gender and crime

• statistics on gender and crime

  men are more likely to commit crimes and much more likely to commit violent crimes

  for example, accounting for 90% of murders
• marginalisation of crime

  some feminist sociologists would suggest that the marginal position of women in a patriarchal society means that they commit fewer crimes than men
• control theory

  the idea that women and girls are controlled more than boys and men are
• Heidensohn - control theory

  girls are controlled by fathers and other relatives until they are married when they are then controlled by their husbands
• evaluation of the control theory

  some would argue that this is outdated and that women are much more independent now
• sex role theory

  gender role socialisation, gender roles and gender identities reduce the likelihood of female criminality

  parsons - argues that girls are set up for their expressive roles as mothers
• Pollak - the masked female offender

  argued that the statistics seriously underestimated female crime and that women are well practiced at deceiving men and concealing crime

  for example - nearly all shoplifting offences are carried out by women
• chivalry thesis

  mostly male law enforcement officers tend to attempt to protect women from the criminal justice system out of gentlemanliness
• men in the CJS and women

  men are more likely to be lenient with women and therefore, they are less likely to appear on crime statistics
• evaluation of the chivalry thesis

  woman may receive more lenient sentences because they are committing less serious crimes
• evaluation of the social distribution of crime by gender

  many of these ideas are outdated

  liberal feminists would argue that women have achieved greater equality over the last few years