Why do some women commit crime?

Question 1

Class and Gender Deals

Answer 1

Carlen - women conform to society’s rules because they are promised either the class deal (working) or the gender deal (expressive role), so they commit crime if they don’t believe they will receive the rewards, or if the rewards appear greater than the risks.

Question 2

Carlen Study

(Class and Gender Deals)

Answer 2

Studied 39 working class women who had been convicted of a range of crimes. 20 were in prison or youth custody. Carlen argues the most convicted serious female criminals are WC. He found most had been in poverty meaning the class deal had brought nothing for them so turned to crime since it was the only way to survive.

Question 3

Class and Gender Deals - AO3

Answer 3

• :) Both Heidensohn and Carlen combine feminism and control theory. Heidensohn shows how patriarchal controls prevent women offending, while Carlen shows how patriarchal society’s failure to deliver the promised ‘deals’ or controls to some women leads them to offend.
• Carlen’s sample is small and possibly unrepresentative, consisting largely of serious offenders.
• Feminism tends to see women’s behaviour as determined by external forces such as patriarchal controls or class/gender deals. This is too deterministic because it ignores the importance of free will in offending.

Question 4

The Liberation Thesis

Answer 4

Adler (1975) - as women become liberated from patriarchy and discrimination has lessened, their offending will become similar to men’s because they now have the same rights and opportunities as men so are equally able to commit crime.

Question 5

The Liberation Thesis - AO3

Answer 5

• It doesn’t explain all crime committed by women because the female crime rate began rising in the 1950s, long before the women’s liberation movement, which emerged in the late 1960s.
• Most female criminals are WC - the group least likely to be influenced by women’s liberation, which has benefitted the MC more.