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Topic 5- Explaining Female crime - Coggle Diagram
Topic 5- Explaining Female crime
Functionalist Sex role theory
Parsons traces differences in crime and deviance to the gender roles in the conventional nuclear family. While men take on the instrumental breadwinner role, women perform the expressive role where the main responsibility in to socialise children
While this gives girls access to an adult role model, parsons argues it tends to mean that boys reject feminine role models of behaviour that expresses emotion. Instead boys seek to distance themselves by engaging in compensatory compulsory masculinity through aggression and delinquency
Because men have much less of a socialising role than women in the conventional nuclear family socialisation can be more difficult for boys than girls. Cohen argues this relative lack of a adult male role model means boys are more likely to turn to all male street gangs as a source of masculine identity.
New Right: argue that the absence of a male role model in a matrifocal lone parent family leads to boys turning to street gangs as a source of status and identity
Evaluations
Walklate criticises sex role theory for its biological assumptions. Parsons assumes that because women have the biological capacity to bear children, they are best suited to he expressive role.
Although the theory tries to explain gender differences in crime in terms of behaviour through socialisation its ultimately based on untested biological assumptions about sex differences
Heidensohn patriarchal control
Argues that most striking thing about women's behaviour is how conformist it, They committer less serious and fewer crimes than men. This is because patriarchal control imposes greater control over women and this restrict opportunity to offend
Control at home
Women's domestic role imposes severe restrictions on their time and movement and confines them to the house for long periods reducing their opportunity to offend. Women who try to reject this role may find that partner seeks to impose force through domestic violence
Dobash and Dobash show that men exercise control through their financial power for example by denying women sufficient funds for leisure activities thereby restricting their time outside.
Girls develop a bedroom culture meaning they socialise at home with friends rather than in public spaces. This means they have a lower opportunity to engage in deviant behaviour as they are required to do more housework than boys
Control in public
Women are controlled in public spaces by the threat or fear of male violence against them. The Islington crime survey found that 54% of women avoided going out after dark for the fear of being a victim of crime.
Females are also controlled by their fear of being of being defined as not respectable. Dress, makeup and ways of speaking or acting that are defined as inappropriate can gain a women a reputation
Control at work
Womens behaviour at work is controlled by male supervisors and managers. Sexual harassment helps keep a women in her place. Furthermore women's position reduces their opportunities to engage in major criminal activity at work. EG the glass ceiling prevents many women rising to senior positions where the crimes are committed
However Heidensohn notes how patriarchy can also push some women into crime eg women are more likely to be poor and may turn to theft of prostitution to gain a decent living
Carlen: Class and Gender deals
Used unstructured tape recording interviews of 39 15-46 year olds who had been convicted of a range of crimes including violence and arson. She argues that most convicted serious female offenders are working class
Argues that WC women are led to conform through the promise of the types of deals
Class deal: women who work will be offered maternal rewards with a decent standard of living
Gender deal: patriarchal ideological promises women maternal and emotional rewards from family by conforming to traditional domestic gender role
If these rewards are not available or not worth it crime becomes more likely
In terms of class deal the women had failed to find a legitimate way of earning money which left them feeling powerless and oppressed. For example 2/3 of them had always been in poverty. As they gained no reward they felt they had nothing to lose by using crime to escape poverty
In terms of gender deal, most of the women had either not had the opportunity to make the deal or saw dew rewards and many disadvantaged in family life for example over half spent time in care which broke bonds with family and friends
Carlen concluded that for these women, poverty and being brought up in care were the 2 main causes of criminality. Drugs and alcohol addiction were contributing factors however they stemmed from poverty or being brough up in care.
Evaluations of Heidensohn and Carlen
Heidensohn shows that many many patriarchal controls that help prevent women from deviating
Carlen shows how the failure of a patriarchal society to deliver the promised deals to some women removes the controls that prevent them from offending
However both control theory and feminism can be accused of seeing women's behaviour as determined by external factors which underplays the importance of free will and choice in offending
Liberation Thesis
Adler argues that as women become more liberated, their crimes will become as frequent and serious as men's. This has led to an increase in female crime
Changes in structure of society has led to changes in women's offending behaviour. As control and discrimination has reduced and opportunities in education and work has improved, women have begun to adopt traditionally male roles in legitimate means and illegitimate means. This means women are now committing more male offences such as violence and white collar crime
This is because women have greater self confidence and they now have greater opportunities in the illegitimate structure to commit crimes
Evidence of this
Adler argues that the pattern of female crime has shifted. Studies show rising levels of female participation in crimes previously regarded as male such as armed robbery and violence
Evaluation
Most female criminals are working class which is the group least likely to be affected by liberation which has benefited MC women more. Chesney- Lind found in the USA poor and marginalised women are more likely to criminate compared to liberated MC women
Adler's theory does draw our attention to the importance of investigating the relationship between changes in women's position and changes in patterns of offending
She overestimates both the extent of women liberation and the extent to which the engage in serious violent crime
Criminalisation of females
Steffensmeier and Schwartz found that in reality there has been no change in women's involvement with violent crime. The rise in arrests is due to the justice system widening the net meaning they arrest and prosecute females for less serious violent crimes than previously
Sharpe and Gelsthorpe note that net widening policies are producing a rise in the official statistics for female violent crimes. There is a growing trend towards prosecuting females for low level physical altercations even in some cases for playground fights
Moral Panic about girls
The social construction resulting from a moral panic over young women's behaviour can account for the increase in criminalisation of females. Reports featuring binge drinking, girl gangs may affect the criminal justice system. Sharpe found that judges, probation officers and police were influenced by media stereotypes of violent ladettes and believe women's behaviour was getting worse
Overall effect is a self fulfilling prophecy and an amplification spiral: Reports of girls misbehaviour sensitise police and courts who take a tougher stance resulting in more convictions which produces further negative media coverage