The Criminal Justice System: Gender Bias

Does the Criminal Justice System have Gender Bias? - Chivalry Thesis Perspective

Yes

• Female crimes are underrepresented in official crime statistics - CJS is more lenient on them

Does the Criminal Justice System have Gender Bias? - Double Deviance Perspective

Yes

• When women do commit crime the CJS is harsher on them - societal expectations of women

What does the Chivalry Thesis argue?

CJP is more lenient towards women

Which perspective does Pollak take?

Chivalry Thesis

What does Pollak argue about CJS?

women appear less often in official crime statistics - CJS is ‘chivalrous’ towards them

• police, judges, and magistrates are more likely to treat women leniently

According to Pollak, why is the CJS more ‘chivalrous’ towards women?

system’s protective attitude towards women reflects traditional gender roles and stereotypes of women as passive, weak, and needing protecting

• female offending: under-reported and under-recorded

What evidence did Haralambos and Holborn find to support the Chivalry Thesis?

• women are more likely to receive a caution instead of being prosecution

• more likely to be given a pre-court sanction (rather than being taken to court)

• less likely then men to be sent to prison

What evidence did Self-Report studies find to support the Chivalry Thesis?

female suspects were more likely to be cautioned compared to men

What evidence did Hood find to support the Chivalry Thesis?

compared the sentencing of men and women in court - men were more likely to be given custodial sentences compared to women

What is the main criticism by Farrington and Morris about the Chivalry Thesis?

Sentencing guidelines are up to judges discretion

• mitigating factors: age, first offence, impact on victim, caring responsibilities

• although men appear to have more harsh sentences, these differences disappeared when the severity of offences were taken into account

• severe cases = not much of a difference

What does the idea of Double Deviance argue?

CJS far from chivalrous - double standards for women who commit crimes

What evidence does Walklate use to support the argument of Double Deviance?

Rape trails - women complaints are often not taken seriously

• female victims often have to persuade the court that they are ‘respectable’ women

What does Heidensohn argument about Double Deviance?

there are double standards in the CJS for women who commit crime - double deviant

• deviant for breaking the norms of society

• deviant for breaking norms of femininity and how women should behave

women are divided into virgins or whore, witches or wives

What evidence does Heidensohn use to support the idea of Double Deviance?

Sexually promiscuous girls are more likely than promiscuous boys to be taken into care

• women are divided into virgins or whore, witches or wives - treated differently

How does Carlen support Heidensohn’s argument about Double Deviance?

women are jailed not for the seriousness of their crimes - rather the courts assessment of them as wives, mothers and daughters

Does Hedderman believe that the CJS being a gendered system is right?

Yes - men and women are different and should be punished differently

• women are more likely to have caring responsibilities - should be punished with a community approach

Which perspective does Heidensohn take?

Double Deviance