Adler

Freda Adler:

  • Until the late 1960s, criminology was perceived to be malestream - that is men studying men

  • With social changes in the late 1960s and the rise of second-wave feminism, there was a growth in female criminology

  • Adler's liberation thesis was one of the first to explore rising female criminality

Liberation thesis:

  • Traditionally, women had been restricted to the domestic sphere

  • This limited both their legitimate and illegitimate opportunities

  • Social changes meant women had more access to employment opportunities

  • More opportunity to be involved in illegitimate means - i.e. crime

  • Empowerment of women increased self-confidence to challenge feminine stereotypes

  • Increased strain to become providers for themselves and their families

  • Socialisation of girls into being more assertive and a greater focus on being financially independent

Rising female criminality:

  • This is evidenced by the rising number of females involved in crime

  • Movement from traditional criminality into masculine areas of crime, such as violence, fraud and even white-collar and corporate crime

  • In the 1950s, 1 in 7 crimes in the UK was committed by women - now 1
    in 4

Contemporary applications:

  • Moral panics about girl gangs in the early part of the 21st century

  • Media creation of 'ladette' in the 1990s - displaying masculine behaviours

  • Increased focus on female criminality in the media

Evaluations:

  • Female crime rose before the impacts of second-wave feminism, despite the strong correlation between crime and second-wave feminism

  • Laidler and Hunt (2001) - traditional gender roles of girls in
    gangs

  • The impact of second-wave feminism was mostly on the middle class with traditional gender roles still present in the working class