gender + crime

• gender patterns in crime

  women appear to commit less crime than men and commit different types of crimes

  4/5 convicted offenders in England and Wales are males

  higher proportion of males than females are convicted of violent or sexual offences

  males more likely to be repeat offenders and to commit more serious crimes - 5 times more likely to be convicted of homicide than women

  one of most common female crimes is shoplifting - may be necessities, more hiding places

  men may commit more crime due to socialisation differences and biological factors
• issues with official statistics


  female crimes less likely to be reported - shoplifting less likely to be noticed or reported than violent or sexual crimes

  women's crimes less likely to be prosecuted or are let off lightly
• chivalry thesis

  most people who work in the cjs are men and they are socialised to act chivalrous towards women - cjs more lenient towards women

  results in invalid statistics - women's crimes not evident in the stats

  Hood - studied over 3,000 offenders - found women were 1/3 less likely to be jailed than men for similar criminal behaviours - receive shorter sentences than men when jailed
• evaluation of chivalry thesis

  Farrington and Morris - studied sentencing of 408 offences of theft and found no significant gender difference in the treatment of men and women

  Buckle ans Farrington - observational study of shoplifting - witnessed twice as many males shoplifting as females however official statistics showed similar conviction rates between genders - shows females more likely to be prosecuted for this type of crime than males
• bias against women

  Heidensohn double deviance - women face harsher punishments and unfair treatment as they have deviated the law and the gender norms of women

  Carlen - women jailed more on the assessment of them as wives, mothers and daughters - judges more likely to jail women whose children were in care - example of patriarchy - mens abilities as fathers/husbands does not influence their sentence

  also evident in victims - female rape victims often seen as partly responsible based on how they were drinking, dressed or acting
• functionalist sex role theory

  boys socialised to be tough, play outside and engage in fighting, wrestling and playing with guns

  girls socialised to play with dolls, kitchens, teddies and to be passive and have a 'bedroom culture'

  boys socialisation leads them to be more prone to criminality and girls socialisation limits their opportunity to commit crime as they spend all their time at home
• evaluation of functionalist sex role theory

  ideas of bedroom culture are outdated since boys nowadays also spend more time in their bedroom rather than outside thus this would also limit their opportunities to commit crime
• patriarchal control

  women commit fewer crimes because patriarchal society imposes greater control over them which reduces their opportunities to offend
• what are the examples of patriarchal control

  control at home, control in public, control at work
• control at home

  women's domestic role of housework and childcare imposes restrictions on their time and movement confining them to the house for long periods of time and reducing opportunities to offend

  Ann Oakley - only 14% of men contributed highly to house work
• control in public

  women constantly at threat of being victimised when out in public e.g falling victim to violent or sexual offences

  sensationalised media reporting causes more panic over this

  women also controlled by fear of being defined as not respectable e.g being given a 'reputation' if dressing or acting a certain way - may avoid going to social places as a result
• control at work

  women in the workplace often victim of sexual harassment

  women are not in as high positions in the workplace as men therefore less likely to be involved in white collar crimes e.g most managers are men
• evaluation of heidensohn

  partriarchy may actually push women into crime for example inequalities in the workplace may lead to women in poverty turning to theft or prostitution as a means of survival
• class and gender deals

  working class women are generally led to conform through the promise of two types of 'deals' - the class deal and the gender deal

  class deal - women who work will be offered material rewards with a decent standard of living and leisure opportunities

  gender deal - patriarchal ideology promises women material and emotional rewards from family life by conforming to the norms of their domestic gender role

  if these deals are not available or not worth the effort, crime is more likely to happen
• broken deals


  working class women more likely to experience a broken deal

  broken class deal due to being stuck in low paid employment

  broken gender deal due to the partner not earning enough money

  working class women turn to crime to 'repair' the broken deal
• evaluation of class and gender deals

  unrepresentative - study only interviewed 39 women so cannot be generalised to all working class female offending
• liberation thesis

  feminist movement brought about changes in society's structure and status of women in the family, employment and social position

  women begun to adopt traditionally male roles in both legitimate and illegitimate activities

  women now commit more typically male offences such as violence and white collar crimes rather than shoplifting and prostitution

  women now have more opportunities to commit crime as more occupy senior positions at work so can commit crimes like fraud
• evaluation of liberation thesis

  most female criminals are working class and have not experienced women's liberation

  rise in female crime begun in the 1950s long before women's liberation from patriarchal control
• moral panic about girls

  females participation in violent crime is socially constructed and a result from a moral panic over young women's behaviour

  reports of girls binge drinking and girl gangs - cjs influenced by media stereotypes of girls and believed their behaviour was worsening

  leads to self-fulfilling prophecy
• functionalist sex role theory (males)

  socialised to be tough and aggressive and play with wrestling and fake guns - take part in more aggressive sports - more prone to criminality
• hegemonic masculinity

  men aspire to accomplish masculinity and some turn to criminal behaviour in order to be seen as masculine

  hegemonic masculinity - dominant form of masculinity - achieved through toughness, aggression, competitiveness, heterosexuality and subordination of women

  subordinated masculinity - present amongst men who have no desire or lack resources to achieve hegemonic masculinity e.g lower class men, gay men and some ethnic minority men
• evaluation of hegemonic masculinity

  deterministic to assume that the majority of men want to accomplish hegemonic masculinity

  ignores other causes of crime - hegemonic masculinity cannot be the root cause of crime as crimes are still committed by those who dont conform to hegemonic masculinity such as gay men and lower class men
• postmodernity

  studied bouncers in sunderland - working as bouncers provided young men with paid work and the opportunity for illegal business as well as the opportunity to demonstrate their masculinity using violence

  violence becomes a way of displaying masculinity as well as means of earning a living