Immediate activity No notes, no textbooks, no discussion

1. Immediate activityNo notes, no textbooks, no discussion • True or false?...... • Left realism argues that crime occurs due to relative deprivation, sub culture and marginalisation. • Right realism argues for more sensitive policing, which is linked in with housing, education and victim support services to improve their relationship with the community. • Right realist Ron Clarke argues that crime is a rational choice. • Traditional Marxism argues that crime is an inevitable consequence of the capitalist structure of society. • Corporate crime is committed by middle class individuals for their personal gain. • Neo Marxist Taylor argues that in order to understand crime we need to have a fully social theory of deviance which considers individual and social origins of criminal actions, social reactions to these actions and the consequences of labelling • Strain theory can be adapted to explain corporate and white collar crime. • Interactionists argue that crime statistics should be viewed as a topic of sociological investigation not a resource which shows the real amount of crime occurring T F T T F T T T Gender and crime

2. What’s missing from these theories? • Think over the theories we have covered so far (Functionalism, Subcultural theory, Traditional Marxism and Neo Marxism, Left and Right realism) can any of these explain the gender difference in rates of offending? Gender and crime

3. In 1977 Carol Smart put forward the following reasons to explain the neglect of women in criminology: • Women tend to commit fewer crimes than men. • Most crimes committed by women appear to be of a comparatively trivial nature - shoplifting and sexual offences (prostitution). • Sociology and criminology tend to be dominated by men. • Traditional criminology is motivated by a desire to control problem behaviour. As women's behaviour is less of a problem than men's it has received less attention. Gender and crime

4. The three elements to gender, crime and justice we need to consider…. Why do women appear less in the crime statistics and criminological theory? Why and how are men and women treated differently by the justice system? What motivates male and female offending? Gender and crime

5. In the year ending March 2015, there were 950,000 arrests carried out by police in England and Wales, a fall of 7% on the previous year, and continuing the downward trend since a peak in the year ending March 2007, when there were almost 1.5 million arrests; eight per cent (75,000) of these arrests resulted from a stop and search • consistent with previous years, the majority of arrests in the year ending March 2015 were of males (84%) Gender and crime

6. Official statistics indicate that women in all age groups appear to commit far less crime than men. This pattern has raised three main questions: 1 Do womenreallycommit fewer crimes than men, or are the figures misleading? 2 Is the proportion of crimes committed by women increasing, and is this linked to 'women's liberation'? 3Why do some women break the law? Gender and crime

7. Leniency towards female offenders: the 'chivalry’ thesis (Otto Pollock 1950) • Campbell (1981) conducted a self‑report study and found that: 1 Female suspects were more likely than male suspects to be cautioned rather than prosecuted. • The rate of male: female juvenile offending was 1.33: 1.0 rather than the official figure of 8.95: 1.0. Suggesting a far higher rate of female criminality than appears in the official statistics • Hood (1989) compared the sentencing of men and women and found that men were more likely to be given custodial sentences than women. Gender and crime

8. Evidence against the 'chivalry' thesis • Box (1981) reviewed the data from self‑report studies in Britain and the USA and concluded that the official statistics on gender and crime were fairly accurate. • Farrington and Morris (1983) conducted a study of sentencing in magistrates' courts. Although men received more severe sentences than women, the differences disappeared when the severity of offences was taken into account. Gender and crime

9. Double standards in criminal justice • Heidensohn (1985) argues that the justice system is influenced by attitudes to gender in society as a whole. Women are treated more harshly when they deviate from norms of female sexuality. Sexually promiscuous girls are more likely to be taken into care than similar boys. On the other hand, courts may be reluctant to imprison mothers with young children. • Carlen (1997) argues that women are more likely to be sentenced according to the court's assessment of them as wives, mothers and daughters rather than the seriousness of their crimes. Female offenders are judged more harshly when they are seen as doubly deviant i.e. Bad women and criminal Gender and crime

10. Immediate activity Gender and crime

11. Treatment of women by the Criminal justice system • Walklate (1995) believes that it is the female victim rather than the male suspect who ends up on trial in rape cases. Women have to establish their respectability if their evidence is to be believed. • In a study of domestic violence Dobash and Dobash (1979) found that police officers were very unlikely to make an arrest in cases of domestic violence indicating that they placed less value on female victims accounts of events. Gender and crime

12. Female crime and women's liberation • Fran Adler (1975) claimed that women's liberation had led to a new type of female criminal and an increase in women's contribution to crime. Women were taking on male social roles in both legitimate and illegitimate areas of activity. Instead of confining themselves to 'feminine' crimes such as shoplifting, women were getting involved in robbing banks, mugging and even murder. Whichsocial class of women do we expect to have experienced the most ‘liberation? Do the crime stats support Adler’s view? Gender and crime

13. Evaluating the liberation thesis Marxist scholar Box (1983) concludes that if female crime has increased this is more likely to be due to unemployment and inadequate welfare benefits. Most female criminals are from lower‑class backgrounds and are the least likely to have been touched by women's liberation. This is supported by Chesney Lund (1997) who found that in the US poor marginalised women are more likely to be criminal than liberated women. Laidler and Hunt found that female gang members were still expected to conform to traditional gender roles so their criminality was not linked to being freed from patriarchy. Gender and crime

14. Has there been a rise in female violent crime? The statistics suggest yes. Hand and David suggest that between 2000 and 2008 the number of females arrested rose by an average of 17% per year. Gender and crime table.ods However, this doesn’t appear to match up with victim surveys which don’t show that more people have been victims of violence from women Steffensmeier and Schwartz suggest the difference is down to ‘net widening’ this means arresting women for less serious forms of violence than previously so its appears as if women are becoming more violent when in reality it’s the definition of violence that has changed. This supported by Sharpe and Gelsthrope in the UK Link to labelling theory- Young- defining deviance up. Gender and crime

15. Moral panic about female violence? Burman and Batchelor argue (2009) argue that there has been an increase in media images of young women being drunk and looking for fights. Sharpe (2009) argues that these reports influence Judges, probation officers and the police, leading to the creation of self fulfilling prophecy (labelling theory link) “What we are witnessing is not an increase in violent female offending but the increased reporting, recording and processing of young women accused of violent offences” Burman and Batchelor 2009 Gender and crime

16. Your task • Read the article carefully and annotate it to show where the concepts we have discussed today appear. Gender and crime

17. So how can we ace these questions?Use PEARL paragraphs Pick your hooks Explain the concept it relates to Analyse the meaning of this concept using examples from your own knowledge. Review it by offering evaluation points- strengths or weaknesses Link back the question to show relevance. Transfer Pearls are precious and so is the item for you, it’s what makes your answer valuable

18. Exam question • Item A Official statistics show that women make up a far smaller proportion of arrests and convictions than men, some suggest that this is due to different attitudes within the criminal justice system towards men and women. Statistics also show a rise in women arrested for violent acts however some argue that this does not reflect a change in female behaviour. Outline and explain two reasons why official statistics on female offending may not give a true representation of female criminality. (10 marks) Gender and crime

19. Key question Whydon’t more women commit crime? Gender and crime

20. Functionalist Sex-role Theory (Socialisation) Parsons From infancy, children are socialised that the two sexes are different. Female roles contain such elements as caring, passivity, and domesticity. Male roles, on the other hand, stress elements of toughness, aggressiveness and sexual conquest. – Link to Cohen’s status frustration It is argued that females generally lack the values that are typically associated with delinquency. However, laddette behaviour challenges this. gender and crime

21. Heidensohn - women and social control • Frances Heidensohn (1985) attempts to explain why women commit fewer crimes than men. She argues that patriarchal societies control women more effectively than men, making it more difficult for them to break the law. • Control of women at home The time spent on housework and in caring for children means that women have little time for crime. Daughters are given less freedom than sons to come and go as they please. Gender and crime

22. Control of women in public Women often choose not to go out into public places because of fear of becoming a victim of crime or harassment. They also limit their behaviour in public for fear of being labelled a 'slag, slut or bitch'. • Control of women at work Women are usually controlled by male superiors at work and may be intimidated by various forms of harassment. Gender and crime

23. Pat Carlen and Control Theory Frances Heidensohn argues most women conform because failure to do results in labelling as unfeminine behaviour. Pat Carlen (1985) has adopted control theory arguing that women are offered 'class deals' and 'gender deals'. Females who are most likely to become criminal are those who have not had, or have rejected, the 'gender deal'. Females who have been in care, thrown out of home, or have rejected 'normal' family life, are the most likely to be law-breakers. gender and crime

24. When the deal breaks… Carlen ‑ women, crime and poverty • Pat Carlen (1985) conducted unstructured interviews with 39 convicted female offenders. She argues that working‑class women have been controlled through the promise of rewards stemming from the workplace and family – the class deal and the gender deal. The class deal offers material rewards such as consumer goods for those respectable w/c women who work dutifully for a wage. The gender deal offers psychological rewards from either their labours or the ‘love’ of a male breadwinner. When these rewards are not available, or are not seen as worth the sacrifice, the deals break down and criminality becomes a possibility. Gender and crime

25. Lack of Opportunities? There was an assumption that because women were confined to the private world with limited access to the public world they lacked opportunity for crime. However, this situation is changing, with women occupying roles in the workplace and public life. Evaluation point for Control theory: Women still have less opportunity for crimes but Wilkinson found in California that where women were equal to men, they were engaged in similar levels of white-collar crime. This supports Carlin as it suggests when the controls are reduced female criminality rises gender and crime

26. Messerschmidt ‑ Masculinities and crime • James W. Messerschmidt analyses why different groups of males turn to different types of crime in their attempts to be masculine. Masculinities and crime in youth groups • In order to achieve success white middle‑class boys have to be subservient to schoolteachers. Outside the school they try to demonstrate some of the characteristics they repress within the school. This may involve pranks, vandalism, minor thefts and excessive drinking. Such young men adopt an accommodating masculinity. Gender and crime

27. White working‑class boys have less chance of academic success and tend to construct masculinity around the importance of physical aggression. They try to be tough and oppose the authority of teachers. Theirs is an oppositional masculinity. Gender and crime

28. Lower‑working‑class ethnic minority boys do not expect to be able to hold down a steady job and support a family. They use violence to express their masculinity and may become involved in more serious property crime than white working-class youths. This offers them some prospect of material success. Gender and crime