Gender, Crime and Justice

The Chivalry Thesis

• Argues that most criminal justice agents (police officers, magistrates, judges – usually men) are socialised to act chivalrously towards women.

• Pollak: Men have a protective attitude towards women – “Men hate to accuse women and thus send them to their punishment; police officers dislike arresting them.”

• This results in the criminal justice system being more lenient towards women.

• Female crimes are less likely to appear in official statistics, giving a false picture of gender differences in offending.

Self-Report Studies (Support Chivalry Thesis)

• Graham and Bowling: Studied 1,721 14–25-year-olds. Found males were 2.33 times more likely to offend – far lower than the 4:1 ratio in official statistics.

• Flood-Page et al: Only 1 in 11 female self-reported offenders were cautioned or prosecuted, compared to 1 in 7 males.

Official Statistics

• Support some chivalrous treatment:

  • Women more likely to be released on bail.

  • More likely to receive a fine or community service than imprisonment.

  • 1 in 9 female shoplifters receive prison sentences compared to 1 in 5 males.

Bias Against Women (Feminist Critique of the Chivalry Thesis)

• Heidensohn: Courts punish women more harshly when they deviate from gender norms.

Double Standards

• Girls punished more for sexual behaviour than boys.

  • Sharpe: In analysis of 55 youth worker records, 7 of 11 girls were referred for being sexually active – none of the 44 boys were.

Stereotyping and Gender Roles

• Stewart: Magistrates judge female defendants based on their conformity to gender norms (e.g., being a good mother).

• Carlen: Women’s sentences often depend more on their roles as mothers and daughters than the seriousness of the offence.

  • Scottish judges more likely to imprison women whose children are in care.

Patriarchy in the Criminal Justice System

• Smart: Quotes Judge Wild – “Women who say no do not always mean no…” – evidence of sexist, victim-blaming attitudes.

• Walklate: In rape trials, it is often the victim, not the defendant, who is on trial.

• Adler: Women who lack “respectability” (e.g. single mothers, punks) struggle to have their testimonies believed in court.

Functionalist Sex Role Theory

• Differences in gender crime due to different gender socialisation.

• Parsons: Gender roles in the nuclear family explain differences in crime:

  • Men = instrumental role (breadwinner, outside home)

  • Women = expressive role (socialise children at home)

• Boys reject “feminine” behaviours like tenderness and emotion, instead express “compensatory compulsory masculinity” through aggression and delinquency.

• Cohen: Lack of adult male role models means boys turn to all-male street gangs for masculine identity.

• New Right: Absence of a male role model in matrifocal lone-parent families leads boys to seek status in gangs.

Criticism

• Walklate: Parsons assumes biological capacity for childbirth makes women best suited to expressive roles – an outdated and sexist assumption.

Patriarchal Control (Heidensohn)

• Women conform more due to patriarchal control in:

  • The home

  • Public spaces

  • The workplace

Control at Home

• Women’s domestic role limits time/opportunity to commit crime.

• Men may enforce domestic roles through financial control or violence.

  • Dobash and Dobash: Violence often results from dissatisfaction with a woman’s performance of domestic duties.

• Daughters are more strictly controlled, leading to a "bedroom culture" – socialising indoors, less street crime.

Control in Public

• Fear of male violence and sexual assault restricts freedom.

  • Islington Crime Survey: 54% of women avoid going out after dark, compared to 14% of men.

• Media exaggerates rape dangers, increasing fear.

• Girls avoid certain spaces (e.g., pubs) to protect reputation.

  • Lees: Boys use verbal abuse to control girls (e.g., labelling as "slags").

Control at Work

• Male-dominated workplaces; widespread sexual harassment keeps women “in their place.”

• Glass ceiling prevents women from reaching senior positions where white-collar crime opportunities exist.

Paradox

• Patriarchy may also push women into crime:

  • More likely to be poor → may turn to theft or prostitution for income.

Liberation Thesis

• If patriarchy controls women’s deviance, then liberation = more female crime.

• Adler:

  • Women’s liberation = rise in female offending.

  • Women adopt traditionally male roles in both work and crime (e.g., white-collar crime, violence).

  • Rise in female share of crime: from 1 in 7 (1950s) to 1 in 6 (1990s).

  • New female criminals: more assertive, confident, ambitious.

Criticism

• Most female criminals are working-class – not significantly affected by liberation.

  • Chesney-Lind: US working-class women more criminalised than liberated.

• Laidler and Hunt: Female gang members still conform to traditional gender roles.

• Evaluation: Adler overestimates how far opportunities have opened up and how many women are actually engaging in serious crime.

Masculinity and Crime

• Messerschmidt: Masculinity is a social construct – something men constantly try to achieve.

  • Hegemonic masculinity: Dominant ideal – defined by paid work, subordination of women, heterosexuality, aggression.

  • Subordinated masculinities: e.g. gay men, working-class men without resources.

• Crime can be a way for some men to accomplish masculinity.

Examples:

• White middle-class boys: “Accommodating masculinity” in school; express masculinity through drinking, pranks and rebellious outside school.

• White working-class boys: Oppositional masculinity both in/out of school – sexism, toughness, rejecting authority.

• Black working-class boys: Low expectations for employment; express masculinity via gangs, violence, property crime.

Criticisms

• Circular reasoning: Is masculinity causing crime, or is crime used to define masculinity?

• Doesn’t explain why all men don’t turn to crime.

• Overuses the concept of masculinity to explain all male crimes.

Postmodernity, Masculinity and Crime (Winlow)

• Globalisation led to a shift from industrial to post-industrial society:

  • Loss of manual jobs → decline in traditional masculinity.

  • Rise in night-time economy (clubs, pubs, bars) → new opportunities for masculine expression.

Winlow’s Study: Bouncers in Sunderland

• Bouncers gained legal employment and access to criminal opportunities:

  • Drugs, tobacco smuggling, protection rackets.

  • Violence became a commodity and a way to “do masculinity.”

• Reflects Cloward and Ohlin’s distinction between criminal and conflict subcultures:

  • Sunderland had a conflict subculture (violence for respect), but now organised crime (professional criminal subculture) has emerged.

Bodily Capital

• Physicality becomes a form of capital.

  • Bouncers use bodybuilding to “look the part” and deter threats.

  • Image (muscular body) becomes a symbolic sign of masculinity – not just ability to fight, but to signal power.