GENDER AND CRIME

WHat did Lombroso say about female criminals?

they were just born this way

WHat percentage of criminals are male?

4 out of 5 convicted offenders in Britain are Male

What are women more likely to be convicted of?

theft and property offences

What are men more likely to be convicted of?

violence and sexual offences

What evidence is there that women do not actually commit less crimes?

female crimes (eg shoplifting) are less likely to be reported

Even when womens crimes are detected/reported they are much less likely to be prosecuted or recieve a lenient punishment

men are embarassed to have a female perpretator

What typically masculine crime is under reported?

domestic violence

What is Parson’s sex role theory?

argue that boys tend to be socialised to be physical, competitive and risk-taking and sexual whereas girls are tought to be reserved and conformist as well as passive and domestic, female generally lack the qualities assosciated with deviancy

What is evidence of Parson’s sex role thoery?

differences in prices in car insurance between first time male and female drivers

What is an evaluation point for parsons sex role theory

the existance of laddette’ subcultures

What do Carlen (1988) and Heidensohn (1996) say about opportunity?

Women have fewer opportunities to commit crime (kids, husband) and men have greater opportunity

What does heidensohn say about social control?

gendered patterns of social control (formal and informal) and these reinforce the control that men have over women as previously women were just at home

What does Pollack say about rates of crime?

men and woman commit a similar number of crimes in society but crimes like shoplifting are underreepresented in crime statistics, underreported and easily concealed

WHat is an example of public control over women?

harassment, cat calling, dont go out into public after dark

WHat is an example of work control over women?

harassment, make managers

WHat is an example of home control over women?

financial, physical and emotional abuse (dobash and Dobash)

What does Carlen say about the types of crime that women commit?

it reflects their powerlessness in society due to patriachy as there is no legitimate way for women to improve thier situation they turn to crime

How does Lombroso’s theory work?

normal females have a disposition thta repels them from deviant and criminal behaviour

How is Lomroso viewed by modern sociologists?

largely disregarded but LINK BETWEEN FEMALE CRIME and menstruation has been made

How does the sex role theory link to the types of crime being committed?

shoplifting and prostitution argued those express socialised tols of family and sexual provider, even when stealing personal items seen as family provider as dont want to spend money on themselves

How are women whp commit crimes viewed?

‘double deviants’, especially if this crime is against children (eg Rose West or Myra Hindley)

According to heidensohn, what happens to women who don’t conform?

seen as ‘unfeminine behaviour’

What does carlen say about ‘deals’?

adopted control theory located in ‘gemder deal’ and ‘class deal’, those who are most likely to becomr criminals are those who have not had or rejected the ‘gender deal’, females in care, thrown out of home, rejected normal’ family thus more likely to be law-breakers

What does Wilkinson say about California women?

were arguably equal to men, they were engaged in similar leveks of white collar crime

What does Postmodernist Smart say about ‘transgressive crimonology’?

to understand crime in a postmodern society, transgresses us beyond the boundaries of conventional criminology, conisders ideas as diverse as self-imposed curfews, treatment of women as victims, Dv, abuse and rape

What is the chivalry factor?

some argue women are more deviant than they appear and are produced by a chivalry factor by police, courts, etc

What does Allen say about the chivalry factor?

mental health (including PMS) for female criminality results in lighter punishments by the court

What did Leonard (1982) say about the chivalry factor?

challenges it as ‘bad woman’ are treayed more harshly than some men

How were women treated historically?

sex workers were ifgnored as victims of crime (eg Yorkshire Ripper)

What does Alder say about womens liberation?

believes that womens liberation will increase participation in criminal activity as seen by the growth of juvenile crime by liberate girls, they are penetrating the labour market, so they aremoving into ‘criminal careers’

What does Smart say about Alder?

criticises him on the grounds tht she wrongly sees juvenile delinquincy as reflective of future adult crime

What does Box say about the rise in Womens crime?

feels that an increase in womens property crime has more more to do with poverty (lone parents) than their liberation. Relationship between the increasing employment of women police officers and the recording of violent crimwe by women, suggests that autorities have been ‘sensetised’ to female crime

What percentage of police officers were female in 2010?

35

What does Messerchmidt (1993) say about normative masculinity?

what a real man should be and highly valued by most men but argues that masculinity is something males have to constantyl work at, businessmen acjieve this over excise of power of women at the workplace whereas a man with no power at work controls women in domestic situation (eg domestic violence)

What does Messerschmidt say about m/c males?

achieve educational success at school but at the expense of emasculation so in school they adopt an ‘accomodating masculinity’ they compensate for this out of school by adopting a more ‘oppositional masculinity’ engaging in pranks excessive drinking and high spirits

What does Messerschmidt say about w/c males?

w/c males adopt an oppositional masculinit both in ND OUT OF SCHOOL, aggressive in nature. Notes that rape and pimping is a way of controlling women

What does cornell say about young black males?

can be sucked into property and violent crimes as a way of enhancing ‘hegemonic mascunilinity’

How does Aggressive amsculinity work?

men may expres their masculinity through criminal behaviour (eg fighting, football hoolaginism etc)

What does Campbell (1983) say about agressive masculinity?

young men seek compensation for lack of a breadwinner status through ‘agressive masculinity’, control over tech, public spaces and other (women and racial minoraties)

What does Katz (1983) say about enjoyment of deviance?

argues crimonolgy has failed to understand the role of pleasure in committing crime, search for pleasure is meaningful, when equated within masculinity’s stress, violence is seductive undertaken for thrill

What are the key evaluation points?

women as victims - need to cinsider feminism

feminists may have exaggerated male power and the extent of female victimisation, increased level of violent crime committed by women against women

What are the key factors in explaining women as victims?

relationship between crime and wider patriachal society

gender role socilaisation

link between the ‘crisi of masculinity’ and crimes against women

sexual objectification of women

women as property

mens reaction to feminisation of society

What does Stanko (2000) say about DV?

act of dv is committed every six seconds in the UK, one querter of all violent crime is domestic, 45-70% of cases the father inflicts violence on kids as well as the mother

WHat des Susan Brownmiller (1975) say about Rape?

argues rape is a part of a system of male indivualism keeping women in favour

What is the meaning of domestic violence?

public admission of the violence present in the family can make women feel a strong sense of failure

from 1990s the home office have instructed the police to treat dv as the same as any other form of violence

support is not always forthcoming

police tradtionally regard ‘domestics’ as priavte matters and are reluctant to intervene

What does the home office (2001) say about Rape?

repored that 1 in 20 women aged 15-60 had been raped, 45% by their current partners

Why does rape occur?

related to the assossciation of masculinity with power, dominance and not sexual desire, moreover a substantial number of rapisst appear to be only sexually accused after they have terrorised and degraded their victims

Where does 25% of crime occur?

in the home

How many women are victims of DV?

1 in 4 women and 1 in 10 per year