Gender crime and justice

Gender statistics

• 9% of women have a conviction by age 40, compared to 32% of males.

• A higher proportion of women are convicted of property crimes like burglary

• Males are more likely to be repeat offenders, have longer criminal records, and commit more serious crimes.

• ¾ convicted offenders in england and wales are men

what do sociologists say about female crime

• Some claim that even when womens crimes are reported, they are less likely to be prosecuted or the women is let off lightly

• ‘Female crimes’ are less likely to be reported, such as shoplifting going unnoticed compared to male violence.

• Sociologists/ criminologists argue stats underestimate the amount of female crime

Arguments FOR the Chivalry thesis: Pollak

says that men are socialised to be respectful and protective of women, and because men make up the CJS, women are treated leniently.

Arguments FOR the Chivalry thesis: Graham and Bowling

sample of around 1.7k 14-25 year olds suggest female offenders are treated more leniently- official stats show men 4x more likely to offend whereas the study found they were only 2x more likely to admit to committing one.

Arguments FOR the Chivalry these: Flood-Page et al

1/11 self-reported female offenders got a caution/were prosecuted, compared to 1/7 self reported males.

Arguments FOR the Chivalry Thesis: Court stats

females more likely to get bail, or fine/community sentence instead of incarceration.

Arguments AGAINST the Chivalry thesis: Double deviance thesis

women are treated more harshly by courts they’ve deviated from both law and gender norms

Arguments AGAINST the Chivalry thesis: Hales et al

self report study shows men are more likely to be offenders in all major offences

Arguments AGAINST the Chivalry thesis: Yearnshire

men’s crimes against women go unreported (women suffer 35 assaults before reporting domestic violence)

Arguments AGAINST the Chivalry thesis: Sharpe

 court has double standards, youth worker records show 7/11 girls referred for support due to being sexually active, compared to 0/44 boys.

Arguments AGAINST the Chivalry thesis: Stewart

magistrates view of female defendants is based on stereotypical gender roles, not their actual offence.

Heidensohn Control Theory, explaining why women commit less crime

Women lack the opportunity to commit crime because of their patriarchal role in society.

This is through:

Control at home: in house doing housework/childcare, less opportunity to offend

Control in public: fear going out at night due to male threats, fear of not being respected so would avoid pubs etc which are a crime site.

Control at work: male managers/supervisors control their behaviour and keep them in their place, limiting women from top positions to commit white collar crime

Carlens study on class and gender deals

Used unstructured interviews to study 39 15-46 yr old WC women who were convicted of crime like theft, fraud, drugs, sex work etc.

Argues WC women are led to conform through 2 deals

Class deal: working women are offered material rewards, decent living standards and leisure opportunities

Gender deal: women conforming to the traditional gender roles in return get material and emotional rewards from family life.

How does Carlen explain why women turn to crime

Carlen argues women turn to crime when the reward isn't worth the effort of the deal/deals available.

Women in the study failed to get the class deal felt powerless and oppressed: 32 of them were always in poverty, some found prison qualifications didn't get them a job

Women in the study found gender deal to have disadvantages or never had the opportunities to make the deal: some were abused by fathers/experienced domestic violence, others spent time in care which broke family bonds

Evaluation of Carlens Class and Gender deal study

Shows how patriarchal failing to uphold its ends of the deal lifts the control stopping women offending, but Carlens sample is small and therefore unrepresentative of non-serious offenders and other classes.

Parsons: Sex Role Theory

Crime differences come from socialisation of instrumental and expressive roles

Girls are less prone to crime because they are taught to be caring, gentle and nurturing, and have a female role model

Boys are ore crime prone because they are taught ro reject female role models, emphasising toughness

Criticism of Parsons Sex Role theory

Walklate: critices parsons for making biological assumptions, matching women to the expressive role just because they bear children.

Alder: Liberation thesis

Female crime has increased due to womens changing position in society. Due to more equality in society, women now have more access to illegitimate structural opportunities as they have work and education opportunities to gain access to these roles. Women aren't confined to ‘female crimes’ but also ‘male crimes’

Hands and Dodds: Females and violent crimes

 between 2000-08, female arrests for violence role by 17%/year -supporting the liberation thesis

The criminalisation of females

Net-widening; there hasn't been a rise in female crime, the justice system has just started arresting women for less serious offences than before.

This concern about rising female crime may just be a moral panic about girls’ behaviour, as media depictions showed them as drunk and disorderly/out of control/looking for fights.

Gender and Victimisation

Homicide: victims 70% men, and female victims are more likely to know thier killer as 60% of the time it was a partner/ex partner

Violence: overall men are mostly victims, but more women are victims of intimate violence (stalking, domestic and sexual assault).

This suggests that even though men are victims more, females have a greater fear of being a victim

General criticisms of Alders liberation thesis

Female crime rates were rising in the 50’s, women’s liberation emerged in the 60’s .

Even though more women are now involved in ‘male crime’ like drugs, it's linked to prostitution which is not liberated.

Most offenders are WC, the group least affected by liberation.

Laidler and Hunts criticisms of Alders liberation thesis

 little proof of illegitimate structure being opened to women- females in gangs still expected to conform to conventional gender roles

What does Messerschmidt say about masculinity

He argues masculinity is a social construct that men are constantly trying to work towards constructing and presenting to others.

Messerschmidt 2 masculinities

Different masculinities exist in society but hegemonic masculinity is defined via- work in paid labour markets, subordinating women, heterosexism, and driven/ uncontrollable sexuality of men.

Some men have subordinate masculinities , where they don't have the resources to be dominant or have no desires to do so.

Messerschmidt White MC youth masculinity

subordinate themselves to teachers to get middle-class status. They have this accommodating masculinity in school, and an oppositional one outside where they engage in drinking/ pranks/vandalism.

Messerschmidt White WC youth masculinity

have less chance of education success, so hae oppositional masculinity in and out of school

Messerschmidt Black lower WC youth

have less expectations of a reasonable job due to racism, so use gangs/violence to express masculinity, or use property crime for material success.

Messerschmidt’s conclusion of masculinity

acknowledges that MC men may use corporate crime to accomplish hegemonic masculinity, while poorer groups use street crime for a subordinated masculinity.

Criticisms of Messerschmidt

Its a circular argument

Theory doesn't explain why not all men use crime to accomplish masculinity

Concept is overworked- using masculinity to explain crimes from joy-riding to embezzlement

Bodily capital: Winlow

Postmodernity saw the rise of professional criminal subcultures, fueled by illegal business opportunities in night-time economies, where violence is used to express masculinity and earn a living.

Men use their bodily capital like body building to deter people from challenging them and seem tougher.

Winlow says this is maintaining the value of their bodies to discourage people from challenging them. This reflects the post modern idea that signs have a reality of their own independent of the thing to represent.

Winlow’s study showing how de-industrialisation leads to opportunities for violence

Winlow studies bouncers in Sunderland, where there is high unemployment and de-industrialisation

He found men here had opportunities for paid for, access to illegal business ventures like drugs, and a way to express masculinity through violence

Winlow: traditional industry declines, while service industry expands, what does this mean for masculinity and crime

Where traditional industry has declined, the service sector (night-time leisure economy of clubs/bars and pubs) has expanded.

Here, some young WC men have found this provides them with legal employment, access to criminal opportunity structure and a way of expressing their masculinity

How has globalisation led to more male crime

Globalisation has shifted us from the modern industrial society to a postmodern de-industrialised society.

This has led to the loss of traditional manual jobs that WC men used to express their masculinity via hard physical labour and providing for the family.