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Crime and Gender (Introduction (Official Statistics (Official statistics…

- - - - Between 85 and 95 per cent of offenders found guilty of burglary, robbery, drug offences, criminal damage or violence against the person are male. Although the number of offenders is relatively small, 98 per cent of people found guilty of, or cautioned for, sexual offences are male.
        
        90,000 people in the UK are in prison; 4,000 are women
- - - - Sex Role Theory
        Sex-role theory argues that women are less likely to commit crime than men because there are core elements of the female role that limit their ability and opportunity to do so. There are a number of different version
        
        Socialisation- According to this approach, girls are socialised differently to boys. The values that girls are brought up to hold are those that simply do not lead to crime. Talcott Parsons (1937) argues that as most child rearing is carried out by mothers, girls have a clear role-model to follow. Oakley suggest that males are socialised into aggressive and individualistic behaviour - more likely to commit criminal acts. However, females, are socialised into values and norms, stressing tenderness and caring for others.
        
        James Messerschmidt discusses the socialisation of boys and argues there is a hegemonic masculine value system stressing goals that need to be achieved to be a “real man”. These include;
        
        The need to acquire from other men in order to maintain reputation
        
        Having power, authority and control over others
        
        Objectification of women and promiscuity to celebrate masculine virility
        
        Toughness expressed through, aggression, conformation and force
        
        Territorial loyalty and honour expressed through being part of a larger group
        
        Being emotionally as well as physically hard – showing feeling being construed as weakness
        
        Being anti-authority, claiming self-reliance and individuality
        
        Seeking pleasure, thrills and excitement to compensate for the boredom of work or employment.
        
        Gangs operate inside and outside of school. Also Messerschmidt argues middle class men may also be motivated by this value system.
    - - Postmodern studies of masculinity and crime
        Katz argues young males commit crime for pleasure or the thrill of potentially being caught or having power over others. Stephen Lyng suggest that much of crime is edgework, as it located on the edge between the thrill of getting away with it and the potential danger and uncertainty of being captured and punished.
        
        Social control- Females are less likely to commit crime because they are supervised more. This control carries on throughout life, - women constrained. Smart argues that women and girls have restrictions placed on their behaviour and movements. McRobbie and Garber (1976) argued that the place of young women in youth culture reflected their general position in society - pushed to margins. According to McRobbie, youth cultures allowed males to have ‘temporary flights’ away from the responsibilities imposed upon male adults in society. Like Functionalists safety valve. Females were denied this - parental social control. This, combined with the view that women’s natural place was in the home, not the street, led to a ‘bedroom culture’ where girls met to listen to music, chat, experiment with make-up, compare notes about boys etc. Heidensohn (1985) suggested that the lower rate of female crime may have been due to both the lack of opportunity to commit crime and the greater surveillance placed on young females. Similarly Box argues that women have less power and less opportunity to commit crime, because of the way they are socialised and protected by parents during adolescence. However, these views may now be out of date or more appropriate to younger girls. Some boys may also be spending more time at home with computers, play stations etc.
        
        Lack of opportunities- Women have limits to their opportunities to commit crime, more confined by their socialisation and social control than men. Box argues that the types of jobs women do tend to exclude opportunities for risk taking and deviant behaviour e.g. caring jobs. He also argues that there are less opportunities for women to rise in a criminal hierarchy. The results of these three influences on the lives of females, is to deflect them away from offending and towards conformity.
    - - Social control theory
        Heidensohn also believes that control theory explains why women commit fewer crimes than men. - Mother role means less opportunities - shoplifting only opportunity (top female crime)
        
        Patriarchal Society - e.g. daughters tend to be given less freedom at night than sons - limits opportunity.
        
        Women’s image restricts deviant behaviour - less feminine. An aggressive woman, for example, is often referred to as a ‘butch lesbian’ if she challenges dominant male behaviour.
        
        -Patriarchal ideology and a double standard of morality leads to the sexual control of women where promiscuous females are called ‘slag’s’. Sue Lees notes girls are more likely to be controlled, in the fear of acquiring a “bad” reputation. Girls may steer clear of certain behaviours to avoid the label of “slag” etc. Women’s behaviour is therefore more controlled than men’s.
        Pat Carlen is influenced by control theory. She conducted a study of 39 females with convictions, using unstructured interviews. She argues that working class women in particular make what she calls ‘the class deal’ and ‘the gender deal’. The ‘class deal’ is the idea that rewards come to those who conform and work. The ‘gender deal’ is the idea that rewards come to those women who conform to the feminine role of housewife and mother. Carlen argues that most women accept these deals and conform to them and therefore do not commit crime. However, for some women this deal is more difficult to make. She found that the women in her study were more likely to be in poverty and were more likely to have been in children’s homes, making it more likely for them to reject the deal. Carlen argued that many of these women come to the rational conclusion that crime is the only route to a decent standard of living.