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Sociology: Crime and Deviance > Gender and Crime (2 - female crime) > Flashcards

Gender and Crime (2 - female crime) Flashcards

1
Q

What are the three main explanations about why women commit less crime?

A
  • sex role theory
  • control theory
  • liberation thesis
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2
Q

Functionalist Sex Role Theory: what were the early assumptions made by this theory?

A
  • differences in socialisation
  • boys are taught to be tough, aggressive and risk-taking which means they want to prove themselves to peers and feel they need to provide through any means
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3
Q

Functionalist Sex Role Theory: how does Parsons trace differences in crime and how does he explain this?

A
  • traces differences to the gender roles in the nuclear family
  • men were breadwinners outside the home
  • women were in the home taking a socialising role
  • girls therefore had an accessible role model whereas boys rejected feminine behaviour eg. showing tenderness/ emotion
  • boys sought to distance themselves from this role model and engaged in ‘compensatory compulsory masculinity’ eg. aggression and antisocial behaviour possibly leading to delinquency
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4
Q

How does Cohen explain boys turning to male street gangs?

A
  • men have much less of a socialising role and so boys find socialisation more difficult
  • lack of adult male role models mean boys turn to street gangs as a source of masculine identity - status is earned by toughness, risk-taking and delinquency
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5
Q

How does Walklate criticise Sex Role Theory?

A
  • criticises for biological assumptions

- Parsons assumes because women can have children they are best suited to an expressive role

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6
Q

List some other criticisms of Sex Role Theory

A
  • there are a lot of terrible mothers
  • lots of good single fathers
  • lots of women who don’t want children
  • stereotypes are changing - not all boys are encouraged to be tough etc
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7
Q

What are the two main feminist approaches?

A
  • control theory

- liberation thesis

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8
Q

What does Heidensohn observe about female behaviour/ crime?

A
  • behaviour is very conformist

- they commit fewer crimes and less serious crimes than men

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9
Q

How does control theory explain that women commit fewer crimes?

A
  • patriarchal society imposes greater control over women which reduces their opportunities to offend
  • eg. not many crimes can be committed from inside the home
  • women are told where they can go at certain times etc.
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10
Q

How does control theory explain that women are controlled at home?

A
  • women’s domestic role has constant demands of housework/ childcare which imposes severe restrictions on women’s time + movement
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11
Q

How do Dobash and Dobash argue that when women try to reject the patriarchal control they it is inflicted on them?

A
  • much domestic abuse results from men’s dissatisfaction with wives’ domestic performance
  • men also control the household budget and deny women the funds for leisure outside the home
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12
Q

How are daughters subjected to patriarchal control and so limited from committing crime?

A
  • can’t come and go as they like/ stay out late
  • they develop a ‘bedroom’ culture where they socialise at home
  • girls do more housework so have less time to be deviant
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13
Q

How does control theory explain that women are controlled in public?

A
  • fear of male violence against them
  • the media sensationalises rape cases and distorts the typical rapist as a stranger who carries out random attacks which frightens women into staying indoors
  • women also may not go to places like bars that would provide opportunities for crime due to fear of being seen as sexually loose
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14
Q

How does control theory explain that women are controlled at work?

A
  • sexual harassment is common and keeps women ‘in their place’
  • women’s subordinate position reduces their opportunity to engage in major criminal activity at work (‘glass ceiling’ prevents women rising to senior positions where there is more opportunity for crime)
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15
Q

How does control theory also acknowledge that some women can actually be pushed to crime due to patriarchal control?

A
  • women are more likely to be poor due to inequalities in labour market so may turn to theft/ prostitution to make ends meet
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16
Q

What did Carlen study?

A
  • 39 15-46 year old working class women convicted of a range of crimes
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17
Q

Carlen builds on Hirschi’s study - what did Hirschi say?

A
  • humans act rationally and are controlled by being offered a ‘deal’ which rewards them for conforming to social norms
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18
Q

What are the two deals that Carlen believes working class women are generally conformist in the hope of gaining?

A
  • the class deal

- the gender deal

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19
Q

Other than not being able to achieve these deals, what might also drive women to crime?

A
  • rejecting these rewards

- eg. if they don’t want to work in an office or don’t want to have to rely on a man

20
Q

How might working class women not be able to achieve the class deal and thus take the approach that they have nothing to lose by committing crime to get money?

A
  • failed to find a legitimate way of earning a legitimate way of earning a decent wage and so left feeling powerless, oppressed and victims of injustice
  • always been poor
  • qualifications/ training courses in jail hadn’t helped them find work on release
  • many had problems/ been humiliated when claiming benefits
21
Q

How might working class women not be able to achieve the gender deal and thus take the approach that they have nothing to lose by committing crime to gain a decent living?

A
  • hadn’t had the opportunity to make the deal or saw few advantages of having a family
  • some abused by fathers/ suffered domestic violence
  • half of the group had been in care so had few family bonds
  • those who ran from care were often homeless, unemployed and poor
22
Q

What conclusions did Carlen make about the class and gender deals?

A
  • poverty and being in care/ oppressive family = main two causes of criminality
  • being criminalised and jailed made class deal even less available and crime more attractive
23
Q

Name the two criticisms of the control theory

A
  • accused of seeing women’s behaviour as determined by external forces and underplays the importance of free will and choice in offending (lot of women are disadvantaged and don’t turn to crime)
  • Carlen’s sample is small and may be unrepresentative - only working class women and serious offenders involved (middle class offenders likely have both deals so criminality must be due to other factors)
24
Q

What is the logical assumption we can make if it is patriarchal control over women that stops them from deviating?

A
  • if women are freer in the legitimate economy, they will become freer in the illegitimate economy
  • ie. if society becomes less patriarchal and more equal, women’s crime rates will become similar to mens
25
Q

Who has put forward the liberation thesis?

A
  • Adler
26
Q

What difference in the nature of women’s crime as they become more liberated?

A
  • they now commit ‘male’ crimes ie. violence and white collar crimes
27
Q

What has directly impacted the amount of white collar crime that women can commit?

A
  • women have greater self-confidence and assertiveness

- they have greater opportunities in legitimate structures

28
Q

What are the three supporting points of the liberation thesis?

A
  • overall rate of female offending and the female share of offences rose in the second half of the 20th century (ie. they are treated more equally in the law)
  • Adler shows rising levels of females in crimes like armed robbery/ embezzlement
  • media has reported growth in girl gangs - as likely as boys to take part in risk-taking behaviour + girls adopting male stances eg. desire to ‘look hard’
29
Q

What is a criticism of the liberation thesis relating to women’s liberation?

A
  • female crime rate rising before the 1950s, long before women’s liberation emerged in the 1960s
30
Q

What is a criticism of the liberation thesis relating to the working class?

A
  • most female offenders are working class and they are the group least likely to be influenced by women’s liberation
31
Q

What is a criticism of the liberation thesis relating to the prostitution?

A
  • the evidence of women taking up ‘male’ crimes can actually often be closely linked to ‘female’ crime still ie. drug dealing as an extension of prostitution
32
Q

What is a criticism of the liberation thesis relating to illegitimate opportunities for women?

A
  • there is little evidence that the illegitimate opportunity structure of crime has opened to women
  • female gang members were expected to conform to conventional gender roles in the same way as non-deviants
33
Q

How would you summarise the strengths and weaknesses of the liberation thesis?

A

S: draws our attention to the importance of investigating the relationship between changes in women’s position and changes in patterns of female offending
W: can be argued that overestimates extent to which women have become liberated and extent to which they’re now able to engage in serious crime

34
Q

What is one statistic that supports Adler’s liberation thesis and the trend that there has been an increase in female arrests and convictions for violent crime?

A
  • 2000-2008 number of females arrested for violence rose on average 17% each year
  • this suggests females are increasingly committing ‘male’ crimes since violent offending
35
Q

What is a criticism of the liberation thesis relating to the raise in female crime?

A
  • increase in OS hasn’t been repeated in victim surveys ie. victims didn’t report an increase in female perpetrated crime
36
Q

How can the change in female violent crime actually be attributed to the CJS?

A
  • it has been ‘widening the net’ by arresting and prosecuting females for less serious violent crimes
  • includes low level altercations and playground fights where weapons are not involved
  • Young: calls this ‘defining deviance up’ to catch trivial offences in the net
37
Q

How can the change in female violent crime actually be attributed to a policy of mandatory arrests for domestic violence?

A
  • when a couple fights, both are arrested even when the women is a victim
38
Q

If female participation in violent crime is not in fact increasing, how can they account for the increase in criminalisation of females in new crime areas?

A
  • a result of social construction arising from moral panics
  • sociologists point to the media depictions of young women being drunk, out of control and fighting
  • judges, police etc. influenced by media stereotypes of violent ‘ladettes’
39
Q

What overall effect has the media-driven moral panics about girls had?

A
  • self-fulfilling prophecy and an amplification spiral
  • reports of female misbehaviour sensitised the CJS which then take a tougher stance and make more convictions which support the negative media
40
Q

What do large-scale national victim surveys show?

A
  • gender differences in the level and types of victimisation and the relationship between victims and offenders
41
Q

What percentage of homicide victims are male?

A
  • 70%
42
Q

Who are more likely to be killed by a friend or acquaintance?

A
  • males
43
Q

Who are more likely to be victimised by an acquaintance?

A
  • women
44
Q

Which gender is more likely to be a victim of intimate violence and sexual assault?

A
  • women
45
Q

What does research show about who has greater fear of crime? Is this correct?

A
  • women

- the crime survey shows they are less likely to be victims

46
Q

What is a limitation of victim surveys?

A
  • they don’t convey the severity or frequency of the crime
  • women who had been domestically abused were more likely to be victims on multiple occasions
  • it has been shown that female victims experienced more severe violence and control

Sociology: Crime and Deviance (21 decks)

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