Week Fifteen - Men and Crime Flashcards
Historically…
Historically, criminology had largely failed to account for the ‘gender of crime’ – that is the ‘maleness’ of crime
The ‘masculinity turn’…
The ‘masculinity turn’ considered the relationship between men and crime by explicitly foregrounding masculinity
Research focused on male involvement in activities such as…
Research focused on male involvement in activities such as: street crimes, violent crimes, drugs, alcohol, night-time economy crimes, sexual offences, corporate crime
Masculinities, Raewyn Connell – 1995…
‘Masculinities’ not the same as ‘men’ but about gender relations
Masculinities are multiple, and are in relation to women and other men
Different patterns between different men, which change over time
Introduced idea of ‘hegemonic’ and ‘subordinated’ masculinities
Highlighted certain masculinities tendencies to use violence, particularly against women
Theories about Men and Crime…
James Messerschmidt – applied this framework to the study of crime in Masculinities & Crime (1993)
An attempt to critique criminology’s masculine past and develop a new way of thinking
Masculinity as a social construct or accomplishment – men have to constantly work at constructing and presenting it to others
Gender as a ‘situational accomplishment’ and crime as a means of ‘doing gender’
Theories about Men and Crime, However…
Overlooks any positive aspects of masculinity
Overuses concept to explain virtually all male crime
Why do some men NOT use crime to accomplish masculinity?
The ‘Trouble with Boys’…
Why were ‘lovely boys’ turning into ‘unlovely men’?
Traditionally feminism depicted boys and men as empowered and privileged relative to girls and women – this theory argued girls were now more advantaged
Examples given included:
Boys educational failure relative to girls
Boys lacking interpersonal and employment skills for integration into post-industrial and service based labour markets
Involvement in violent crime e.g. murder of head teacher Philip Lawrence and the killing of James Bulger
Young men’s persistent offending – vilified in the media as hooligans
New Concept..
“The ‘hooligan’, such an iconic figure within both criminology and ‘law and order’ rhetoric, is in a sense mutating into something else: a ‘new breed of man’ a man who, crucially can no longer be accounted for, explained and assessed solely within the terms of the familiar criminological concepts of class, poverty and disadvantage…
“[This reflects] a new configuration of concerns around crime within a rapidly shifting economic, social and importantly, gender order; that is, the language of masculinity/ies and, in particular, the idea that what is presently taking place is no less than a contemporary crisis in gender relations.” (Collier, 1998:71)
Men and Crime in Post Modernity..
Loss of traditional manual jobs
Growth of night time leisure economy
Expression of masculinity changes in move from modern industrial to postmodern industrial society
“Contemporary working-class men in the North East no longer have the established structures that provided such reliable bases for identity and behaviour throughout the modern age. Sons no longer follow their fathers into specific industrial trades, and they may not follow them into manufacturing at all…As traditional structures have been eroded and the world has changed, North Eastern working-class men have been forced to develop and recognize new means of masculine expression.”
