Gender and Crime

• In 2002 over 80%of known offenders were men (Home Office, 2003)

• In the past Sociologists took this difference for granted and focused on why some men commit crime.

Feminists, 1970s

• Carol Smart, amongst others, challenged what they saw as the male dominance of the subject.

• They opened up new lines of enquiry and asked:-

• Why do women commit fewer crimes than men?

• Why are women more likely to conform than men?

• Is there anything distinctive about women’s experience as offenders and as victims of crime?

• Are women treated differently by the criminal justice system than men?

Heidensohn, 1989

Criticised malestream criminology

And suggested 4 reasons for the male

dominance of the subject:-

• Male dominance of offenders

• Male dominance of Sociology

• Vicarious identification

• Traditional theories are ‘gender blind’

Different Socialisation

• Typically masculine values such as toughness can lead directly to fighting.

• Feminine values stress conformity, domesticity and ‘getting a boy’.

Biological Explanations

• Biological explanations suggest that women are innately different from men with a natural desire to be caring and nurturing.

• ‘Normal’ women are not likely to commit crime.

Different Socialisation

• Sutherland (1949) claims that girls are more closely supervised and more strictly controlled.

• Boys are more likely to be encouraged to take risks and to be tough and aggressive.

• Albert Cohen (1955) socialisation can be difficult for boys.

• Without a readily available male role model they experience anxiety about their identities.

• The all-male peer group offers a solution.

• Aspects of masculinity can be expressed and rewarded .

• Being tough and breaking rules can help to confirm a masculine identity.

• Parsons (1955) Gender roles are rooted in biology.

• Girls have a female role at home, boys have less access to a male role model.

• Socialised by their mothers they reject any behaviour seen as feminine.

• Emphasis on toughness and aggression.

Feminist Explanations

• Starts from the view that society is patriarchal.

• The behaviour of women can only be understood in the context of male dominance.

Pat Carlen, 1990Looked at women offenders

• Argues that women’s crimes are largely ‘the crimes of the powerless’.

• Often live in poverty with little power to change their situation.

• Been harshly supervised when children.

• Have often lived under the dominance of male partners.

• Crime is a rational choice for some women.

• Low standard of living.

• Unhappy and unfulfilling experience of family life both as children and adults.

• Little power to change their situation by legitimate means.

• Saw crime as a rational alternative.

Evaluation

• Sample size only 39, too small to generalise from.

• However her research suggests that conformity to social norms tends to break down when the rewards for doing so are largely absent.

Heidenshon, 1996 and 2002

• The control of women by men discourages deviance from norms.

• Women still have primary responsibility for raising children and domestic work.

• Women have more to lose than men by deviating from social norms.

• Women have been socialised to conform. Girls are more strictly supervised than men.

• Women who challenge their traditional roles are often brought into line by men’s financial and physical power.

• Women’s freedom outside the home is restricted.

• Women are often reluctant to go out after dark.

• Less likely to deviate from social norms for fear of being called a slag.

• Men are more likely to be in control at work than women.

• More likely to be in managerial positions.

• Sexual harassment is a further indication of male power and control

Evaluation

• Provides an in-depth explanation for women’s conformity and their low crime rate.

• However it presents women as passive.• Makes sweeping generalisations about

men and women.• Fails to consider differences between

women or between men.

• McRobbie and Garber suggest girls have developed a bedroom culture.

• Lees suggests that women are controlled in public through fear of a bad reputation eg being called a slag.

Men and Masculinity

• Crime can be used in the construction of masculinity.

• Through crime men can express their masculinity to themselves and others.

Hegemonic Masculinity

The dominant form of masculinity.

Defined through:

• Work

• Subordination of Women

• Heterosexism

• The Uncontrollable sexuality of men

Most men seek to accomplish this.

Young middle-class white males

• Can demonstrate some of the characteristics through success at school.

• Need to be subordinate to teachers.

• Assert their masculinity outside school through heaving drinking, vandalism.

White working-class men

• Less likely to be successful in education.

• Resist school.

• Construct their masculinity around physical aggression and anti-social behaviour.

Lower working-class men from ethnic minorities

• Little expectation of educational success.

• Little chance of secure employment.

• Assert their masculinity in street gangs.

• More likely to turn to robbery and serious street crime.

White-collar crime

• Also a means of accomplishing hegemonic masculinity.

• Successful breadwinner.

• Risk-taker.

Working-class crime in the workplace

• Also a means of accomplishing hegemonic masculinity.

• Resist authority of management by theft and industrial sabotage.

Ethnicity and masculinities

• Often lack the resources to accomplish hegemonic masculinity.

• Being a pimp or a hustler offers an alternative subordinated masculinity.

Crisis of Masculinity

• Young (1999) Some young men have little prospect of getting a job.

• They are ‘cast adrift’.• Respond by creating subcultures which glorify

an exaggerated form of masculinity – toughness, aggression.

• Can be seen in rap where women are portrayed as whores, bitches and men earn respect by defending their reputations with violence.

Evaluation

• Only a few ethnic minorities become pimps or hustlers.

• Only a minority of working-class men express their masculinity through crime.

• The claim that hegemonic masculinity is the ideal is questionable.

Night-time Economy

• Hobbs et al 2003 studied the expansion in the night-time economies of many towns.

• Large numbers of young people flock to the towns.

• Controlled by bouncers.• Bouncers are not effectively regulated

and order is maintained by threat or use of violence.

• Being a “hard-man” is a source of status in many working-class communities.

• In the night-time economy it becomes a means of earning a living.

• Being a bouncer provides opportunities to engage in criminal activities such as protection rackets, drug dealing, importing and selling cheap alcohol.

Joy-Riding

• Campbell 1993 studied 2 deprived estates.

• Claimed young men had little chance of getting secure employment so asserted their masculinity through joy-riding.

Evaluation

• The studies relate to particular contexts so we cannot generalise from them.

• Katz 1988 pointed out that crimes provide thrills.

• The idea of thrill has been used to explain the apparent irrational violence of football hooligans and also the use of drugs and alcohol.

Gender and the Criminal Justice System

Home Office Figures for 2003 show:-

• Women are more likely than men to be cautioned

• Women are less likely to be remanded in custody or committed for trial

• Women are less likely to be sent to prison

• Women receive shorter sentences

• There are gender differences in the type of crime committed and in past offences.

• Women’s offences tend to be less serious.

• Women are less likely to have a criminal record.

• Campbell’s self-report study shows that the ration of male to female crime was almost equal.

• She claims the disparity between the official crime stats and the true rate of female juvenile crime arises because the police have stereotypical images of women as law-abiding.

Chivalry Factor

• Pollack 1961 suggests a chivalry factor operates to protect women from becoming labelled as criminals.

• The male-dominated police force and legal system is more lenient towards females.

• He claims female crime is masked eg prostitution and shoplifting are commonly not reported.

• He also suggests that women are better at hiding their crimes.

• He attributed this to biological factors.

Evaluation

• Can be criticised for being biologically deterministic.

• A number of studies support his work.

• Farrington and Morris found that women who were summoned to the Magistrates’ Court were more likely than men to be let off with a caution.

• Steffensmeier claims women are treated more leniently because judges are reluctant to separate a mother from her children.

However

• Dobash and Dobash found that when women are victims of crimes such as rape or domestic violence the courts are often harsh on them.

• They also found the police were unlikely to arrest a man who is violent to his wife.

• Lees points out the female rape victim is intimidated by the defence and made to feel she is on trial.

• Heidensohn 2002 found that many women see the criminal justice system as a male-dominated system and feel their treatment has been unjust.

• Denscombe 2001 claims that females are increasingly as likely as males to engage in risk-taking behaviour.

• Girls increasingly ‘looking hard’ • Westwood 1999 develops similar ideas

when she argues that identities are constantly being reconstructed and reformed.