Masculinity And Crime

• Gender identity


  A vital part of the individual's sense of self - it is something that people accomplish
• People are continuously trying to express and present their masculinity or femininity
• In relation to crime


  Men commit crime as a means of constructing this masculinity to express to others and themselves
• Masculinities

  • Shaped by social class, ethnicity, age and sexual orientation
• Men's position in society

  Provides them with different access to power and resources which leads to different constructions and expressions of masculinity - and this leads to different types of crime
• Hegemonic masculinity


  The most dominant form of masculinity, which is defined through work in paid labour, the subordination of women, heterosexism and the uncontrollable sexuality of men
• Most men wish to accomplish hegemonic masculinity
• Globalisation

  • Has led to the loss of many traditional manual jobs
• In the past, men were able to express their masculinity by

  Hard physical labour and providing for their families
• To replace this

  1. A night time leisure industry has been created

  2. Where men can work as security in clubs, bars and pubs
• Working as bouncers

  • Provided young men with paid work
  • Opportunity for illegal business ventures in drugs and alcohol
  • Ability to demonstrate their masculinity through the use of violence
• Winlow used bouncers in Sunderland to demonstrate this idea


  • High levels of deprivation
• This has provided a combination of legal employment, criminal opportunities and a means of expressing masculinity
• Eval


  •Is masculinity an explanation of male crime, or a description of offenders?•Not all men commit crime to crime to accomplish masculinity•Uses the explanation of ‘masculinity’ to explain ALL crimes
• Paul Willis


  British sociologist, born in Wolverhampton, studied at Birmingham and Cambridge universities, leading British cultural theorist, Professor of Social/Cultural Ethnography at Keele University, author of "Learning to labour"
• Paul Willis' study


  • Studied a group of 12 working-class boys during their last year and a half in school and their first few months at work
  • Conducted a series of interviews and observations within a school, with the aim of discovering why 'working class kids get working class jobs'
• 'Lads'


  Working class boys who expressed a negative attitude to academic work and also showed strongly racist and sexist attitudes, tried to drink and smoke to become part of a more adult world, thought that manual work was far more important than mental work, recognised that there was no such thing as an equal opportunity for them in a capitalist society
• 'Ear 'oles'


  School conformists, the complete opposite to the lads when it came to academic progress, followed the school rules, respected their teachers, and committed to their education, looked down on by the lads as they were seen as wasting their time at school by not being able to have fun or be independent
• Lads rejecting school

  Mentally prepared themselves for a place in the workforce invariably at manual level
• Having a laugh was important for the lads in both school and work situations as a means of dealing with boredom, authority and repetitiveness