Feminist Explanations

• Control theory


  Explains why women commit fewer crimes than men, in terms of the way girls and women are controlled by men, leaving them with fewer opportunities to commit crime
• According to Heidensohn, girls are controlled by fathers and male siblings, have to be home earlier than their brothers and have less time when they are unsupervised
• Heidensohn argued that this control, both by family members and social expectations, continues for women in adulthood. They go from being controlled by fathers to being controlled by husbands
• Carlen concluded that working-class women made a class deal and a gender deal that generally kept them under control, but these deals were really exploitative