Explanations Of Female Crime

• Functionalist sex role theory:

  -Draws on Parson’s gender roles-Men have the instrumental role and are often away from the house-Boys have lack of male role model in the home-Distance themselves from mothers due to ‘compensatory compulsory masculinity  = anti-social behaviour-Cohen suggests boys look at male street gangs for socialisation
• Heidensohn: Patriarchal Control Theory:

  -Women conform more to laws-Women are controlled and therefore lack opportunities to offend-Control at home = lack of financial power / domestic violence / confined time due to domestic tasks-Control in public = controlled by threat of male violence against them-Control at work = management normally male / sexual harassment
• New right agree with this view – they argue the absence of male role models leads to boys turning to gangs

  Walklate (2003) critics the biological assumptions of the expressive/instrumental roles.
• Patriarchy can lead to women committing crime (rebellion)
• Carlen: Class & Gender Deals

  -Working class women more likely to offend-39 women (age 15-26) interviewed (unstructured) on convicted crimes-Women are controlled by deals…1)The class deal = working will offer you a better standard of living2)The gender deal = will be rewarded when conforming to traditional gender roles-Women will commit crime if they do not get rewarded for the above.

  Demonstrates a correlation between control and crime

  Deterministic in assuming female crime is only caused by external rewards
• The Liberation Thesis

  -Adler – society is becoming less patriarchal and women are liberated… this will cause female crime to increase-As legitimate opportunities equal (work), so will illegitimate opportunities (crime)-Denscombe (2001) looked at self-image of Midlands female teens – girls wanted to be perceived as ‘hard’-

  Female crime began rising (1950) before women’s liberation movement (1960)

  Most female criminals are working class – the group least affected by women’s liberation