Gender Patterns in Crime

Question 1

Give statistics that show that men commit more crime

Answer 1

• 3/4 convicted offenders in England and Wales are male
• By the age of 40, 9% of females have a criminal conviction, as against 32% of males

Question 2

Give statistics that show significant gender differences in crime

Answer 2

• A higher proportion of women than men are convicted of property offences (burglary). A higher proportion of men are convicted of violence or sexual offences
• Males are more likely to be repeat offences, to have longer criminal careers and to commit more serious crimes. e.g. men are about 15 times more likely to be convicted of homicide

Question 3

Outline the 2 arguments that suggest that female crime is underestimated by statistics

Answer 3

• Typically ‘female’ crimes are less likely to be reported. e.g. shoplifting is less likely to be noticed or reported than the violent or sexual crimes committed by men often.
• Some claim that even when women’s crimes are detected or reported, they’re less to be prosecuted, or if prosecuted, it’s a light sentence

Question 4

Describe the chivalry thesis

Answer 4

• This thesis argues most criminal justice agents (police officers etc) are men who are socialised to act in a ‘chivalrous’ way towards women.
• Pollak argues that men have a protective attitude towards women
• This criminal justice system is thus more lenient with women so are less likely to end up in official statistics which then exaggerates the extent of gender differences in rates of offending

Question 5

Describe self-report studies that support the chivalry thesis

Answer 5

• Self-report studies (where people are asked what crimes the have committed) suggest women are treated more leniently
• Flood-Page et al found only 1 in 11 female self-reported offenders had been cautioned or prosecuted, the figure for males were over 1 in 7 self-reported offenders

Question 6

Give official statistics that support the chivalry thesis

Answer 6

• Court statistics appear to support the chivalry thesis e.g. only 1 in 9 female offenders receive a prison sentence for shoplifting
• Hood’s study of over 3,000 defendants found that women were about 1 third less likely to be jailed in similar cases

Question 7

Describe evidence against the chivalry thesis

Answer 7

Farrington and Morris observed 408 cases of theft in a magistrates court and found that women weren’t sentenced more leniently

Question 8

Describe self-report studies that provide evidence that males commit more

Answer 8

• Young men are more likely than females to report binge drinking, taking illegal drugs or engaging in disorderly conduct
• Hales et al found that they were significantly more likely to have been offenders in all major offence categories

Question 9

Describe the under-reporting of male crimes against women

Answer 9

• The chivalry thesis ignores how many male crimes don’t get reported
• e.g. in 2012, only 8% of females who had been victims of a serious sexual assault reported it to the police while Yearnshire found that a women typically suffers 35 assaults before reporting domestic violence
• Crimes of the powerful are also under-represented in self-report and victim surveys, and these are mor likely to committed by men

Question 10

Describe the bias against women theory

Answer 10

• Many feminists argue the criminal justice system is biased against women. Heidensohn argues the courts treat females more harshly when they deviate from gender norms
• Through double standards, courts punish girls but not boys for premature sexual activity. Sharpe found that 7 out of 11 girls were referred for support because they were sexually active but none out of the 44 boys
• Women who don’t conform to accepted standards of monogamous heterosexuality and motherhood are punished more harshly

Question 11

Describe bias against women in custodial sentences

Answer 11

• Carlen argues that when women are jailed. it’s less for ‘the seriousness of their crimes and more according to the court’s assessment of them as wives, mothers and daughters’
• Girls whose parents believe they’re out of control are more likely to receive custodial sentences than girls who live more ‘conventional lives’
• Carlen found Scottish judges were more likely to jail women whose children were in care than women who they saw as good mothers

Question 12

Give evidence for double standards in the criminal justice system

Answer 12

• There are several cases of male judges making sexist, victim-blaming remarks. e.g. Smart quotes Judge Wild as saying that ‘If she doesn’t want it she only has to keep her legs shut’.
• Walklate argues, in rape cases, it’s the victim on trial, not the defendant, as she has to prove her respectability to have her evidence accepted