Week 6: Feminist Criminology

Question 1

How did Criminology and Sociology view women before the intervention of feminism?

Answer 1

They tended to see women as ‘invisible’, other than in the category of being a mother. Research done on men was simply generalised to the entire population

Question 2

Who researched Malestream criminality?

Answer 2

Heidensohn (1989)

Question 3

What is Malestream criminality?

Answer 3

It is the idea that there is a male dominance of offenders and a male dominance within sociology

Question 4

Who discussed the ‘masked female offender’ (1950) and the Chivalry Thesis?

Answer 4

Pollack

Question 5

What is the Chivalry Thesis?

Answer 5

This is the idea that women are treated favourably and more leniently by men, based on the traditional view that women need protecting

Question 6

How did Heidensohn discussed women in the CJS?

Answer 6

Heidensohn discussed how, despite the Chivalry Thesis, women can be treated harshly by the legal system especially if they break the expectations of female behaviour. The justice system is more likely to punish females when they deviate from norms of female sexuality.

Question 7

What two categories does explaining the Nature of Female Criminals fall within?

Answer 7

Trait Approaches, which are internal dispositions such as biology or psychology, or socialisation approaches, which are learned behaviours.

Question 8

How did Lombroso (1895) view the female offender?

Answer 8

Lombroso (1895) researched the female offender from a biological perspective, and had the view that women were lower on the evolutionary scale.

Question 9

What were the physical traits of the Female Offender, according to Lombroso (1895)?

Answer 9

It would be a women with short dark hair and masculine features

Question 10

What are some psychological explanations for female criminality?

Answer 10

Freud argued that female crime is the result of a “masculine complex” stemming from penis envy. According to Freud, all females suffer from penis envy and that it is those who cannot successfully resolve their penis envy over-identify with maleness, so are more likely to commit criminal acts.`

Question 11

Who criticised conventional criminology through a feminist lens?

Answer 11

Heidensohn (1985)

Question 12

What is the feminist criticism of conventional criminology?

Answer 12

Heidensohn (1985) suggests that the sexual ideologies based on the assumptions about the nature of women are very clear, and that the work only provides a better understanding of the myths that had been developed about women in general, as well as female criminals in particular

Question 13

What is Sex Role Theory and Gender Socialisation?

Answer 13

Heidensohn (1986) argues that the way women are socialised and controlled can be used to explain why someone is not criminal. but that other areas need examining to explain why somebody is criminal

Question 14

What did McRobbie (1978) suggest about women and crime?

Answer 14

McRobbie (1978) believed that teenage girls were less likely to commit crime because they were more likely to spend time in their bedrooms rather than going out, therefore meaning there is less opportunity for them to commit crime.

Question 15

How does Adler (1975) explain why women commit crime?

Answer 15

Adler (1975) describes it in the Liberation Thesis. She argues that in the same way women are asking for equal opportunities in “fields of legitimate endeavour”, there are a number of women equally determined to rise in the ranks of the criminal world.

Question 16

What were the findings of Box and Hale(1983) and how does this relate to the findings of Adler (1975)?

Answer 16

The findings of Box and Hale (1983) counter the suggestion made by Adler (1975) as the research they conducted found no evidence that there was a link between female criminality and the emancipation of women

Question 17

How do the findings of Giordano and Cerkovich (1979) link to the suggestions of Adler (1975)?

Answer 17

Giordano and Cerkovich (1979) found that, out of the women they questioned, the more liberal the answer to the question was, the less likely that women was to participate in acts of criminality, opposing the views of Adler (1975) in that it was the liberation of women’s freedom that made them more criminal.

Question 18

What did Carlen (1985) research in regards to women and criminality?

Answer 18

Carlen (1985) suggested that female offenders committed crime because they were let down by the patriarchal idea of being a good wife to their husband and looking after their children. Most of these women had bad family experiences when they were young so committing crime was a way of escaping the powerful hold of social control.

Question 19

What is Carlen’s (1985) overall view about the liberation of women and offending?

Answer 19

Carlen (1985) does not believe that it is the liberation of women that caused them to commit crime, but that the majority of the women in her sample tended to stem from a working-class background

Question 20

Who investigated Power Control Theory?

Answer 20

Hagan (1987)

Question 21

What is power control theory?

Answer 21

Power control theory suggests that the parents class position as defined through their work experiences influence the delinquent behaviour of their children.

Question 22

How are working class families seen in Power Control Theory?

Answer 22

In patriarchal families, traditional gender roles were practised, where the father would work outside the home and the mother would be responsible for child rearing. This will therefore be seen as more working-class. Sons are granted greater freedom as they are prepared for the traditional male roles symbolised by their fathers. Daughters are socialised into the cult of domesticity and are closely monitored so participation in delinquent behaviours is unlikely.

Question 23

How are eglaitarian families seen in Power Control Theory?

Answer 23

In egalitarian families, the household roles were shared equally between mothers and fathers. Here, neither child receives close supervision. Daughters deviance now mirrors their brother’s. This pattern now seems to hold true for single parent, female-headed households. Even within the working-lower class, without the presence of the father, the mothers supervision of her children is not as intense.

Question 24

How does Power Control Theory then explain female criminality and where it comes from?

Answer 24

It suggests that class difference tends to demonstrate that middle-class women are more likely to commit crime because working-class women are more likely to be socialised to be homemakers and are closely supervised by their mothers.

Question 25

What does Campbell (1981) suggest about male and female crimes?

Answer 25

She suggests that the gap between them isn’t that big, because women are just more likely to commit different types of crime compared to men