gender and crime

• Alder- liberation thesis 


  women have more freedom than in the past and greater levels of academic success. they now have more leisure time away from home- more time to commit crimes
• Denscombe- Ladette Culture

  young women increasingly likely to engage in traditionally male pursuits- drinking, risk taking etc
• why do men commit more crime?

  sex role theory- men’s traditional role is ”breadwinner”- this gives men more independence and opportunity to commit crime

  labelling- men are more likely to be labelled as potential criminals and treated as such by the police

  control theory- men have less to lose relating to their reputation
• chivalry theory 


  women who commit crime are awarded more lenient sentences than males- women are viewed as the loving mother so judges have sympathy for them
• statistics 


  increased women crime- in 1957 men were responsible for 11x as many offences as women. in 2014 it was only 3x