Functionalist sex role theory

• Parsons sex role theory

  Theory focuses on gender socialisation and role models in nuclear family to explain gender differences in crime
• Parsons

  Women perform expressive role at home, primary socialisation > gives girls adult role model

  • boys reject feminine models that express emotion > distance themselves and take part in ‘compensatory, compulsory masculinity’ = aggression, risk taking
  • men take instrumental role performed outside the home, makes socialisation difficult for boys
• Cohen

  Absence of an adult male role model in the home = boys more likely to turn to all male street gangs as a source of masculine identity > earn status through delinquent acts

  • Right realists = absence of male role models in matrifocal lone parent families leads to boys delinquency