Topic 5 - Gender, crime and justice

Who observes gender patterns in crime

• Heidensohn and Silvestri

• Gender differences are the most significant features of recorded crime

• Three out of four convicted offenders in Eng and Wales are male

Are men more likely to be repeated offenders

• Yes

• More likely to be repeated offenders and to have a longer criminal career and commit more serious crimes

• Men are about 15 times more likely to be convicted of homicide

Who argues the chivalry thesis

• Pollack

What did Pollack identify about men’s attitudes towards women

• Men have a more protective attitude towards women

• This means they often dislike to arrest them, prosecute them or find them guilty

How does the chivalry thesis impact official statistics

• Women’s crimes are less likely to show up in official statistics

• Gives an invalid picture and exaggerates the extent of gender differences in crime

Who’s research found that even though males were more likely to offend the difference was smaller than recorded in official statistics

• Graham and Bowling’s

• Found that sample of 1721 14-25 year olds found even though males were more likely to offend, the difference was smaller than recorded in official statistics

• Males were 2.33 times more likely to admit to committing crime where official statistics showed men as 4 times

Who showed the difference in self reporting study

• Flood-Page et al

• 11 female self-reported offenders have been cautioned or prosecuted

• Figure for male was one in seven self reported offenders

How does official statistics for shoplifting differ for men and women

• one in nine female offenders receive a prison sentence for shoplifting, but one in five males

Who found that women were not sentenced leniently

• Farmington and Morris

• Study of sentencing 408 offences of theft found that women were not sentenced more leniently for comparable offences

Evidence of underreporting of male crime against women

• Yearnshire - women typically suffer 35 assaults before reporting domestic violence

Who evaluates chivalry thesis due to bias against women (deviate from gender norms)

• Heidensohn

• Courts treat female harshly when they deviate from gender norms

• E.g. women who dont conform to accepted standards of monogamous heterosexuality and motherhood are punished more harshly

Who evaluates chivalry thesis due to it not taking to account the seriousness of the crime

• Carlen

• When women are jailed it is less for the seriousness of their crime and more according to the courts assessment of them as wives, mothers and daughters

• Found that Scottish judges were more likely to jail women who’s child were in care than women who they saw as good mothers

Who found that rape cases it is the victim who has to prove their respectability

• Walklate

• In rape cases it is not the defendant who is on trial but the victim

• Victim has to prove her respectability in order to have her evidence accepted

Who argued the first gender difference in crime being biological

• Lombroso and Ferraro

• Criminality is innate and very few ‘born female criminals’

• Higher testosterone in males can account for gender differences in violent offending

Three main explanation of gender differences in crime

• Sex role theory - functionalist

• Control theory - feminist

• The liberation thesis - feminist

Who argued the functional sex role theory

• Parsons

What does parsons argue in the sex role theory

• Due to the gender roles in conventional nuclear family, women perform socialisation which young boys reject

• Causes ‘compensatory compulsory masculinity’ which causes ASB and acts of delinquency

Who supports the sex role theory and argues that lack of adult male role models causes all-male street gangs

• Cohen

• Lack of adult role models means boys turn to street gangs as a source of masculine identity

Who criticises parsons sex role theory for its biological assumptions

• Walklate

• Parsons assumes that as women have the biological capacity to bear children they are best suited to the expressive role

Who argued that the control theory explains female offending

• Heidensohn

What does Heidensohn mean by patriarchal control explain females patterns in committing crime

• Patriarchal society imposes greater control over women and reduces their opportunity to offend

How is patriarchal control present at home

• Women perform domestic roles which confines them to the house for long periods of time, reduces opportunity to offend

• Daughters develop bedroom culture, socialising with families and friends

How is patriarchal control present in public

• Fear or threat of male violence against them, e.g. SA

• Sensationalising media reports of rape adds to women’s fear

• Fear of being defined as respectable

• Lees - school boys maintain control though sexualised verbal abuse

How is patriarchal control present at work

• Controlled by male supervisors

• Women are kept in subordinate positions and reduces opportunity to commit crime at work like white collar crime

How may patriarchy push women to commit crime

• Women are more likely to be poor so commit more crime such as theft or prostitution to gain a deceit standard of living

What was Hirschi definition of control theory’s

• Humans act rationally and are controlled by being offered a ‘deal’ of reward in return from conforming to social norms

Who argues that WC women are led to conform to gender ‘deals’

• Carlen

What are the two deals/rewards that are promised

• Class deal - women who work is offered material reward with decent standard off living and leisure opportunities

• Gender deal - patriarchal ideology that promises women material and emotional reward from family life by conforming to norms of conventional domestic gender roles

How has the class deal failed

• WC women failed to find a legitimate way to earn a decent living

How has the gender deal failed

• Many women saw few rewards in this such as being abused by partner

What did Carlen conclude about why women commit crime

• Stems from oppressive family life, oppressive families and other contributing factors

Evaluation of Heidensohn and Carlens argument

• Accuse women’s crime as being caused by an external force

• Undermines the use of free will

• Small sample that Carlen used

Who argues the liberation thesis

• Adler

What does the liberation thesis argue

• As women become more liberated from patriarchy, women’s crimes become more frequent than men’s

How has this created opportunities to commit crime on a greater scale

• Women now have jobs in legitimate structures

• Gives them greater access to white collar crimes which are typically ‘male offenders’

Criticism of liberation thesis (incl liberation movement)

• Female crime rate began rising in the 1950s long before women’s liberation movement which emerged in the late 1960s

Evaluation to liberation thesis - which group more likely to be liberated

• Cheney-Lind

• WC women are more likely to be liberated than MC women to be criminal

• Black and difference - overestimates the extent to which women have become liberated and if they are able to engage in violent crime

Is there a moral panic about girls

• Burma’s and Batchelor

• Depictions off young women as drunk and disorderly, out of control looking for fights

• Increasing of prosecuting of young women accused of violent offences

Who argues hegemonic masculinity in why men commit crime

• Messerschmidt

• Men wish to accomplish hegemonic masculinity

How do white WC youths show hegemonic masculinity

• Less chance of educational success so masculinity is gained through deviant acts such as truancy

• Seen in Willis lads

Criticisms of Messerschmidt hegemonic masculinity

• Some men have subordinate masculinity like gay men and some ethnic minority men

• Is it an explanation of why men commit crime or an explanation of men who offend

• Does not explain why not all men use crime to explain masculinity

• Overgeneralises the types of crime from theft to embezzlement

Who argues that a shift towards a postmodern society caused more male crime

• Winslow

Explain windows postmodernity, masculinity and crime argument

• Study of bouncers in Sunderland, de-industrialisation and high unemployment

• Working as bouncers in pubs and clubs provided young men with opportunity to demonstrate masculinity through use of violence

• Draws upon Cloward and Ohlin subcultural theories

What is bodily capital

• Bounces developing physical assets by bodybuilding, men creating condition fir growth of an organised criminal subculture