Gender and Crime

Question 1

Francis Heidensohn year

Answer 1

1996

Question 2

Francis Heidensohn

Answer 2

Suggests gender differences are the most significant feature of recorded crime

Question 3

2021

Answer 3

Females represented just under a quarter of all those prosecuted, convicted and sentenced

79% of individuals dealt with by CJS in any capacity were male, 21% were female

Question 4

Parsons year 1955

Question 5

Parsons • Sex Role Theory • Gender differences in crime caused by differences in socialisation of males and females • Expressive and instrumental roles • Women socialised to be passive and conformist

Answer 5

less likely to commit crime• Expressive roles - caring for partners

Question 6

Parsons Criticisms • Outdated • Highly publicised criminal cases that disprove idea that traditional female characteristics inherent in women resulting in less crime • Myra Hindley - with partner Ian Brady

Answer 6

‘Moors Murders’

Question 7

Francis Heidensohn (1996) • Feminist perspective • Patriarchal control imposes control over women

Answer 7

reducing opportunities to offend • Three areas

Question 8

Heidensohn - Home • Home; ‘triple shift’ - confines women to homes for long periods of time• Men can further restrict opportunities to leave home for leisure by controlling family finances

Question 9

Garner and McRobbie • Teenage girls as young people highest rates of crime recorded • Young girls more strictly supervised than boys

Answer 9

more likely to socialise in bedrooms than streets or public places • Develop ‘bedroom culture’

Question 10

Heidensohn - Public • Women more likely to experince fear of crime than men

Answer 10

therefore controlled in public places by fear or threat of male violence against them

Question 11

Islington Crime Survey (2016) 54% women afraid to go out after dark for fear of becoming victims of crime

Answer 11

14% men

Question 12

Heidensohn - Workplace • Women’s behaviour controlled by male supervisors and managers • Often subject to sexual harassment and excessive supervision by male bosses

Answer 12

helps to ‘keep women in their place’ and limits opportunities to deviate through occupational crime • Subordinate positions

Question 13

Heidensohn Evaluation • Less outdated than sex role theory • May explain why most common crimes committed by women are online fraud or minor agencies such as TV licence evasion - most common offence women prosecuted for in 2021 • However

Answer 13

not all women live with a man

Question 14

Carlen year 1988

Question 15

Carlen research description Unstructured interviews

Answer 15

39 working-class women between 15 and 46 who had been convicted of range of crimes including theft

Question 16

Carlen • Argues humans act in a rational way

Answer 16

and are controlled by offering of a ‘deal’ or ‘reward’ in return for conforming to social norms • W/C women promised two types of deals;• Class deal - women who work will be offered material rewards

Question 17

Carlen Quote ‘Crime was the only route to a decent standard of living. They had nothing to lose and everything to gain’

Question 18

Carlen Evaluation • Explains a way in which society controls women through promised ‘deals’ which prevent them from offending through conforming to social norms • Explains why small number of women may offend when these rewards not forthcoming • However

Answer 18

some have argued theory sees women’s actions as entirely determined by external factors

Question 19

Women just as much as men

Answer 19

but get away with more evidence • Of crimes they do commit

Question 20

Ministry of Justice • Females represented just under a quarter of all those prosecuted

Answer 20

convicted and sentenced by criminal courts in 2021

Question 21

Chivalry Thesis • Men though to be ‘chivalrous’ towards women • Paternalism and sexism perpetrated by CJS

Answer 21

which is made up of male-dominated organisations such as police and courts

Question 22

Otto Polak year 1950

Question 23

Otto Polak ‘Men hate to accuse women and thus send them to their punishment

Answer 23

police officers dislike to arrest them

Question 24

Statistics to support polak Self-report studies found first-time female offenders about half as likely as male counterparts to be given sentences of immediate imprisonment

Question 25

Flood-page et al year 2000

Question 26

Flood-page et al Only 1 in 11 female self-reported offenders had been cautioned or prosecuted

Answer 26

compared to 1 in 7 males

Question 27

Hood Women a third less likely to be jailed than men in similar criminal cases

Question 28

Female offenders generally regarded... as less of a threat

Answer 28

more likely to benefit from informal approaches to offences such as cautions or warnings rather than formal charges• These require offender to admit offence before being issued

Question 29

Home Office Figures Women more likely to be discharged or given community sentences if charged

Answer 29

as opposed to paying fine or sentence

Question 30

National Association for the Care and Resettlement of Offenders Judges reluctant to give prison sentences to pregnant offender or those responsible for dependants

Question 31

Chivalry Thesis Criticisms • Disputed

Answer 31

particularly by feminists • Figures show are treated more leniently by CJS

Question 32

Heidensohn (1996) (chivalry thesis) Argues this is due to double standards in CJS

Answer 32

with women and girls sentenced more severely when they violate socially acceptable patterns of female behaviour

Question 33

Carlen (1988) (chivalry thesis) Argues system does not have bias in favour of women

Answer 33

rather one against • Views sentences of women as based not upon 'seriousness' of their crime

Question 34

Evidence against chivalry thesis Statistics and research have shown men generally far more violent than women

Answer 34

but given comparatively lighter sentences on more frequent occasions for similar levels of violent offences as they are perceived as just overstepping mark of what men expected to be like in most Western societies

Question 35

Conell year 2005

Question 36

Conell • Assertion of Masculinity Theory • 'Hegemonic masculinity' associated with traditional traditional image of masculinity in society

Answer 36

defining what it is to be a 'real man'

Question 37

Messerschmidt year 1993

Question 38

Messerschmidt • Suggests men sometimes turn to crime and violence as a means of asserting their masculinity when legitimate and traditional means of demonstrating status as a 'real man'

Answer 38

such as academic success

Question 39

Assertion of masculinity pros and cons • Theory also possible explanation for why middle and upper clas men commit crime

Answer 39

as well as white-collar and corporate crimes • Involves ambition

Question 40

Adler year 1975

Question 41

Adler • Liberation Theory • Views position of women in society as very outdated in other theories

Answer 41

instead acknowledges that although women commit far less crime than men

Question 42

Denscombe year 2001

Question 43

Denscombe • Rise of 'laddette' culture • Young women adopting behaviours traditionally associated with young men

Answer 43

and asserting their identity through binge drinking

Question 44

Criticisms of Liberation Theory Female crimes rates have been increasing since 1950s

Answer 44

but women's freedom movement began on large scale in late 1960s

Question 45

Cheney-Lind year 1997

Question 46

Cheney-Lind Women are taking part in more 'male' crimes

Answer 46

such as drugs related offences

Question 47

Steffensmmeier and Schwartz year 2009

Question 48

Steffensmmeier and Schwartz • Found whilst crime statistics were rising

Answer 48

no change in victim reports and surveys • Concluded there has been no 'actual' increase in female crime rates