do women commit crime and explaining female crime

do women commit crime and explaining female crime

1. do women committ more crime

   • the chivalry thesis
     • most criminal justice agents are male and are socialised to act in a chivilrous way
       • pollak
         • men have protective attitude towards women e.g. police officers dislike to arrest them
     • the criminal justice system is more lenient with women and means their crimes are less likely to end up is official statistics
     • self report studies
       • these suggest that women are treated leniently
         • graham and bowling
           • study of 14-25 year olds found that the difference between male and female offending was smaller than in official statistics
         • Flood- Page et al
           • only 1 in 11 females self reported offenders have been cautioned or prosecuted
     • official statistics
       • females are more likely to be released on bail
       • females are more likely to recieve a fine tyhan be sent to prison
       • 1 in 9 females offenders receive prison sentences for shoplifting compared to 1 in 5 males
       • hood
         • found that females were one third less likely to be jailed
     • evidence against it
       • Farrington and morris
         • women were not sentenced more leniently for comparable offences
       • Box
         • women who commit serious offences are not treated more leniently than men
       • Buckle and farrington
         • did a study into shoplifting and found more male shoplifters while in the official statistics it was more or less equal
           • this suggests that female shoplifters may be more likely to be prosecuted
       • self report studies
         • hales found that men were were significantly more likely to have been offenders in all major categories
       • under reporting of male crimes against women
         • the chivalry thesis ignores that many male crimes do not get reported
           • in 2012 only 8% of females had been victims to serious assault
             • yernshire found that womensuffer 35 assaults before reporting domestic violence
       • crimes of the powerful go under reported
         • these are more likely to be committed by men by virtue of their more privileged position in the job market
       • if women appear to be treated more leniently it may be because their offences are less serious
         • the lower rate of prosecution and their self reporting offending may be because the crimes the commit to are less serious and less likely to go to trial
           • women are also more likely to show remorse and this may help to explain why they are more likely to receive a caution
   • bias against women
     • heinensohn
       • the courts treat females more harshly when they deviate from gender norms e.g.
         • double standards- courts punish girls for premature or promiscuous sexual activity
           • sharpe
             • girls were referred for support because they were sexually active
         • women who do not conform to accepted standards of monogamous heterosexuality and motherhood are punished more harshly.
           • stewart
             • magistrates' perceptions of female defendants' charaters were based on stereotypical gender roles
     • carlen
       • argues that women are jailes, it is less for 'the seriousness of their crimes and more according to the court's assessment of them as wives, mother and daughters
         • girls whose parents believe them to be beyond control are more likely to recieve custodial sentences than girls who live 'conventional lives'
     • feminists argue that these double standards exist because the criminal justice system is patriarchal
       • nowhere is this more evident than in the way the system deals with rape cases
         • smart shows how judges have made sexist remarks e.g. if she oesnt want it she only has to keep her legs shut
     • walklate
       • in rape cases it is not the defendent who is on trial but the victim since she has to prove respectability to have her evidence accepted
     • adler
       • women who are deemed to lack respectability e.g single parents find it difficult to have their testimony believed by the court

2. explaining female crime

   • functionalist sex role theory
     • parsons
       • traces differences in crie and deviance to the gender roles in the conventional NF. while men take mor of an instrumental role, women perform and expressive role
       • this gives access to adult role model, it tends to mean that boys reject feminine models of behaviour that express tenderness, gentleness and emotion. instead, boys seek to distance themselves from such models by engaging in 'compensatory compulsory masculinity' through aggression and anti-social behaviour, which can slip over into acts of delinquency
     • because men have less of a socialising role it can be more difficult for boys
       • cohen
         • this relative lack of male role model means boys are more likely to turn to all male street gangs as a source of masculine identity
     • walklate
       • criticises sex role role theory for its biological assumptions. parsons assumes that because women have a biological capacity to bear children, they are best suited to the expressive role
     • it is based on biological assumptions about sex differences
   • carlen: class and gender deals
     • carlen used unstructured tape recorded interviews in a study with 15-46 year old w/c women who had been convicted of a range of crimes. 20 were in prison or youth custody at the time of the interviews. she argues that most convicted serious female criminals are w/c
     • uses a version of hirschi's control theiry to explain female crime. hirschi argues that humans act rationally and are controlled by being offered a deal, of rewards in return for conforming to social norms. people will turn to crime if they do not believe the rewards will be forthcoming, and of the rewards of crime appear greater than the risks
     • carlen argues that w/c women are generally led to conform through the promise of two types of rewards or 'deals'.
       • the class deal
         • women who work wil be offered material rewards, with a decent standard of living and leisure opportunities.
         • women had failed to to find a legitimate way of earning a decent living and this left them feeling powerless, oppressed and victims of injustice
           • thirty two of them had always been in poverty
           • some found that qualifications gained in jail had been no help in gaining work upon release. others had been on training courses and still couldn't get a job
           • many had experienced problems and humiliations in trying to claim benefits
       • the gender deal
         • patriarchal ideology promises women material and emotional rewards from family life by conforming to the norms of the conventional domestic gender roles
         • for conforming to patriarchal family norms, most of the women had either not had the opportunity to make the deal, or saw few rewards and many disadvantages in family life
           • some had been abused physically or sexually by their fathers, or subjected to domestic violence by partners
           • over half had spent time in care, which broke the bonds with family and friends
           • those leaving or running away from care often found themselves homeless, unemployed and poor
       • if these rewards are not available or worth the effort, crime becomes more likely, carlen argues that this was the case with women in her study.
     • carlen concludes that, for these women, poverty and being brought up in care or an oppressive family life were the two main causes for their criminality. drug and alcohol abuse and the desire for excitement, were contributory factors, but these often stemmed from poverty or being brought up in care. being criminalised and jailed made the class deal even less available to them and made crime more attractive
     • evaluation
       • underplays the importance of free will and choice in offending
       • carlens sample was small and may be unrepresentative, consisting as it did largely of w/c ans serious offenders.
   • feminist approaches
     • patriarchal control: Heindensohn
       • the striking thing about womens behaviour is how conformist it is
         • commit fewer crimes
           • this is because patriarchal society imposes greater control over women and reduces their opportunities to offend.
       • the control occurs at home, in public and at work
       • control at home
         • womens domestic role is a constand round of housework and childcare, it confines their time and movements and restricts them to the home
         • women who reject their domestic role may find that their partners try to enforce it through domestic violence
         • dobash and dobash
           • many violent attacks result from men's dissatisfaction with their wives' performance of domestic duties. they also control through financial power e.g. denying funds for leisure activities which restricts them to the home.
         • daughters are victims of control too. they have less freedom and as a result develop a 'bedroom culture'. girls are also required to do more housework than boys and have less time to engage in deviant behaviour on the streets
       • control at work
         • womens behaviour is coontrolled through managers and supervisors
         • sexual harrassment is widespread and helps to keep women in their place
         • womens subordinate position reduces their opportunities to engage in criminal activity at work e.g. glass ceilling means they can;t committ fraud
       • control in public
         • women are controlled in public by the threat or fer of male violence against them. e.g. 54% of women avoided going out after dark for fear of being victims of crime
         • sensationalised media reporting of rape adds to womens fear
         • they are also controlled in public through fear of being seen as not respectable. e.g. dress, make-up, speech and actions defined as inappropriate can get a girl a 'reputation' e.g. women avoid pubs through fear of being labelled as sexually loose or even prostitutes
         • lees
           • in school boys maintain control through sexualised verbal abuse, e.g. slags if they fail to conform to gender role expectations
       • however, patrairchy can also push women into crime e.g. more likely to be poor and may turn to theft or prostitution
     • the liberation thesis
       • patriarchal society controls women to prevent them from deviating. if society became less patriarchal womens behaviour may become similar to mens
       • Adler
         • changes in society has led to changes in womens offending behaviour. as patriarchal control and discrimination has lessened and there are more opportunities for women, they have begun to adopt traditionally male roles in work and crime
       • as a result women no longer commit ;female crimes' like shoplifting, but are more likely to commit 'male' crimes e.g. burgalry
       • this is because of womens greater self confidence and assertiveness, and the fact that they have greater opportunities. e.g more women in senior positions gives them the opportunity commite white collar crimes such as fraud
       • evidence
         • in 6 females offend
         • adler- more women are participating in 'male' crimes such as embezzlement and armed robbery
         • denscombe
           • his study of midlands teenagers' self-image found that females were as likely to conduct in risk-taking behaviour and that girls were adopting more male stances, e.g. the desire to control and look 'hard'
       • evaluation
         • the female crime rate was rising before the liberation movement
         • most female criminals are working class- the group that is least likely to be affected by the liberation movement, which has befefited m/c women.
         • chesney-lind
           • arginalised women are more likely to commit crime than liberated women
         • chesney lind
           • women tend to branch out into 'male' crimes e.g. drugs because of their link to prostitution- an 'unliberated offence'
         • little evidence that the legitimate opportunity structure of professional crime has opened up to women
           • laidler and hunt
             • female gang members in the USA were expected to conform to gender roles the same as non-deviant girls