Steffensmeier & Allan 1996 Flashcards Preview

2 Female Offending & Women In CJS > Steffensmeier & Allan 1996 > Flashcards

Flashcards in Steffensmeier & Allan 1996 Deck (54)
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1
Q

How can we explain female offending? (2)

A

Increased gender equality?

Women more ‘manly’ now?

2
Q

How can we explain female offending?

This assumes more women commit crime in more gender-equal societies and over time, but the gender gap in crime has actually stayed quite stable over time & place. Many female
Offenders actually have more..

A

Traditional views on femininity

3
Q

Gender equality and crime diagram:

A

Gender equality -> masculinity & taste for risk -> higher female share of crime

4
Q

Could it have something to do with

A

Gender inequality?

5
Q

Gender inequality: increase in petty property crimes matched by increase in economic pressure on some groups of women, such as: (3)

A

Higher rates of divorce

Lone parenting

Crackdown on welfare

Steffenmeiser 1993

6
Q

Gender inequality:
Increased dependence on men involved in criminal activities? E.g. Women who commit very serious crimes (serial murder, sadistic sexual violence) are rare but often initiated by…

A

Male partners, e.g. Hindley & Brady ‘moors murders’

7
Q

Gender inequality:

Female teens who run away from physical/sexual abuse at home - struggle to live on streets which leads to

A

Prostitution, drug dealing, etc.

GILFUS 1992, CHESNEY-LIND 1999

8
Q

Gender inequality: diagram

A

Gender inequality -> victimisation and economic marginality -> higher female share of crime

9
Q

Criminologists agree that the gender gap on crime is universal. Women are always and everywhere less likely than men to…

A

Commit criminal acts

10
Q

Similarities between male and female offending:

More heavily heavily involved in minor property and substance abuse offences than in

A

Serious crimes

11
Q

Differences between male and female offending:

Men offend at much high rates than women for all crime categories except…

A

Prostitution

12
Q

Gender gap in crime is greatest for…

A

Serious crime

13
Q

(Rise of girl gangs?)

Girls have long been members of gangs (Thrasher 1927) and some girls today continue to solve their problems of gender, race and class through

A

Gang membership

14
Q

(Girl gangs)

Early studies (based on info from male informants) depicted female gang members as playing secondary roles such as…

A

Cheerleaders

Ignored girls violent behaviour

15
Q

(Girls gangs)

Recent studies (rely more on female gang informants) indicate that girls’ roles in gangs have been considerably more varied than early stereotypes would have it.

(Campbell 1984) Girls’ status is determined as much or even more so by her…

A

Female peers

16
Q

(Girl gangs)

(Fagan 1990) Girls appear to be fighting in more arenas and even using many of the same weapons as males, and the gang context may be an important source of initiating females into patterns of…

A

Violent offending

17
Q

(Girl gangs)
Ganging is still a predominantly male phenomenon (roughly 90%). (Miller1980, Swart1991) The most common form of female gang involvement has remained as branches of…

A

Male gangs

18
Q

(Bowker et. Al 1980) Girls are excluded from most of the…

A

Economic criminal activity

19
Q

Variety of evidence suggests that there is a considerable overlap in the…

A

“Causes” of male and female crime

20
Q

Explanation of serious female crime and of gender differences in serious crime is more…

A

Problematic

21
Q

Social backgrounds of female offenders tend to be quite similar to those of…

A

Male offenders

22
Q

Like male offenders, female offenders are typically : (4)

A

Low socioeconomic status

Poorly educated

Unemployed

Minority groups

23
Q

Main difference in female offenders’ social profiles to males is the greater presence of dependent…

A

Children

24
Q

Groups or societies that have high male rates also have high female rates.

Groups or societies that have low male rates also have low…

A

Female rates

25
Q

Findings suggest that female rates respond to the same social and legal forces as…

A

Male rates

26
Q

Causal factors of female offending that are consistent with those suggested by traditional theories of crime: (3)

A

Anomie

Social control

Differential association

27
Q

Shortcomings of traditional theories

Shed light on explaining overall patterns of female and male offending and why female offending is lower than males.

But don’t explain the differences between male and female offending, e.g. Why are female offenders less likely to participate in or lead…

A

Criminal groups?

28
Q

Females are more likely to be solo or small groups of

A

Perpetrators

29
Q

Most significant difference = male dominance in organised and highly lucrative

A

Crimes

30
Q

Saying ‘she did it all for love’ is sometimes overplayed in reference to female criminality, the role of men in initiating women into crime (especially serious crime) is a consistent…

A

Finding

31
Q

Gender gap also varies by…(4)

A

Age

Race

Geographic area

Time

32
Q

Gender gap in crime is less in social settings where female roles and statuses presumably differ less from those of men (developed nations) in urban settings compared to…

A

Rural settings

33
Q

1970s several female criminologists suggested that increases in the female share of arrests could be attributed to gains in gender equality as a result of the women’s movement (Adler, Simon). The media embraced this interpretation of the…

A

“Dark side” of female liberation

34
Q

Plausible to argue that greater freedom has increased female participation in the public sphere (working, shopping, banking, etc.) and this could help account for some of the increases in the female share of arrests for:(3)

A

Petty property offences

Fraud

Forgery

35
Q

Gender inequality and female offenders:

Patriarchal power relations shape gender differences in crime, pushing women into crime through:(4)

A

Victimisation

Role entrapment

Economic marginalisation

Survival needs

36
Q

Gender ratio is most skewed in the disparity of males as offenders and females as victims of:

A

Sexual and domestic abuse

37
Q

Steffensmeier (1993) several other factors that can help explain increases in the female percentage of arrests for property offences:(3)

A

Increased formalisation of law enforcement

Increased opportunities for ‘female’ types of crime

Trends in female drug dependency

38
Q

Gender equality hypothesis criticisms:(3)

A

Criticisms of power control

Traditional gender-role definitions of female offenders

Homicide and burglary trends

39
Q

Downfalls of gender-neutral theories: not very informative about the specific ways in which differences in the lives of men and women contribute to gender differences in…(3)

A

Type

Frequency

Context of criminal behaviour

40
Q

Downfall of gender-specific theories: likely to be even less adequate if they require separate explanations for…

A

Female crime

Male crime

41
Q

4 key elements of a gendered approach:

Perspective should help explain not only female criminality but male criminality as well, by revealing how the organisation of gender (norms, identities, dichotomy) deters or shapes delinquency by females but encourages it by…

A

Males

42
Q

4 key elements of a gendered approach:

Gendered perspective should account for gender differences in type and frequency of crime and context of ..

A

Offending

43
Q

4 key elements of a gendered approach:

Need to consider several key ways in which women’s routes to crime may differ from those of men, e.g. Blurred boundaries between victim and victimisation, women’s exclusion from lucrative crime opportunities, women’s ability to exploit sex as an illegal money-making service and the greater need of street women for protection from..

A

Predatory/exploitative males

44
Q

4 key elements of a gendered approach:

Perspective should explore the extent to which gender differences in crime derive from complex social, historical and cultural factors AND from..

A

Biological and reproductive differences

45
Q

Gender norms

Crime is almost always stigmatising for females, and its potential cost to life chances is much greater than for

A

Men

46
Q

Gender norms
Expectations regarding sexuality and appearance reinforce greater female dependency and surveillance by parents and husbands. And these expectations shape the deviant roles available to women, e.g.

A

Sexual media

Service roles

47
Q

Even prostitution (considered a female crime) is essentially a male-dominated/controlled criminal enterprise e.g.

A

Police
Pimps
Businessmen
Clients

48
Q

Gendered approach helps to clarify the gendered nature of both female and male offending patterns

For women, ‘doing gender’ preempts criminal involvement or directs it into scripted paths.

E.g.

Prostitution =

Violence =

A

Femininity

Masculinity

49
Q

Explanation of serious crimes by males and females is more problematic. Partly because the lower frequencies of offending complicate the task of

A

Quantitate analyses

50
Q

qualitative studies reveal major gender differences in the context and nature of

A

Offending

51
Q

Need to examine more closely whether various criminogenic factors (family, peers, schooling) vary by..

A

Gender

52
Q

Study of criminal careers has centred almost exclusively on male

A

Offenders

53
Q

Expanding research on female offending may seem hard to justify due to:(2)

A

Relatively low frequency of female crime

Less serious nature of female crime

54
Q

Study of gender and crime is a productive arena for exploring the general nature of:(2)

A

Gender stratification

Organisation of gender