Crime and Gender Flashcards
Statistics
- Official police statistics show that 80% of criminals in society are men.
- Men tend to commit more violent offences-
- Men have higher rates of recidivism
- women have lower conviction rates, but this is steadily rising
- its not clear whether women really commit less crime or not.
Do women commit less crime? YES
Reasons for this:
> Biological differences between men and women - men more extravert (confident, risk taking) aggressive and impulsive (acting first, thinking later) due to testosterone
EVAL - doesn’t explain why females rates have been increasing over time - violent crimes committed by females has triple in the last few years.
> Early socialisation - boys play with toys that involve an element of violence, girls play with non violent toys.
EVAL for this - this explanation only explains violent crimes and not crimes like fraud.
Frances Heidensohn (2002) Social Control
according to feminist Heidensohn, patriarchal society enforces an ‘ideology of separate spheres’ which can confine women preventing them from being able to commit crime, this occurs in three ways:
1. women continue to take the domestic responsibilities in homes, family life etc. In this way “domesticity is a form of detention” for women, therefore they have limited chance to commit crime.
EVAL for this - changing family and households trends contradict this argument, men are starting to take household roles etc.
2. In cases where women work, their experiences of sexual harassment are common, with up to 60% experiencing some form of intimidation from males. Fighting these crimes prevents them from being able to commit crime themselves.
EVAL for this - there has been a clear march of progress in changing this harassment, for example, sex discrimination law provides protection for the women.
3. patriarchal control women face means women are less happy to go out late at night in fear of rape or harassment, therefor there is less chance of them committing crime.
EVAL for this - the rise of the nocturnal economy has seen huge growth, both men and women enjoy nights out and there is little evidence of young women not going out due to fear.
Pat Carlen (1988) Women, crime and poverty
the main reason for women’s lack of crime is linked to ‘class-deals’ and ‘gender deals’ promise women a life that does not need to involve crime.
CLASS DEAL - promises that by being educated and holding down a good job, they will be financially secure.
GENDER DEAL - promises that in marrying a man and having children they will be looked after and not need to commit crime.
- Carlen conducted interviews with 39 women who had been in prison, she found that their involvement in crime was the result of the ‘class deal’ and ‘gender deal’ not being accessible to them.
- many of these women had violent upbringings, prostitution and drugs blighted their life as young adults.
EVAL - interviewing 39 women with criminal records isn’t necessarily a representative sample.
Sunita Toor (2009)
Crime and Conformity among British-Asian Girls
Research focuses on low criminality of British-Asian girls.
Carried out in-depth interviews with 5 Asian girls, aged between 16 and 18 who were involved in crime and deviance.
> their involvement in crime brought a strong sense of sense of dishonour and shame upon the girls, but also their families.
> One of the girls had been beaten by parents after they were caught being involved in crime, another was slapped by her mother.
> strong cultural expectations within British-Asian families along with strong patriarchal control over girls in society provides a explanation for the low crime rates within British-Asian families.
EVAL - very small sample of only 5 girls, therefore may not represent all British-Asian families.
Women commit crime, but it goes unnoticed
there is an illusion women commit less, this is not however as big of a difference as people think
Otto Pollak (1950)
Biological explanations
women are expert at telling lies, they have the perfected ability to cover up the pain of their monthly menstrual cycle.
> As such, they can easily talk themselves out of trouble, whereas men can’t - this explains the perception in society that men commit more crime and women don’t commit crime.
EVAL - his research lacks sufficient data scientifically.
> his ideas don’t make sense of changing female crime rates.
Problems with OCS
Female criminality is severely under-represented in the OCS, men are expected to be victim of a female offender in 1 of 6 within domestic violence.
> this is under-represented due to men under-reporting this as it is not alpha of the man - meaning women getting away with it.
> furthermore crime like prostitution is not reported much as there is no real ‘victim’ as it is a service benefitting both sides of the ‘crime’.
Chivalry thesis/factor
chivalry means treating others, especially women with respect and kindness.
> most officers are men and they have more tolerance of women who offend and are likely to let them get away with it.
> in 2009, 11% of women, yet 18% of men convicted of shoplifting were given a custodial sentence.
Hillary Allen (1989)
looked at motoring offences and found that despite committing the same offence 73% of women, but only 54% of men were fined - showing men went to prison instead implying women were treated better than men.
EVAL - since Allen’s study there have ben technological advances like speed cameras - if someone is speeding they are caught no matter their sex.
Sandra Walklate (2001)
observes rape trials - found that women who are brave enough to report rape, when in court they are questioned and made the victim in court.
> they make questions than imply they are blaming the women for being raped - like what they wore, or how much she had to drink and how flirtatious she was.
> only around 5% of rape trials end in convictions .
