booklet 2: social distribution of crime & deviance

Heidensohn

malestream in criminology

focus on male offenders with research done by male criminologists

Chivalry factor

women get away with more with the police and the courts due to the system treating women more leniently because they are women

Pollack - men traditionally have a protective attitude towards women

doubly deviant

feminist sociologists argue that women are treated more harshly by the criminal justice system

judged more negatively because committing crime is not regarded as feminine - so they are also going against gendered social norms

Messerschmidt

normative masculinity - socially approved idea of what a real man is

defines masculinity through the subordination of women, economic success, power and control

seen as an accomplishment which depends upon the male’s access to power and resources

therefore, men with less economic power exert their masculinity through violence - crime

eval of Messerschmidt

is masculinity an explanation of male crime, or just a description of male offenders (e.g. being tough & controlling)

Katz

postmodernist

committing crime provides thrills, which men often find attractive

offender also takes an angle of moral superiority over the intended victim - ‘making a fool of their victim’

men’s relative freedom in society compared to women allows them to engage in this thrill-seeking behaviour more

Lyng

postmodernist

young males search for pleasure through risk-taking

edgework - at the edge between security and danger

e.g. car theft or searching for violent confrontations with other groups of males

Winlow

postmodernist

area of deindustrialisation and unemployment - globalisation leading to decline in male-dominated manual labour (mining & shipbuilding)

overall greater insecurity in postmodernist society

night-time economy

men working as bouncers in the pubs and clubs, providing young men with both paid work and opportunities for illegal business ventures & to demonstrate their masculinity through violence

sex-role theory

women are less likely to commit crime because there are core elements of the female role that limit their ability and opportunity to do so

sex-role theory - socialisation

Parsons - childrearing is the responsibility of the mother, leading to girls having a clear role-model to follow who is caring

Farrington & Painter - female offenders are more likely to have had harsh or erratic parenting with little support or praise, leading to them seeking alternative sources of validation through crime

sex-role theory - social control theory

females are more closely supervised at home during childhood, which continues into later life - role of women is more constrained

Heidensohn - wide range of informal sanctions to discourage women from straying from ‘proper’ behaviours

e.g. demands of childcare & domestic labour limit opportunities

sex-role theory - marginalisation

women have a narrower range of roles, which limits their opportunities to commit crime

eval of sex-role theory

underplays the importance of free will and choice in offending

Carlen

class deal - working class women are controlled by the possibility of a reasonable paid job and the ability to buy consumer goods to enjoy a decent quality of life

gender deal - working class women are controlled by the possibility of decent relationships and having children

only when these deals are broken that women turn to crime - little to lose & something to gain

eval of Carlen

small sample of study using only 39 female prisoners, so may be unrepresentative

class & gender deals are deterministic, so ignores free will and choice

Liberationist Perspective - why more women are committing crime today?

Adler - as women become liberated from the patriarchy, their crimes will become more serious and frequent

equality leading to women adopting masculine roles in legitimate and illegitimate work

leading to more women committing masculine offences (e.g. violence and white-collar crimes)

Sharpe & Gelsthorpe

widening the net leading to increase in female offenders

police are arresting women for less serious forms of violence than before

linking to concerns regarding moral panics about girl gangs

why is corporate crime relatively invisible?

the media - limited coverage reinforces the idea that most crime is committed by the working class

lack of political will - politicians who are ‘tough on crime’ are often only referring to street crime, serves the interests of the ruling class

is corporate crime becoming more visible?

campaigns against corporate tax avoidance and whistle-blowers within organisations has meant that there is more media coverage of corporate crime

Box - strain theory link to corporate crime

if a company cannot achieve success by legitimate means, they may employ illegal ones instead

mode of adaptation - innovation, may be tempted to bend the rules for profits

Nelken

corporate crime is de-labelled, as businesses have the power to avoid labels using accountants and lawyers to avoid their activities being labelled as criminal

Sutherland

differential association

crime is a behaviour learned from others in social context

if a company has a culture of illegal practices, employees will be socialised into this criminality

culture of business may favour competitive and aggressive personality types who are willing to commit crime to achieve success

Box - marxism on corporate crime

capitalism has successfully created ‘mystification’ that corporate crime is less widespread or harmful than working class crime

capitalism controls the state, enabling laws to be created and enforced in the interests of the powerful

Phillips and Bowling

many ethnic minorities argue they are ‘over-policed and under-protected’ - limited faith in the police

black people are 7x more likely to be stopped and searched

Asian people are 2x more likely

stop & search patterns

P&B: many officers hold negative stereotypes about ethnic minorities as criminals, leading to deliberate targeting for stop and searches.

canteen culture - endorses and upholds these negative stereotypes

ethnic minorities are more likely to be young, unemployed, manual workers and urban dwellers - all groups that are more likely to be stopped and searched