gender and crime

• Crimes women are more likely to take part in

  • Stealing - nappies,meat etc
  • Prostitution
  • Benefit fraud - likely to get money from the government
  • Forgeries e.g. identity theft
  • Drug related offences
• Reasons why women commit crime

  • They are a single parent and need to provide for their children
  • There are many cases whereby their spouse is not paying for their child and if they do it is child benefit which is based on 10% of their earning
  • As there is only one income coming in many lone parents suffer from poverty
  • It is known that women are less likely to be searched than men so their partners may ask them to carry drugs for them
• Crimes that are more likely to be committed by men

  • Murder
  • Rape
  • Kidnapping
  • Domestic violence
  • Possession of an illegal weapon
• Reasons why men commit more crime

  • Status frustration
  • Crisis of masculinity - idea of a man has changed according to society and they don't know what their role is now
  • Gender socialisation - men are raised to be more aggressive
  • Men are biologically more stronger than women and use it against them in the case of domestic violence
  • Gender roles - men are supposed to be breadwinners which could lead them to commit crime in order to provide for their families
  • Girls and younger women are more closely supervised and controlled than boys so they have less opportunity to commit crime
  • Media sell sex, pornography - men react to this more as they have more testosterone
  • Peer pressure and media stereotypes may encourage boys to get more involved in macho and aggressive behaviour
  • Men have less responsibility for caring and looking after others which means they have more opportunities to commit crime
• Similarities between the crimes of males and females: both can be money related, both can be drug related offences
• Differences between the crimes of males and females: crimes committed by men tend to be more aggressive
• Heidenson's views on why women don't commit much crime

  • Patriarchal control operates at home, work and in public
  • At home - Bedroom culture
  • At work - glass ceiling - prevents women rising to senior positions where there are more opportunities for white collar crime
  • In public - women fear sexual violence, fear of being defined as not respectable
• Chivalry factor


  The idea that men and society look after women and the judiciary system is lenient on women because they are weak and need protecting
• Women are less likely to receive custodial sentences than men
• Women are more likely to receive warnings than men
• Courts are likely to impose lighter sentences on women than men
• Judges may not imprison women who have children
• Carlen's views on why women commit crime

  • Women commit crime because they don't believe they will get rewards or if the rewards of crime appear greater than the risk
  • Working class women are led to conform through the promise of two deals: Class deal - women who work will get a decent standard of living, Gender deal - women who conform to the conventional domestic gender role will gain the material and emotional rewards of family life
  • Some had been abused by partners/fathers, Half had spent time in care, They gained nothing from either deal so felt they had nothing to lose by using crime to poverty
• Women earn 17% less than men
• Only 8% of women are CEOs in top companies
• 2 women a week die at the hands of domestic violence
• Claire's law 2013


  A woman or a man has the right to know if the person they are seeing has a history of violence (domestic violence)