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Gender, Crime and Justice - Coggle Diagram
Gender, Crime and Justice
The Chivalry Thesis
- Most people who work in the criminal justice system are men and are socialised to act in a chivalrous way towards women --> CJS = more lenient towards women
:check: Hood studied 3000+ offenders and found that women were a third less likely to be jailed than men
:red_cross: Farrington and Morris studied the sentencing of 408 offences of theft and found no significant difference in the treatment of men and women
Bias against women-
- Some sociologists will argue that females are treated more harshly
- Double Deviance is where females get punished for the crime and also for deviating gender norms
:check: Sharpe analysed 55 youth worker records and found that 7/11 girls were referred for support because they were sexually active but none of the 44 boys
:check: Smart claims that women who are seen as deviant become labelled as 'evil' and stigmatised by the CJS
Explaining female crime
Less detectable offences-
- Women tend to commit offences which are less likely to be detected or reported (shoplifting)
Functionalist sex role theory-
- Boys are socialised to be tough and aggressive = more likely to commit crime
- Cohen says the abscence of a male role model means the boys turn to all male street gangs as a source of masculine identity
-McRobbie says teen girls are less likely to commit crime --> bedroom culture
:check: Supported by the New Right who say abscence of male role model in lone parent families = deviance
:red_cross: Assumes that gender roles are natural and based on biological differences
Patriarchal control-
- Heidensohn claims women commit fewer crimes because they are more comformist than men as society imposes greater control on women, reducing the opportunities
Control at home Women's domestic role = confined in house = less time to commit crime
Control in public Women are controlled in public places by threat or fear of male violence against them --> Islington Crime survey found that 54% of women avoid going out after dark compared to only 14% of men
Control at work Women's behaviour at work is controlled by male supervisors and managers whilst sexual harassment helps keep women in their place = Women's subordinate position = less opportunities to engage in major criminal activity
:check: Shows the way in which patriarchal control prevent women from deviating
:red_cross: Underplays free will and suggests that women's behaviour is controlled by society
Class and Gender deals-
- Carlen conducted interviews with 39 15-46 year old WC women who had been convicted of a range of crimes (theft, fraud, drugs etc)
- Carlen uses Hirshi's control theory (any behaviour is rational and weighed against the possible costs and benefits of conforming to social norms) to explain female crime
- This means people will turn to crime if the reward is greater than the consequence
The class deal --> Women who work will be offered material rewards with a decent standard of living and leisure opportunities --> Women failed to find a legitimate way of living, left them feeling powerless, turned to crime
The gender deal --> Patriarchal ideology promises women material and emotional rewards from family life by conforming to the norms of a conventional domestic gender role --> Women didn't have the opportunity to make the deal to conform to patriarchal family norms/ saw few rewards and disadvantages in family
:check: Shows that the failure of society to deliver the promised 'deals' to some women = removes the controls that prevent them from offending
:red_cross: Research sample used was too small, unrepresentative as it consisted of largely working class
Females and violent crimes- - Hand and Dodd claim that between 2000-2008, police statistics show the number of females arrested for violence rose by 17% each year
The Liberation Thesis-
- Adler proposed the thesis to explain the changes in the patterns and types of female offending --> feminist movement brought about progressive changes in the structure of society --> as this reduced, females started to adopt male roles legitimately and illegitimately
- Women no longer commit traditional female crimes as they have greater opportunities
- Denscombe study found that teenage girls are just as likely to engage in risk taking behaviours as males and girls were adopting a male stance in their desire to be in control and look 'hard'
:red_cross: Rise in female crime rates began in 1950's (before women's liberation from patriarchal control)
:red_cross: Most female criminals are WC who have not experienced women's liberation
The criminalisation of females-
- Steffensmeier and Schwarts there has been no actual increase in female crime but the CJS is now more likely to arrest + prosecute women for minor offences
- Young trends in arrests + prosecution of women is an example of 'defining deviance up' to catch trivial offences in the net
Moral panic about girls-
- Burman and Batchelor point to media depictions of young women as 'drunk and disorderly, out of control and looking for fights'
- Reports of girls' binge drinking and girl gangs may also be affecting the CJS
- Sharpe found that professionals such as judges, probation officers and police were influenced by media stereotypes of violent 'ladettes' and many believed that girls' behaviour was rapidly getting worse
- Steffensmeier et al found that media - driven moral panics about girls were affecting sentencing decisions of the judge
Why do men commit crime?
Functionalist sex role theory's explanation-
- Men play the instrumental role with a nuclear family
- Role is largely performed outside the home, where they are encouraged to be competitive
- Men lack responsibility for housework + childcare = less restricted in time + place = more opportunity to commit crime
Masculinity + Crime-
- Messerschmidt argues that masculinity is a social construct which men aspire to accomplish and have to continuously work at presenting it to others
Different masculinities exist within society -
- Hegemonic masculinity = dominant males, heterosexual, tough, strong
- Subordinated masculinity = gay men, lower class, some ethnic minorities, no desire to accomplish hegemonic masculinity
Class + ethnic difference = different forms of rule breaking to demonstrate masculinity such as -
- White middle class males --> subordinate themselves to teachers in order to achieve middle class status - Outside school, their masculinity takes an oppositional form (drinking/vandalism)
- White working class males --> less chance of educational success so masculinity is oppositional in and out of school, Willis' study
- Black lower working class males --> use gang membership to express their masculinity or turn to property crime to achieve material success
:check: Doesn't ignore social structures such as race + class while explaining gender differences
:red_cross: Too much focus on masculinity, ignores the importance of other factors which may also be implicated in crime
Police assumption + stereotypes-
- The police are more likely to see men rather than women as potential offenders, to label their behaviour as criminal, press charges against them
- Because of this, male offending rates are more likely to be overly represented in the official crime statistics
Control theory, Rational choice + opportunity- - Men face fewer constraints than women such as few housework + children responsibilities --> men have bigger opportunities
Postmodernity, Masculinity + Crime-
- Winlow studied bouncers in Sunderland, a de-industrialised area, high unemployment --> Working as bouncers provided men with paid work + opportunity for illegal business ventures
- Bodily capital --> how you look + what you possess
- To maintain their reputation + employability, the men must use their bodily capital such as bouncers developing their body through bodybuilding