2.9 Gender and crime content

• Women in all countries are convicted of fewer crimes than men and it is thought that this has been true throughout history.
• What does Pollack argue about the underestimation of female criminality?


  Argued that women were involved more than men in crimes that are unlikely to be reported/detected (such as shoplifting, prostitution and illegal abortions), that they are more adept than men at deception and that they are treated more leniently because the men who dominate these roles are taught to be chivalrous.
• What do self-report studies suggest about the gap between male and female offending?

  The gap between male and female offending is narrower than official statistics indicate.
• What does the chivalry thesis suggest?

  Women are convicted of fewer crimes, not because the commit less crimes but because they are treated more leniently.
• What do some critics of the chivalry thesis argue the reason for women being less likely to be reprimanded is?


  Because of the lesser seriousness of women's crimes and the different offending histories of men and women.
• What does Heidensohn argue against the chivalry thesis?


  Not all women are treated more leniently by courts but that female offenders are punished more harshly because they are seen as "double deviants", not only breaking the law but offending 'fundamental norms which govern sex-role behaviour'
• What does Smart argue about the treatment of female vs male offenders?

  It is not female but male offenders who are sometimes treated more sympathetically, particularly in the case of rape trials. Walklate adds that it is often the female victim rather than the male suspect who ends up on trial, women have to establish respectability if their evidence is to be believed.
• How is the CJS in the UK tackling gender equality in the system?

  Since 1991, UK governments have had to publish information that would reveal systematic discrimination in the CJS. Also, the CJS is now much less male-dominated in terms of its staff.
• What are the three main competing explanations of the gender gap in criminality?

  Biological theory

  Sex-role theory

  Control theory
• What is the biological approach, who came up with it and what are the issues?

  Lombroso and Ferrero's biological theory has been discredited but biosocial criminologists argue that evolution has produced differences in the biological makeup of men and women that explain the gender gap.
• What does sex-role theory point to?

  Differential gender socialisation to explain the gender gap
• How do feminists explain the gender gap?

  As a product of differential social control of men and women associated with patriarchy.
• What does Heidensohn argue about male-dominated patriarchal societies?

  Male-dominated patriarchal societies control women more effectively than they do men making it difficult for women to break the law.
• What does Heidensohn say about domesticity?

  Domesticity is a 'form of detention'
• In public what does Heidensohn argue women are controlled by?

  The male use of force and violence, by the idea of holding onto a 'good reputation' and by the 'ideology of separate spheres'
• What did Sunita Toor find in her study of British Asian young women and how does it support control theory?

  Found low rates of criminality as a result of 'key dynamics embedded in Asian cultures that effectively preclude female activity in criminal and deviant spheres.
• What does the liberation thesis argue?

  Put forward by Freda Adler it argues women's liberation was leading to higher rates of female offending as liberation increased women's access to illegitimate opportunity structures.
• What provides support for the liberation thesis?

  Media references to 'ladettes' 'girl gangs' 'shemale gansters'
• What does Heidensohn question about liberation thesis?

  Adler's use of arrest statistics. She argues that most of the women who commit crime and the ones least likely to have benefitted from liberation.
• How do Sharpe and Gelsthorpe oppose liberation thesis?

  Suggest that a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy may have operated where professionals involved in dealing with female offenders have been sensitised by the media to apparently new forms of female offending and have begun to respond more punitively.
• What does Carlen's work link and what does she argue?

  Links female offending to poverty and other kinds of deprivation. She argues that women offend when the 'class deal' and 'gender deal' fail to pay out.
• What does Messerschmidt argue crime can be?

  A way of demonstrating masculinity, but different groups of men have different opportunities to do this.
• What four things does Messerschmidt argue masculinity is characterised by?

  • Being paid for employment
  • The subordination of women
  • Heterosexuality
  • Being sexually active
• What do critics argue about Messerschmidt?

  The concept of masculinity is being over-extended in terms of the wide range of offending it is being used to explain and that Messerschmidt employs a circular line of argument.
• What did Winlow argue about masculinity and crime?

  De-industrialisation and globalisation have opened up new opportunities for young men to demonstrate masculinity and commit crimes by acting as door staff in the night-time economy.
• What have critics questioned about Winlow?

  The nature of the link between being a doorman and acting criminally.