Gender, Crime and Justice

Question 1

What does feminism as a theory try and do with other theories of crime?

Answer 1

• Offers a new critique on them, and breaks down the notion that women are simply victims of crime and should be studied in their own right as offenders also.

Question 2

What do Feminists argue that society does as a result of patriachy?

Answer 2

• Discourages deviancy amongst women (social control).

- Generates crimes committed by men against women (social control).

Question 3

What do feminists argue about the invisibility of crime?

Answer 3

• Gender issues and female offending have been ignored in the study of crime.
• Studies have generally been about male offenders and deviants.
• Female victimisation is largely ignored particularly in relation to domestic violence & sexual violence.

Question 4

Why might female crime be less detectable?

Answer 4

• If women are carrying out their traditional role in the traditional nuclear family, the role in which women traditionally play may shield women from the rest of society and cause their crime to be hidden.
• Crimes may not all get reported – particularly with domestic violence where there is still a stigma around men admitting that they are a domestic violence victim.

Question 5

What do feminists focus on?

Answer 5

• Female offending, women’s treatment by the criminal justice system, female victimisation and the gender gap in offending.

Question 6

Complete the sentence:

If we are to believe official _____ it seems that men are ____ likely than women to commit _______.

Answer 6

• Statistics
• More
• Crime

Question 7

Complete the sentence:
____ are responsible for around four known offences compared to every one _____ offence, and are ____ likely to be ___ offenders.

Answer 7

• Men
• Female
• More
• Repeat

Question 8

Complete the sentence:

Men are much more likely to be found ____ or cautioned for ______, than _______.

Answer 8

• Guilty
• Offending
• Women

Question 9

Complete the sentence:

Men are ___ times more likely to be found guilty or cautioned for ____ offences.

Answer 9

• 50

- Sexual

Question 10

Complete the sentence:

Men are ___ times more likely to be found guilty or cautioned for _______.

Answer 10

• 14

- Burglaries

Question 11

Men are around ____ times more likely to be found guilty or cautioned for drug _____ and robbery.

Answer 11

• 8

- Offences

Question 12

Men are around ____ times more likely to be found guilty or cautioned for _____ damage.

Answer 12

• 7

- Criminal

Question 13

What do official crime statistics show about gender and offending?
Give at least one example.

Answer 13

At least one from:

• A higher proportion of female than male offenders are convicted from property offences (except burglary).
• A higher proportion of male, than female offenders are convicted of sexual or violent offences.
• Men are more likely to have longer criminal carers and to commit more serious crime e.g. men are 15 times more likely to be convicted of homicide.

Question 14

What do control theorists argue about gender, crime and justice?

Answer 14

• Women experience higher levels of control than men in all spheres of life. Agencies of social control restrict women’s opportunities to commit crime.
• Males dominate (and therefore women are controlled) in all areas of life: both the public and private spheres.

Question 15

How can the control theory perspective on gender, crime and justice be evaluated?

Answer 15

• This theory only looks at why people choose not to commit crime, but fails to consider why people choose to commit crime.

Question 16

What did the Home Office (2008) find?

Answer 16

• First time female offenders are half as likely to be given a sentence of immediate imprisonment as men.
• Female offenders are generally treated as less serious than male offenders. As such they are more likely to receive minor punishments such as cautions and warnings.

Question 17

Complete the sentence:
Although _____ still commit ____ crime than women, the pattern is _____ changing. For example, in 1957, men committed _____ times more offences than women and in 2008 men committed _____ times more offences than men.

Answer 17

• Men
• More
• Slowly
• 11
• 4

Question 18

Complete the sentence:

- The number of ____ offences in England and Wales between ____ and 2007 rose by ______.

Answer 18

• Female
• 2004
• 25%

Question 19

What are reasons why women are underrepresented in official statistics?
Give at least two examples.

Answer 19

At least two from:

• They may not always report that they have been a victim of crimes, especially domestic violence.
• Police may not always report crimes committed by women.
• Women don’t fit the stereotype that people imagine would commit crime.

Question 20

Why might female crime be in the increase?

Give at least two reasons.

Answer 20

At least two from:

• Women are less economically dependent on men so have the freedom to make their own choices and lead their life in the way they want to.
• Being less economically dependent on men means that women will need some form of income to support their family, but if they cannot achieve this by having a job, then they may turn to crime as a way of creating an income to support their family.
• In society, it is now more acceptable to be more masculine.

Question 21

Why might males commit more crime than females?

Give at least two reasons.

Answer 21

• Stereotypical gender roles and traditional ideas about what it means to be a man may mean that men feel pressured to commit crime as a way of showing their masculinity.
• If they are expected to be a breadwinner, but cannot do so by legitimate means, they may turn to crime in order to be able to provide for their family.