Why do differences between genders exist?

• Inaccurate Statistics

  • Statistics on crime are not necessarily accurate.
  • Statistics show that men commit more crimes than Women, but this may not always be the case.
  •  Women tend to commit less visible crimes that are less likely to be detected and then less likely to be reported and recorded e.g shorfliting.
• Different Socialisation

  • Gender socialisation encourages men and women to adopt traditional gender based characteristics. E.g men = being aggressive and rough, women = more emotional and less competitive. 
  • These make many women avoid the risk-taking involved in crime.
• Opportunities to Commit Crime

  • During teen years girls are more likely to spend time with their friends in their bedrooms , and in primary socialisation the also do more literate activities as well  = bedroom culture.
  • If they go out parents will insist  on taking them there and picking them up. 
  • Meaning women as they grow up will feel more uncomfortable to go outside on their own as in their early years they didn't ever really do this as much as boys.
• Social Control

  • In some cases men have more control over women, men may push women into family centred-roles, housewife. 
  • This doesn't give women the opportunity to commit crime. 
• Social Control

  • Women face the glass ceiling - an invisible barrier of gender discrimination that makes it difficult to to reach the top positions in their jobs.
  • This then restricts women's opportunities to engage in white collar crime- e.g fraud. 
  • Women also face the threat of losing their reputation if they do deviant behaviour. - may be condemned by men for a lack of femininity - puts great pressure on women to conform to that on men.
• Chivalry Thesis

  The idea that the police force which is male dominated and the criminal justice system treats women that commit crime more leniently because of their gender.
• Is this pattern changing? 

  • Men commit more crime than women , but this pattern is slowly changing, there is a growing number of crimes committed by women. 
  • Over the last decade the number of women prosecuted has risen by 6%.
  • The number of men prosecuted has fallen by a third.
  • Women are still underrepresented amongst those prosecuted as being (27%).
• Is this pattern changing?

  • Women are more likely to be sentenced to fines and conditional discharges and less likely to be sentenced to custody. 
  • Women receive a shorter sentence on average, although the gap has increased over the last decade.
  • Decrease in male crime rates between 2022 and 2014, where female crime rate has increased, but did decrease in 2010.