Topic 5: Gender, crime and justice

Stats: What percentage of convicts in England and Wales are male?

96% (Ministry of Justice, 2024)

Stats: What percentage of male convicts offend compared to female convicts?

27% of males, and 22% of females reoffend. However, female reoffenders commit more reoffences than their male counterparts (MoJ, 2022)

What are the explanations behind gender difference in crime?

• Pollak (1950) - Chivalry Thesis, Parsons, Sex Role Theory

• Heidensohn (1996) - Patriarchal Control, Carlen (1988) - Class and Gender deal

• Adler (1975) - Liberation Thesis

How do Pollak and Parsons explain gender difference in crime?

1. The criminal justice system is dominated by men (judges, police etc)

2. These men are socialized to act in a “chivalrous” way towards women

3. Thus the system is more lenient to women, leading to a lower incarceration rate

4. This analysis of socialization is developed by Parons Sex Role Theory

5. In a nuclear family, while men perform an instrumental role (absent at work), women perform an expressive role (in the home)

6. Thus, while girls are provided a role model, the lack of a male role model can result in “compensatory compulsory masculinity” through aggression and anti-social behavior (that can slip into deviance)

7. In this way, socialization seeks to explain both aspects of the gender gap in crime, both in decreasing female incarcerations rates, and increase male deviance

Evaluate Pollacks Chivalry thesis

Ignores the level of leniency and disregard of male dominated offences, with Yearnshire (1997) study finding woman typically suffers 35 assaults before reporting domestic violence, the opposite of chivalry

How does Heidensohn and Carlen explain the gender gap in crime?

1. Patriarchal control reduces womens opportunity to offend is all spheres of life

2. At home, domestic labour restricts womens time (carrying out both domestic, paid and emotion labour - Duncombe and Marsden) and movement (unable to leave children)

3. In public, treat of male violence partially exclude them from said sphere, with Islington Crime Survey finding 54% of women avoid going out after dark, compared to 14% of men

4. At work, psychologically sexual harassment “keeps women in their place”, undermining confidence to commit crime, while the practically the “glass ceiling” bars women from senior positions were opportunity to commit corporate crime is greater

5. Thus, Heidensohns theory is satisfactory, methodically outline how womens opportunity is reduced in each sphere respectively

6. Carlen develops a class analysis to criminal opportunity

7. She identifies w/c women conform on the basis of a Class deal (promising material rewards for paid labour) and a Gender deal (promising emotional rewards for family life/domestic labour)

8. If these promises aren`t met, deviance becomes more likely (therefore poverty/oppressive family are the main source of crime)

9. Thus gender difference in crime can be explained through female opportunity, simultaneously accounting for the lower levels of female incarceration (due to lack of illegitimate opportunity), whilst still explaining the female crime that does exist (due to the lack of legitimate opportunity), taking both class and gender into account

Negatively evaluate Heidensohns and Carlens feminist/control theory explanation of the gender pay gap

Carlen’s sample was small and may be unrepresentative, consisting as it did largely of working-class and serious offenders

How does Adler explain the gender gap in crime?

1. As patriarchal control is weakened, womens opportunity to commit crime increases

2. Socially, as women have been accepted into legitimate “male” roles (work), so too have they been accepted into illegitimate roles (crime)

3. Economically, womens entry into the workplace have increased their opportunity to commit corporate crime

4. Politically, womens increasing confidence, pushing back against notions of female passivity (due to the postive strives of 2nd Wave feminism, 1970s), makes risk-taking less of a deterrent

5. Therefore, the change in women social, economic and political position has undermined patriarchal control accounts for the increase in female crime

Positively evaluate Adlers Liberation Thesis as a explanation behind the gender gap in crime

The female prison population increased by 10%

Negatively evaluate Adlers Liberation Thesis as a explanation behind the gender gap in crime

While women have entered the workforce, they are still near completely excluded from senior positions with criminal opportunity, with only 9% of British CEOs being female.

Why do men commit more crime?

• Messerschmidt (1993) - Masculinity

• Winlow (2001) - Postmodernity

Why do men commit more crime according to Messerschmidt (1993)?

1. Today, hegemonic masculinity (based on hyper-heterosexual) is the dominant, prestigious form of masculinity, with crime acting as a resource to accomplish this

2. While m/c men make use of white collar criminal opportunities, w/c men turn to crimes such as street robbery to achieve HM

3. This desire is often greater in w/c and non-white men, who often have a subordinated masculinity (due to lack of material wealth and reduced status due to racism)

4. Thus, Messerschmidt not only explains differences between gender deviance, but also differences within gender

Evaluate Messerschmidts explanation of why men commit more crime

It fails to explain why those who have achieved a hegemonic masculinity (eg through material wealth) continue to commit crime

Why do men commit more crime according to Winlow (2001)?

Winlow - Postmodernity: Globalization= industrial decline, depriving masculine affirmation+ service sector produces criminal opportunity (thus avenue of masculine affirmation). So legit expression replaced by illegit expression.

Study: Winlow - Sunderland nightclubs: body capital become essential in the absence of legit  masculine expressions

1. In a postmodern, globalized world, trad “masculine” industrial jobs have moved to the global south, depriving men of masculine expression and affirmation

2. Simultaneously, the growth of service sector jobs provide lucrative criminal opportunity, and thus a means of expressing masculinity

3. Therefore legitimate expressions of masculinity (manual labour) have been replaced by illegitimate expressions (crime)

4. This has been exacerbated by the growth of professional criminals networks, which make said criminal opportunities more lucrative

5. This can be seen in Winlows study of nightclubs in Sunderland, were body capital has become essential in the absence of legitimate expressions of masculinity

6. In this way, the de-industrialisation (decreased legit opportunity) and globalisation of crime networks (increasing illegit opportunity) seen in postmodernity have led