Topic 5 - Gender Flashcards
Official statistics gender differences HEIDENSOHN
- 4 out of 5 convicts in the UK are male
- By the age of 40, 9% of females had a criminal conviction compared with 32% of males
Official statistics - differences in types of offences
- A higher proportion of females are convicted for property offences except burglary
- A higher proportion of male than female offenders are convicted of violent or sexual offences
- Men are more likely to be repeat offenders and commit more serious crimes
Chivalry thesis
- Attempts to offer an explanation as to why women appear less in the crime statistics than men = relates to their treatment by the police and the CJS
- Most criminal judge agents are men and men are socialised to be ‘chivalrous’ toward women
- OTTO POLLAK argues men have a protective attitude towards women and as a direct result male police officers are less likely to arrest them and juries are less inclined to convict them
- Self report studies can be used to support chivalry thesis
- GRAHAM and BOWLING found girls involvement in crime was higher than the crime stats suggested. In their study of 1721 14-25 year olds found that although males were more likely to offend the difference was smaller than official stats suggested
- FLOOD women are also more likely to be cautioned than men rather than charge for the offence
- Official statistics: females are more likely than males to be released on bail, receive a fine and less likely to go to prison
A03 Chivalry thesis
- Women commit less serious offences and are therefore less likely to receive harsh sentences
- FARRINGTON and MORRIS found that of 408 offences of theft in a magistrates court women were not more leniently than men for comparable offences
- FARRINGTON and BUCKLE witnessed 2x as many males as females shoplifting in their observational study of the crime. The official stats show equal numbers of male and female offenders for this crime which suggests women are more likely to be prosecuted for shoplifting than their male counterparts
- Women also may be more likely to show remorse than men for their offences so therefore may be more likely to receive a caution
- Self-report studies report men do commit more crime
- Chivalry thesis also ignores that many male crimes do not get reported e.g., sexual crimes
Feminist view on chivalry
- HEIDENSOHN argues that women are punished not just for their crime but because they have deviated from social gender norms
- Double standards: courts punish girls and not boys for promiscuity. Girls who were seen as a ‘wayward’ were more likely to be placed in care or custody than those who behaved in a more conventional female manner
- CARLEN found that when women are jailed they have not been judged for their crime but on the courts assessment as wives and mothers. If children are in care they are more likely to be jailed
- Patriarchy is most evident in rape cases where there have been numerous male judges making sexist, victim blaming remarks. WALKLATE argues that in rape cases it is often the victim on trial, she has to prove her respectability in order to have her evidence accepted
Explaining female crime
1 Sex role theory FUNCTIONALIST
2 Control theory FEMINIST
3 Liberation thesis FEMINIST
FUNCTIONALIST Sex role theory
PARSONS
- Nuclear family: men take an instrumental role and women expressive
- COHEN socialisation can be more difficult for boys as men have less of a socialising role than women in the nuclear family = all-male gangs as a source of masculine identity
- NEW RIGHT THEORISTS argue that matrifocal lone parent families lead young boys into criminal street gangs as a source of masculine identity
A03 Feminist view on sex role theory
They make biological assumptions about sex differences
Patriarchal control theory
HEIDENSOHN
1 Control at home
2 Control in public
3 Control at work
Control at home
- Domestic role = women less likely to offend
- DOBASH and DOBASH found violence will result from male dissatisfaction with their wives performance of domestic duties
- Women often restricted by their lack of access to financial resources = leisure time is restricted
- Bedroom culture
Control in public
- Women are controlled through fear of male crime
- ISLINGTON SURVEY 54% of women they asked avoided going out after dark for fear of being victims of men
- Sensationalist reporting of rape adds to women’s fear and the distortion portrayal of predatory rapists randomly attacking women
- LEES found girls are controlled in school through the sexualised verbal abuse from boys
Control at work
- Women are generally subordinate to men at work and experience high levels of male control and sexual harassment which keeps them in their place
- HEIDENSOHN = patriarchy can push women into crime as they are more likely to experience poverty
Class and gender deals
CARLEN
- unstructured interviews with 39 15-46 year old working class women with a range of convictions (theft to arson) using HIRSCHI’s CONTROL THEORY to explain why these women committed crime
- HIRSCHI argues we act rationally and are controlled by being offered a deal, rewards for returning to social norms
- CLASS DEAL: women who work are offered material rewards with a decent standard of living and leisure opportunities therefore avoiding criminality
- GENDER DEAL: patriarchal ideology promises women material and emotional rewards from family life if they conform to the norms of a conventional domestic gender role
A03 Determinism
Suggesting that women are fundamentally shaped by patriarchy - it determines their engagement in crime and suggests they have no agency with which they can determine their own outcomes - extinguishes the power of free will
Liberation thesis
ALDER
- Argues women are increasingly less subject to patriarchal social forces and as opportunities have become more equal female crime rates will increase
- Changes in the structure of society have led to changes in women’s offending behaviour = as patriarchal controls and discrimination lessen there are more opportunities in work and education
- DENSCOMBE found that teenage girls were as likely as males to engage in risk taking behaviour and that girls were adopting more traditionally male characteristics such as the desire to be in control
