Gender and crime Flashcards
(23 cards)
What patterns do official statistics show in gender and crime?
4/5 convicted offenders in England and Wales are males.
A higher proportion of male offenders than female are convicted for sexual offences.
A higher proportion of women are convicted for property offences.
Males are more likely to be repeat offenders.
What are two reasons sociologists believe that women commit more crimes than reorder of OS?
- Typical female crimes are less likely to be detected/ reported.
- Even when they are reported, they are likely to be prosecuted lightly or not at all (chivalry thesis).
What is the Chivalry thesis? And what does Pollak state regarding it?
Chivalry thesis:
Men act in a more ‘chivalrous’ way towards women, meaning they are more lieniant towards women.
Pollak: argues that men have a protective attitude towards women, ‘men hate the accuse women’.
What are official statistics that support the chivalry thesis?
Court statistics show that females are more likely to be released on bail and receive a fine rather than a jail sentence.
Women are a 1/3 less likely to e jailed in similar cases to men. Hood’s study of 3,000 defendants.
What are two criticisms of the chivalry thesis?
This theory is from the 1950’s so it’s outdated.
Feminists argue that the criminal justice system is biased against women.
What does Heidensohn state about bias against women?
Courts actually treat females more harshly than males when they deviant from gender norms and commit crimes.
This is due to double standards for women compared to men. Women that don’t conform to the accepted monogamous heterosexuality standards are punished more harshly.
What is Heidensohn’s view of the explanation of female criminality?
Control Theory:
Argues male dominated patriarchy societies control women effectively more than men.
This makes it more difficult for women to break the law.
So women don’t commit as much crime as they are subject to more control than men is three different sphere’s:
- Private domestic sphere
- Public sphere
- Work sphere
What is a criticism for Heidensohn’s control theory?
Seeing women as vulnerable victims unable of taking a stand but now women are no longer controlled as much as before.
E.g. Me too Movement.
What is Carlen’s view of the explanation of female criminality?
Class and Gender deal:
Unstructured interviews to study 30 w/c women 15-46 convicted of a range of crimes.
W/c women are lead to conform through the promise of two rewards/deals.
Class deal - women who work will be offered material rewards. E.g. decent standard of living and leisure time.
Gender deal - patriarchal ideologies promises women material and emotional rewards from family life. E.g. domestic bliss. By conforming to the norms of a conventional domestic role.
If a women fails to make a class deal such as finding work or struggle to make enough money without dependency as crime is the only route to a decent standard of living.
What are two criticism to Carlen’s Class and Gender deal?
It is too deterministic - not all w/c women in poverty will commit crime, ignoring they have free will and the choice of offending.
Small sample of women - unrepresentative.
What is Alder’s view of the explanation of women criminality?
Liberation thesis:
As women are becoming more liberated from the patriarchy due to social changes, their crimes will become more frequently and as serious as men’s.
Due to the lessening of patriarchy controls ad increased equality women have started to adopt traditionally ‘male’ roles legitimately and illegitimately. Therefore women committing more ‘male’ crimes. E.g. violent and white collar.
He further suggest that women carry out these crimes as they have more greater self-confidence and assertiveness due to the increase of opportunities.
E.g. increase in female criminality in the second half of the 20th century and the Aileen Wurnos case.
What is a criticism of Alder’s Liberation thesis?
Overestimates the extent of women’s liberation and the extent of female involvement in serious crimes.
What is an official statistic for females and violent crimes?
Hand and Dodd:
Between 200 and 2008, the number of females arrested for violence rose at an average of 17% each year.
What is an overall criticism of the media representation of women committing crime?
Burman and Batchelor:
The media depictions of young girls is a social construct which has resulted in a moral panic of young women’s behaviour.
What is Messerschmidt’s explanation of male criminality?
Hegemonic Masculinity:
Masculinity is a social construct which is seen as an ‘accomplishment’. The most prestigious form being hegemonic masculinity (dominant).
But can also have subordinate masculinity.
He sees crime/deviance as resources different men use for accomplishment masculinity. E.g. class and ethnicity differences.
What does Messerschmidt say about middle class white youths?
Case study:
Student drug dealers was spared by judge due to their impressive grammar.
Both students was lined up to study degrees with no previous convictions, as they have educational success, however, m/c boys can feel emasculated at school so search for it outside of school by committing criminal acts (oppositional masculinity).
Judge gave them 12 months of community service to avoid negative labels.
What does Messerschmidt say about ethnic minority w/c youths?
They struggle to find reasonably paid jobs, secure employment, meaning they are unable to construct masculinity through economic success by being the breadwinner.
Due to their deprivation they can’t express their masculinity through conspicuous consumption so turn to violence in and out of school, most likely to get involved in serious crimes.
What does Messerschmidt say about the tree specific crimes linked to hegemonic masculinity?
- White collar crime - glass ceiling effect.
- Domestic violence.
- Pimping.
What are two criticisms of Messerschmidt’s hegemonic masculinity?
Doesn’t give a solution to stopping male crime.
Too deterministic - not all men do this and not all male cries are committed due to masculinity.
What does Winlow state about Postmodernity, masculinity and crime?
Due to the globalisation shift from a modern industrialised society to a postmodern de-industrialised society.
Argues for Body capital. Under postmodern conditions in society, an organised professional subculture has emerged in the night-time economy. E.g. Bouncers replacing traditional manual w/c occupations.
Bouncers ‘look the part’, hence body capital as they have to gain physical assets through body building.
What is a criticism of Winlow’s study of body capital?
Can’t assume all men who are into fitness are going to use their physical assets to be violent.
What are three official statistics regarding gender and victimisation?
Females are most likely to be killed by a partner/ ex-partner.
Approximately 70% of homicide victims are male.
10x more women report being sexually assaulted than men.
Why do sociologists prefer to use victim surveys rather than official statistics when researching gender and victimisation?
They are able to gain more information about the victims then official statistics.
It’s anonymous.
Useful to understand the dark figure of crime.
