Week 9: Feminist Theories of Crime

Question 1

What is the definition of sex?

Answer 1

The biological components, chromosomal, chemical, and anatomical, that are associated with males and females

Question 2

What is the definition of gender?

Answer 2

A social construct that refers to a set of social roles, attitudes, and behaviours that describe people of one sex or another

Question 3

what are gender roles?

Answer 3

A set of behaviours that are considered acceptable, appropriate, and desirable for people based on their sex or gender

Question 4

What is gender socialization?

Answer 4

The process by which males and females are informed about gendered norms and roles in a given society

Question 5

What is gender identity?

Answer 5

A person’s identification, or sense of belonging to a particular sex, biologically, psychologically, and socially

Question 6

What did Society Historically say about Man and Women?

Answer 6

• As a society we have had rigid categories to define what it means to be a man or woman
• People who strayed from those categories were labelled as deviants and treated as such

Question 7

What is Hegemonic Masculinity?

Answer 7

• Considered dominant or ideal within society
• Often associated with toughness, bravado, aggression, and violence

Question 8

What is Emphasized Feminity?

Answer 8

• The need to support the interests and desires of men
• Associated with empathy, compassion, passivity, and focused on beauty and physical appearance

Question 9

What was the rise of Feminist Criminology?

Answer 9

• Early analysis of women were sexist
• Viewed female criminality as a departure from their natural female behaviour
• Social factors were given little to no importance

Question 10

What did Lombroso say about female criminality?

Answer 10

• Female deviance is biological destiny
• Females are “more primitive” than men
• Female deviants are masculine
• Lack maternal qualities

Question 11

What did Otto Pollak say about Female criminality?

Answer 11

• Low rates of female deviance are due to underreporting and leniency in prosecution and sentencing
• Women are cunning and deceitful

Question 12

What did W.I. Thomas say about Female Criminality?

Answer 12

• Female deviance caused by removal of social sanctions
• Female emancipation should be resisted

Question 13

What is the Relationship between Liberation and Crime?

Answer 13

• Changes came from the women’s rights movement
• Some criminologists believe that is girls were raised like boys their behaviour would be the same

Question 14

What is the basis of Rita Simon’s Women and Crime?

Answer 14

• Women’s entrance into the workforce would also increase their probability for white collar crime

Question 15

What are the 5 ways that Female Violence Changed in the1990s?

Answer 15

1. Less likely to act on their own (commit crime with a partner)
2. More likely to use guns
3. More likely to be motivated by a need for money and/or drugs
4. Have a family member who has been incarcerated
5. Less likely to have been arrested before 21

Question 16

What is Sisters in Crime (1976)?

Answer 16

• Supported the liberation thesis
• Women were committing more crime and engaging in traditionally male offenses

Question 17

What are 3 main criticisms of Liberation and Crime?

Answer 17

1. The empirical research does not support its predictions (increase in female arrests occurred before the women’s rights movement”)
2. Crime is more common among those women who did not achieve gender equality-those trapped in economically marginal positions
3. The liberation thesis did not consider the structural roots of the inequality between men and women

Question 18

What is Intersectionality Theory?

Answer 18

• A concept to describe the ways in which various aspects of identity interconnect on multiple and often simultaneous levels
• Coined by Kimberly Crenshaw

Question 19

What is Liberal Feminism?

Answer 19

• Focuses on the prominence of sex-role socialization and equality of opportunities
• More influence early in the feminist criminology movement

Question 20

What is Critical or Radical Approach Feminism?

Answer 20

• Emphasizes the structural inequality in power between men and women
• Focuses on the role of patriarchy
• Currently directs most theory and research within feminist criminology

Question 21

What occurs in Women’s Correctional Facilities?

Answer 21

• Pains of imprisonment may be much more severe for female offenders
• Female offenders adjust to life inside correctional institutions differently than males

Question 22

What is Chesney-Lind’s Theory of Patriarchy and Crime?

Answer 22

• The oppression of women, including their criminal victimization, is seen as a major cause of female offending
• Argues a need for gender-specific theories that take into account the role of patriarchy and the gendered experiences of women

Question 23

What is the Feminist Theory of Female Delinquency?

Answer 23

• Argues girls are frequently the recipients of violence and sexual abuse and can do little to fight back against their abusers
• Patriarchy is conducive to such abuse because females are, in general, objectified as sexual property
• Parents often insist on their daughters arrest
• Escape from abuse is not easy and leads to a pathway to crime for girls
• The backgrounds of adult women in prison show virtually all were victims of physical and/or sexual abuse as children