Gender and Crime Flashcards
(30 cards)
What types of crime are most commonly committed by women?
Property offences (excluding burglary), such as shoplifting and benefit fraud. Also includes prostitution.
What types of crime are most commonly committed by men?
Violent crimes (e.g., assault), sexual offences, white-collar crime, and corporate crim
What do prison statistics show about gender and convictions?
By age 40, around 9% of women have a conviction, compared to 32% of men.
Why might female offences be less detectable?
Women are more likely to commit minor or private crimes (e.g., petty theft), while men may choose more obvious, high-value targets.
What is Sex Role Theory (Parsons)?
Women commit less crime because of traditional gender socialisation and closer supervision. Boys lack male role models, leading them to seek masculine identity in delinquent peer groups.
Criticism of Sex Role Theory (Walklate)?
Assumes biological roles (e.g., nurturing) lead to behaviour, which oversimplifies gender differences.
What is Heidensohn’s Control Theory?
→ Women are controlled by patriarchy at home, work, and in public, reducing opportunities to commit crime.
Criticism of Control Theory?
→ Patriarchal control can push women into crime (e.g., domestic abuse victims), and increased equality may reduce control over women.
What is Carlen’s “Class and Gender Deals” theory?
→ Women conform to crime-free roles due to promises of material (class) and emotional (gender) rewards. If these aren’t available, crime becomes more likely.
Criticism of Carlen’s theory?
→ Based on a small sample, hard to generalise. Downplays agency by focusing too much on external forces
How does traditional socialisation reduce female offending?
→ Women are raised as “guardians of morality” and fear social stigma for acting in unfeminine or criminal ways, facing “double jeopardy” in society and courts.
What is the Chivalry Thesis (Pollak)?
→ Women appear to commit less crime because the criminal justice system (dominated by men) is more lenient toward them.
Criticism of Chivalry Thesis?
→ Increasing numbers of women in law enforcement challenge this idea. Women may be treated more harshly when they break gender norms.
What is Adler’s Liberation Thesis?
→ Female crime rates rise as women gain freedom from traditional roles, leading to more confidence and opportunity to commit crime.
Criticism of the Liberation Thesis?
Female crime began rising before women’s liberation; most female criminals are working class and unaffected by feminism.
What is the Feminisation of Poverty argument?
As women are more likely to live in poverty, they may turn to crime (e.g., theft or fraud) out of financial necessity.
What is Messerschmidt’s Masculinity Theory?
Crime is a way for men to assert and perform masculinity, especially if they can’t achieve it through work or success.
Criticism of Masculinity Theory?
Describes criminal behaviour but doesn’t fully explain it. Not all men use crime to show masculinity.
How does labelling theory explain male crime?
Men are stereotyped as violent and aggressive, which can lead to a self-fulfilling prophecy and push them into crime.
Criticism of the labelling explanation for male crime?
Not all men are affected by labels, and social roles are changing (e.g., rise in dual-income families).
How does opportunity affect male crime rates?
Men often have more access to commit both blue-collar (e.g., street) and white-collar (e.g., corporate) crimes.
Criticism of opportunity explanations?
Fails to explain motivations behind male crime. Just having opportunity doesn’t mean someone will offend.
What are examples of ‘masculine’ crimes men might commit?
Violence, gang-related activity, fraud, corporate crime – all used to assert power or dominance.
What is ‘double deviance’?
Female offenders are punished not only for breaking the law but also for violating gender expectations.
