Topic 5: Gender, crime and justice

Question 1

Pollak

Answer 1

The chivalry thesis- CJS are men who show leniency to women.

Question 2

Graham and Bowling

Answer 2

Research on a sample of 1721 14-25 year olds found that while males were more likely to offend the difference was smaller than that recorded in official statistics. Males were 2.33 times more likely to admit to having committed an offence in the previous twelve months, whereas off stats show males as four times more likely to offend.

Question 3

Hood

Answer 3

Study of over 3000 defendants found that womem were about one-third less likely to be jailed in similar cases.

Question 4

Buckle and Farrington

Answer 4

Observation of shoplifting in a department store witnessed twice as many males shoplifting as females, despite the numbers in off stats being more or less equal. This suggests women shoplifters may be more likely to be prosecuted than their male counterparts.

Question 5

Heidensohn

Answer 5

Gender differences are perhaps the most significant feature of recorded crime.

Courts treat females more harshly when they deviate from gender norms- courts punish girls not boys for premature/promiscuous sexual activity. Women who do not conform to monogamous heterosexuality and motherhood are punished more harshly.

The most striking element about women’s behaviour is how conformist it is- this is because patriarchy imposes greater control over women, reducing opportunities to offend. This operates at home, in public spaces and at work. Girls are not allowed to go out- so develop a bedroom culture.

Question 6

Stewart

Answer 6

Magistrates’ perceptions of female defendants’ characters were based on stereotypical gender roles.

Question 7

Carlen

Answer 7

Women jailed less for the seriousness of their crimes and more according to the courts’ assessment of them as wives, mothers and daughters. Found that Scottish judges are much more likely to jail women whose children are in care than those they saw as good mothers.

Interviews thirty-nine 15-46 year old working-class women who had been convicted of crime. She uses Hirschi’s theory of control (that humans act rationally and are controlled by being offered a deal in return for confirming to social norms) to explain female crime- she identifies the class deal and the gender deal- a good standard of living for work and material/emotional rewards by conforming to traditional domestic role. Women who fail to gain these rewards may turn to crime- most of the women had always been in poverty and so,em had been abused by fathers/partners or had spent time in care/homeless weakening family bonds.

Question 8

Walklate

Answer 8

In rape cases it is not the defendant who is on trial but the victim, as she has to prove her respectability in order to have her evidence accepted. There have been numerous cases of male judges making sexist victim blaming remarks in rape cases, showing the patriarchal nature of the justice system.

Criticises sex role theory for its biological assumptions; Parsons assumes that because women have the biological capacity to bear children, they are best suited to the expressive role.

Question 9

Adler

Answer 9

Women who are deemed to lack respectability such as single parents, punks and peace protestors find it difficult to have their testimony believed by the court.

Question 10

Lombroso and Ferrero

Answer 10

Biological explanation of female crime- Criminality is innate but there are very few born female criminals.

Question 11

Parsons

Answer 11

Men take the instrumental role out of the home- meaning boys lack an adult role model and thus reject feminine models of behaviour and sit and themselves from them through engaging in compensatory compulsory masculinity through aggression and anti-social behaviour.

Question 12

Cohen

Answer 12

Lack of socialisation/adult role model means boys are more likely to turn to all-male street gangs as a source of masculine identity.

Question 13

Dobash and Dobash

Answer 13

Many violent attacks result from men’s dissatisfaction with their wives’ performance of domestic duties- control in the home.

Question 14

Adler

Answer 14

The liberation thesis- as women are liberated from patriarchy their crimes will become as frequent/serious as men’s.

Question 15

Gender statistics

Answer 15

Official statistics show that:
Four out of five or conceited offenders in England and Wales are male
By the age of 40 32% of females had a criminal conviction against 9% of females.
A high proportion of female offenders are convicted of property offences (expect burglary) and male offenders are more lily to be convicted of violent or sexual offences
Males are more likely to be repeat offenders, to have longer criminal careers and commit more serious crimes. For example men are 15 times more likely to be convicted of homicide.
However, female crimes such as shoplifting and and prostitution are less likely to be reported, and even when they are women are less likely to be prosecuted.

Question 16

Cain

Answer 16

Although criminology has focused on men while calming to explain all crime it has not addressed why males commit crime- which is the most dramatic finding of criminology

Question 17

Messerschmidt

Answer 17

Masculinity is a social construct that men have to constantly work at constructing. The dominant masculinity is hegemonic masculinity- work in paid labour, subordination of women, heterosexism and the driven the driven uncontrollable sexuality of men. 
Some men have subordinated masculinities, such as gay men who have no desire to accomplish hegemonic masculinity and lower class and ethnic minority men who lack the resources to do so.
As men have different resources to draw upon to achieve the construction, one of the resources some men use is crime and deviance 
For example- white middle class youths subordinate themselves to teachers to gain a accommodating masculinity in school, but take an oppositional form outside or it, eg drinking and pranks. White working class youths have oppositional masculinity both in and out of school, constructed around sexism, being tough and opposing teacher authority. Black lower working class youths have few expectations of a reasonable job and so use gang membership/violence to express masculinity or use serious property crime to achieve material success.
Middle class men may also use crime, but this will be white collar/corporate crime to achieve hegemonic masculinity rather than street robbery achieve a subordinated form.

Question 18

Winlow

Answer 18

Globalisation has led to de-industrialisation which has led to the loss of traditional working class jobs. The service sector however has grown and gives men legal employment, lucrative criminal opportunities and a means of expressing their masculinity.
For example, his study of bouncers in Sunderland found that the job gave men paid work, illegal business ventures into drugs and alcohol and opportunities to demonstrate masculinity through violence.
In modern society Sunderland had a conflict subcultures. Under postmodern conditions, a professional criminal subculture has emerged. To maintain reputation the men must use bodily capital through body building.