Explaining Female Crime

Question 1

Describe the biological explanation of gender differences in crime

Answer 1

• Lombroso and Ferrero argued that criminality is innate, but that there were very few ‘born female criminals’
• Biological factors such as higher levels of testosterone in male can account for gender differences in violent offending
• But sociologists take the view that social factors are the cause of gender differences

Question 2

Describe the functionalist sex theory

Answer 2

• Early socialisation explains gender differences in rates of criminality. Boys are encouraged to be tough and aggressive while girls are expected to be calmer and more nurturing
• Parsons argues differences in crime are due to the gender roles in the conventional nuclear family. While men tend to be the breadwinner, women take on a nurturing role and socialise children. While this gives girls a role model, Parsons argues, boys reject the ‘feminine’ model of behaviour (expressing tenderness etc) and then seek to display excessive ‘masculinity’ which leads to delinquency

Question 3

How is the functionalist sex theory supported by the New Right?

Answer 3

NR theorists ague that the absence of a male role model in matrifocal lone parent families leads to boys turning to criminal street gangs as a source of status

Question 4

What are criticisms of the functionalist sex theory?

Answer 4

• Walklate criticises this theory for its biological assumptions and Parsons assumes that women have the biological capacity to bear children
• Although the theory tries to explain gender differences in crime in terms of behaviour learned (socialisation), it’s ultimately based on untested biological assumptions about sex differences.

Question 5

What are the 2 main feminist approaches to explaining women’s patterns of crime?

Answer 5

• Control theory
• Liberation thesis

Question 6

Describe control theory

Answer 6

• Heidensohn argues that the most striking thing about women’s behaviour is how conformist it is, as they commit fewer and less serious crimes
• She argues this is because society controls women which reduces their opportunities to offend. This patriarchal controls occurs at home, in public and at work

Question 7

Describe how women are controlled at home

Answer 7

• Women’s domestic role (housework and childcare) imposes restrictions on their time and confines them to the house, reducing their opportunities to offend.
• Women who try to reject the domestic role, are forced by their partners. Dobash and Dobash show many violent attacks result from men’s dissatisfaction with their wives’ performance of domestic duties. Mne also use financial power, e.g. denying women sufficient funds for leisure activities
• Daughters are also controlled. Girls are less likely to be allowed to come and go as they please, so they develop ‘bedroom culture’ and are socialised at home, meaning they have less opportunity to engage in deviant behaviour in the streets

Question 8

Describe how women are controlled in public

Answer 8

• They’re controlled by the threat or fear of male violence against them. e.g. the Islington Crime Survey found that 54% of women avoided going out after dark for fear of being victims of crime, as against only 14% of men.
• Sensationalist media reporting of rapes adds to women’s fear. Distorted media portrayals of the typical rapist as a stranger who carries out random attacks frightens women into staying indoors

Question 9

Describe how women are controlled at work

Answer 9

• Sexual harassment by male supervisors and managers is widespread and helps keep women ‘in their place’.
• Women’s subordinate position reduces their opportunities to engage in major criminal activity at work. e.g. the ‘glass ceiling’ prevents many women from rising to senior position where there’s greater opportunity to commit fraud, so they’re less likely to be involved in white collar crime

Question 10

How could patriarchal control push women into crime?

Answer 10

Heidensohn recognises that, e.g. women are more likely to be poor and may turn to theft or prostitution to gain a decent standard of living

Question 11

Describe Carlen’s study on female crime

Answer 11

• Carlen interviewed 39 15-26 year olds WC females who had been convicted of a range of crimes including theft, fraud, handling stolen goods etc. 20 were in prison or youth custody at the time of the interviews
• While she recognises that there are some MC females offenders, she argues most convicted serious female criminals are WC

Question 12

Describe Carlen’s class and gender deals

Answer 12

• Carlen uses a version of Hirschi’s control theory to explain female crime. Hirschi argues humans are controlled by being offered a ‘deal’ of rewards in return of conforming to social norms. People turn to crime if they don’t believe in the rewards or if the rewards of crime appear greater
• Carlen argues that WC women are generally led to conform thorough the promise of 2 types of ‘deals’: The class deal (women who work will be offered material rewards), the gender deal (patriarchal ideology promises women rewards from family life by conforming to the norms of a domestic gender role)
• If these rewards aren’t available or not worth the effort, crime is likely

Question 13

Describe how the WC women in Carlen’s study didn’t conform to the class deal

Answer 13

• Women failed to find a legitimate way of earning a decent living and this left them feeling powerless, oppressed and the victims of injustice.
• 23 of then has always been in poverty and many experiences problems and humiliations in trying to claim benefits
• As they had gained no rewards from the class deal, they felt they had nothing to lose by using crime to escape from poverty

Question 14

Describe how the WC women in Carlen’s study didn’t conform to the gender deal

Answer 14

• Most women had either not had the opportunity to make the deal, or saw few rewards of family life
• Some had been abused physically or sexually by their fathers or domestic violence by their partners

Question 15

Give evaluation for Heidensohn and Carlen’s approaches to female crime

Answer 15

• Both control theory and feminism can be accuses of seeing women’s behaviour as determined by external forces such as patriarchal controls or class. Critics argue this underplays the importance of free will and choice in offending
• Futhermore, Carlen’s sample was small and may be representative, consisting as it largely of WC and serious offenders.

Question 16

Describe the liberation thesis

Answer 16

• If patriarchy explains control and lack of criminality, then Adler argues the more liberated become from patriarchy, the more frequent and serious their crimes will become
• Adler argues that changes in society have led to changes in women’s offending behaviour. e.g. patriarchal control has lessened and opportunities in education and work have become more equal, women have begun to adopt traditionally ‘male’ roles in both legitimate activity (work) and illegitimate activity (crime)
• Women then no longer commit to traditional ‘female’ crimes (shoplifting), they now commit typically ‘male’ offences (violent). This is because women’s greater self-confidence and their increased opportunities

Question 17

Give evidence that supports the liberation thesis

Answer 17

• Both the overall rate of female offernding and the female share of offences rose during the 2nd half of the 20thc. e.g. between 1950s and 90s, the female share of offences rose from 1 in 7 to 1 in 6.
• Denscombe found females were as likely as males to engage in risk-taking behaviour and girls were adopting more ‘male’ stances, such as the desire to be in control and look ‘hard.

Question 18

Give criticisms of the liberation thesis

Answer 18

• Female crime rate began rising in the 1950s (long before the women’s liberation movement) which emerged in the late 1960s
• Most female criminals are WC (the group least likely to be influencing by women’s liberation) which has benefited MC women much more
• Adler may exaggerate the extent to which women have become liberated and the extent to which they are now able to engage in serious violent crime

Question 19

Describe statistics that support the increase in the female arrest and convictions for violent crime

Answer 19

• Hand and Dodd found, between 2000 and 2008, police statistics show the number of females arrested for violence rose by an average of 17% by each year.
• If these are an accurate picture of offending, it suggests females are increasingly committing typically ‘male’ crimes

Question 20

Describe the criminalisation of females

Answer 20

• Steffensmeier and Schwartz argue that there has been no change in women’s involvement in violence. They argue that the rise in arrests is due to justice system ‘widening the net’ (arresting females for less serious forms of violence than previously)
• e.g. Chesney-Lind argues policies of mandatory arrests for domestics has led to a rise in female violence statistics in the USA. Where a couple fight, both may be arrested, even though it’s likely that the women is the victim

Question 21

Describe the gender differences in levels and types of victimisation

Answer 21

• About 70% of homicide victims are male. Female victims are more likely to know their and killer and 60% of these cases, it was a partner or ex. Male victims are more likely to be killed by a friend or acquaintance
• Fewer women than men are victims of violence overall, but more woken are victims of intimate violence