Week Fifteen - Women and Crime Flashcards
Early Theories About Women & Crime…
Eve: women as inherently evil and cunning
Witchcraft: Salem Witch Trials (1962-3)
Positivist assumptions that tie women to biology (The Female Offender, Lombroso & Ferrero, 1895)
Believed that fundamentally all criminals were a ‘throwback’ to an earlier stage of human development
Concluded that women show less signs of degeneration than men because they are in general less developed than men
Therefore - the female criminal has less far to fall, is more cunning and evil and offends not only against society, but her true nature as rooted in her biology – she is ‘born bad’
Developing the theories…
W. I. Thomas, Sex and Society (1907) & The Unadjusted Girl (1923)
Reinforced the biological position
Suggested ‘unadjusted girls’ use their sexuality in a socially unacceptable way to get what they want out of life
Developing the theories…
Otto Pollak, Criminality of Women (1950)
Women fundamentally more deceitful than men - instigators rather than perpetrators of crime
They receive greater ‘chivalry’ from the police that accounts for low crime rates
Developing the theories…
Cowie and Slater, Delinquency in Girls (1968)
Aimed to find variables to distinguish between delinquent/ non-delinquent girl
Argued delinquency in boys caused by social factors. Girls less affected by social circumstances so must be a biological explanation.
Feminist critique of criminology…
Second-wave feminism developed a critique of the discipline…
Neglect: majority of focus on men’s crime & delinquency
Distortion: women depicted in terms of stereotypes based on their supposed biological/psychological natures
Marginalized: Women account for a small proportion of offenders therefore little attention given to them
Feminist critique of criminology…
Daly & Chesney-Lind (1988) describe three pillars to early feminist inquiry:
‘The generalizability problem’ - whether theories developed to describe male offending can apply to women?
The ‘gender ratio problem’ - why do women commit less crime than men?
Intellectual sexism in theories of female crime / institutional sexism in CJS
Feminist critique of criminology…
Theories of Crime must be able to…
Take account of both men and women
Show what factors affect women and men differently
Feminist critique of criminology…
Importance of evidence…
First hand ‘lived’ experience
Ethnocentricity of researchers: generally white, economically privileged men
Limitations in existing work
Women as Offenders…
Justice system male-dominated, patriarchal, powerful elite as leaders and decision makers
Heidensohn (1985) ‘Double deviance’
Women treated more harshly in CJS as their offending not only an offence by law, also against ‘femininity’
Carlen (1998)
Prison used less for seriousness of crime, more if crime contradicts understanding of female role in society, i.e. If not a mother, if not in stable, heterosexual relationship
Paternalism
Women as Victims…
Walklate (1998)
Rape victims on trial, have to prove respectability to be credible
Carol Smart (1989)
Found judges making sexist, victim blaming remarks in rape cases
Bad girls…
Are women catching up?
Freda Adler (Sisters in Crime, 1975)
Believed increased independence would cause them to commit crimes normally associated with men
Concept still alive and well: girls and alcohol; the ladette; the mean girl; the ‘shemale’ gangster
Major Shifts in Policy…
Considerable number of reports & commissions: PRT, Fawcett Society, Prisons Inspector, Government policies (strategy for Diverting Women Away from Crime, December 2009)
Corston: “There can be few topics that have been so exhaustively researched to such little practical effect as the plight of women in the criminal justice system.”
Nine pathways: Accommodation; Employment, Training & Education; Health; Drugs & Alcohol; Children & Families; Finance, Benefits & Debt; Attitudes, Thinking & Behaviour; Abuse & Violence; Prostitution.
