculinity to explain all male crimes, from joy riding to embezzlement.

Question 17

According to official statistics which groups are over represented in the system, give examples ?

Answer 17

Blacks and to some extent Asians.

Black people make up just 2.8% of the population, but 11% of the prison population.
Asians make up 4.7% of the population, but 6 % of the prison population.

Question 18

Other sources of statistics such as victim surveys can be used, but what is the limitations of victim surveys ?

Answer 18

They rely on a victims memory of events- Evidence provided by Bowling and Phillips show that we over identify blacks.

They only cover personal crimes, which make up only a fifth of all crimes. Muggings are an even smaller fraction- about 1.7 of recorded crimes.

They exclude under 16’s- minority ethnic groups contain a high number of young people.

Question 19

There are ethnic difference in every stage of the cjs, how do we explain them, explain a few differences in the main stages of the cjs ? (3)

Answer 19

Arrests and Cautions- in 2006/7 rate for blacks was 3.6 times the rate for whites, also less likely to receive a caution once arrested.

Sentencing- 2006/7 custodial sentences were given to a greater proportion of back offenders (68%) than whites (55%) or Asian offenders (59%). Whites and Asians are more likely to receive community sentence than blacks.

Prison- in 2007 just over a quarter of the male population were from minority ethnic groups, including 15% black and 7% Asians. Among British nationals 7.4 per 1000 black people were in jail compared with 1.7 per 1000 Asians and 1.4 per 1000 white people.

Question 20

What would left realists argue about these statistics ?

Answer 20

Left realists such as Lea and Young would argue that these official statistics represent the real differences in rates of offending.

Question 21

What are the two main explanations for ethnic differences in the statistics ?

Answer 21

Left realism- the statistics represent the real differences in rates of offending.
Neo Marxism- the statistics are a social construct resulting from racist labelling and discrimination in the cjs.

Question 22

Explain one response to what lea and Young believe (3 reasons for crime)

Answer 22

one response is the formation of delinquent subcultures, especially including young unemployed black males. They also say this leads to a higher amount if utilitarian crime such as robbery and theft as it’s a way to cope with the relative deprivation. Furthermore they argue that because they’re marginalised it will lead to non utilitarian crimes such as assault and battery because they’re frustrated at the system.

Question 23

What else does Lea and Young acknowledge ?

Answer 23

Lea and Young also acknowledge that police often act in racist ways resulting in unjustified criminalisation, However they don’t believe that discriminatory policing fully explains the differences in ethnic crime rates as they noticed that 90% crime known to the police is reported rather than discovered by police. Also they argue that racist policing cannot fully explain the differences in ethnic crime rates because the police would have to be really selective in their policing as blacks have a higher rate of criminality than Asians.

Question 24

Explain Lea and Youngs conclusion ?

Answer 24

statistics represent real differences in levels of offending between ethnic groups and that they’re caused by real differences in levels of relative deprivation and marginalisation.

Question 25

How can you criticise Lea and young ?

Answer 25

for their views on the role of police racism. For example arrest rates may be lower for Asians because police stereotype them differently. Stereotypes may have changed since 9/11, explaining rising criminalisation of this group.

Question 26

Paul Gilroy (1982) and Stuart Hall (1979) illustrates what view.

Answer 26

statistics do not reflect reality. These differences are the outcome of a process of social construction that stereotypes ethnic minorities as inherently more criminal than the majority of the population.

Question 27

Gilroy believes that black criminality is a myth created by what ?

Answer 27

stereotypes of African carribeans and Asians. And as a results of the police and criminal justice system acting on these racist stereotypes, ethnic minorities come to be criminalised and therefore look more criminal in statistics

Question 28

Gilroy holds a similar view to that of critical criminology which argues what ?

Answer 28

working class crime is a political act against capitalism.
Gilroy also believes ethnic minority crime can be seen as a form of political resistance against a racist society, and this struggle has roots in earlier struggle against British imperialism.

Question 29

Most blacks and Asians in the UK originated from former colonies, how were they taught to resist oppression, give an example ?

Answer 29

example through riots and demonstrations. When they found themselves facing racism in Britain they adopted the same form of struggles to defend themselves, but their political struggle was criminalised by the British state.

Question 30

Lea and Young criticise Gilroy on several grounds explain two ?

Answer 30

First generation immigrants were very law abiding, so it’s unlikely they passed their anti colonialist struggle onto their children. Most crime is interethnic, criminals and victims usually have similar ethnic backgrounds, so it can’t be seen as anti colonial struggle against racism.

Question 31

What issues and arguments and theorists could you include in a social class question ?

Answer 31

Lea and Young- Relative deprivation, marginalisation and subculture.
White collar crime, corporate crime and state crime.
David Gordon- Criminogenic capitalism
Chambliss- state and law making
Pearce- Ideological functions of crime and law
street crime, poverty, lack of role models, boredom, status frustration.

Question 32

What is the relationship between age and offending ?

Answer 32

Approx 50% of all crimes are committed by young people. Most burglary, street robbery, violence, shoplifting and criminal damage is committed by people aged 17-24. The peak age for offending for males is 18 compared to 15 for females.

Question 33

What reasons have been given for the relationships of age and offending ?

Answer 33

Control theory- as we grow up our social bonds with our parents who control us as children loosen as we grow up and form new adult bonds and commitments. But some struggle to and veer of from their normal behaviour as social bonds are now less constraining, meaning it’s easier to stray from societies norms and values. (Sampson and Laub).

Independence and status- Young people are transitioning from adolescence to adulthood and are seeking independence from parents and the fully fledged adult status. So for many the independence part is gained by doing activities which they previously couldn’t do as they were constrained by parents. By doing these activities the status they desire is normally accompanied with it. (Caspi & Moffit)

Question 34

Environmental criminology looks at the spatial distribution of crime, is there any research to suggest crime is different in every area ?

Answer 34

Chicago School (1920)- cities produce distinctive neighbourhoods, each with it's own characteristic lifestyle. Shaw and McKay applied this to delinquency 
They say there is 5 zones(two mile intervals), the first is the CBD, the 2nd is the transitional zone, the 3rd is the w/c zone, 4th is the residential zone, and finally 5th is the commuter zone.
They mapped the residents of male delinquents. They found that there was a steady decline from zone 1 to zone 5

Question 35

Evaluate Shaw and McKays findings.

Answer 35

They note that the rate of delinquents corresponds closely with economic factors, income rises from zone 1 to 5.
There method was applied to several other American cities and they produced largely similar results. However when you apply the method to the UK today the findings are completely different. People living in zone 1 tend to be very rich and have high paying jobs, but it’s where the most crime is as there is big companies and chain stores etc, where as in zone 5 its the countryside with very little crime happening out there as there is less to gain compared to in zone 1.

Question 36

Identify and explain 4 theories for these social (locality) distributions of crime?

Answer 36

Differential association- The more time you spend with criminal people, the more likely you are to become criminal, and as there is a higher population in the inner cities the higher chance of that happening.

Privatisation of public space: Spaces like shopping centres are becoming privately owned and policed with security guards and CCTV controlling how people access and use their space. Undesirables are kept out. In some centres etc dress codes are brought in to help identify undesirables e.g. no hoodies. These ‘undesirables’ are then excluded and confined to the estates or places they grew up on where they’re more likely to become deviant and encounter the police.

Tipping: Morris studied Croydon and asserts that it’s the local councils policy of housing ‘problem’ families together that’s creating high crime areas. Baldwin and Bottoms says this occurs when an area is seen as going downhill. Law abiding and respectable families leave a.s.ap. and those who enter the estate are usually family or friends of the problem residents.

Cultural transmission theory: Shaw and Mckay argue that in the poorest and most socially disorganised parts of a city crime becomes the norm and as culturally acceptable for some members of the w/c as for some families crime is a way of life and these values are passed on to the next generation and so on.

Question 37

Evaluate the 4 theories of locality explanations

Answer 37

Differential association: Police spend more time with criminals then any over person yet they are still law abiding. Also it depends on whether people admit they have committed crime and the way they act that will influence other peoples behaviour. Some criminals after punishment are changed people and couldn’t be nicer, it all depends on the type of criminal they associate with.

Privatisation of public space: Just because you grow up on a council estate doesn’t mean you will be criminal, you could become very wealthy or the owner of a very successful business e.g. Barrie and Tony Drewitt Barlow grew up on council estates in Manchester and now are the owners of the British Surrogacy Centre and Aspen Clinical research. Furthermore David Beckham comes from a W/C background and now is one of the most influential people in the UK.

Tipping: Geographical area is too small to generalise to whole population. Furthermore not all council estates are rough, some are very well mannered, it depends on location e.g. London or Danbury (Chelmsford)

Cultural transmission theory: Not all W/C people value that lifestyle and try to avoid it at all costs. They will teach that it’s a last resort . Furthermore M/C and U/C can also also turn to a lifestyle of crime, they will be different types though e.g. Corporate crime, occupational crime, White collar crime.