Seminar Flashcards
What does it mean to say crime is a primarily male activity?
Stats
Men are convicted at a higher rate than women
MoJ 2014:
in 2013 75% of all guilty offences were male
Soothill et al., 2002
35% of males born in 1958 will have had a criminal conviction by the age of 35
only 9% of women
Rowe & Ash, 2008
Youth crime and justice survey 2006
offences most frequently committed by women throughout their lives is theft and assault
Sex/Gender
Biological distinction more complex than just genitalia
Gender an identification of male or female based on historical, social and cultural norms and beliefs change over time
Generalisability problem
Do theories used to describe male crime apply to women too?
Smart, 1976 - criminological theories are held out to be a general explanation of crime, but in fact they are in about male crime with women seen in negative terms
Gender blindness
Why do female commit less crimes than males?
- ignored in literature
The ratio of male to female crime is ignored
Until the 1970s academics were mostly male
Gelsthorpe and Morris, 1988
gender blindness is not a trivial oversight, it carries social and political significance
moreover, theories which do not address gender are not merely incomplete they are misleading
Carlen, 1992
there cannot be a true feminist criminology because other than patriarchy, there are no innately feminist theoretical concepts
men and women often commit crimes for the same reasons
Feminist perspectives are:
Anti positivist - critical of stereotypes of women and interested in methodologies that are sympathetic to these concerns
theories are weak if they don’t apply to half of the population
women experience the same deprivation, family and structure that men do - important to understand why they don’t commit crime often, given this
BUT… traditional theories could argue that women are included in the theories
Stanley & Wise, 1983
4 main themes linking feminism and research in social sciences:
- women should be visible
- research should be on, by and for women
- non sexist methodologies should be employed
- practical import and political impact
Pollak, 1950
women are more inclined to commit criminal offences when during periods of hormonal disturbance
Dalton, 1961
almost 60% of imprisoned women in her sample, had committed crimes within a 16 day period of hormonal changes due to menstruation
History
courts have been prepared to reduce sentences when women are experiencing hormonal disturbances
women who kill newborns - reduced sentence due to post natal depression - infanticide act 1925 to guide sentencing - but not defence
women have been given probation for manslaughter
women receiving abuse for long periods of time can be given manslaughter as opposed to murder
Criminologists views
unhappy about proving abuse of women to reduce to manslaughter charge - feel that it reinforces views of women as inferior - when in fact this law should apply for all defendant who were provoked/at risk of serious harm - coroners and justice act 2009 - created a new defence of loss of control - fear of serious violence
concerns in recent work
Messerschmidt -
critical of radical feminism for the assertion that all men are violent and all women are victims
his theory is based on gendered crime -
hegemonic - assumption of power in society without the use of force - hegemonic masculinity
subordinated masculinity - discredited or oppressed masculinity such as homosexual
Men utilise the resources available to assert masculinity
if other outlets are unavailable to males they may turn to crime
Men use crime to reinforce gender - different ethnicities etc.
‘doing gender’ - assertion of gender
COMPLETELY IGNORED WOMEN
Miller, 2002 -
analysis of doing crime, ignores women and it isn’t adequate to explain female participation in what is usually considered male crime such as theft etc.
