Crime and Gender.
Crime and Gender Criminology has treated women's role in crime with a large measure of indifference. The intellectual tradition from which criminology derives its conception of these sexes maintains esteem for men's autonomy, intelligence and force of character while disdaining women for their weaknesses of compliance and passivity. Women who conform as pure, obedient daughters, wives and mothers benefit men and society (Feinman, 1994: 16). Those women who don't, that is are non-conforming, may simply be one who questions established beliefs or practices, or one who engages in activities associated with men, or one who commits a crime. These women are doubly damned and doubly deviant (Bottoms, 1996: 1). They are seen as 'mad' not 'bad' (Lloyd, 1995: 36). These behaviors frequently lead to interpretations of being mentally abnormal and unstable. Those doing the defining, by the very act, are never defined as 'other', but are the norm. As 'men' are the norm, women are deviant. Women are defined in reference to men (Lloyd, 1995: xvii). In the words of Young (1990), 'sexual difference is one of the ways in which normal is marked out from deviant' (Young, 1990: ix). So why do these differences exist within the criminal justice system and society as a whole? In order to understand why offending and punishment differs between genders it is important to acknowledge and analyses past
Gender differnces in Crime
Outline and assess sociological explanations of genders differences in patterns of crime Official statistics show that when it comes to crime statistics, males clearly overshadow any crime committed by females. According to the Home Office in 1997, of people aged 20 years old in the population, fewer than 2% of females were found guilty of an offence compared with 9% of males. This would suggest that somehow statistics often ignore female offenders to a certain degree. However to add to this problem even self-report studies and victimisation studies, which are designed to mask the problems with official statistics, show a discernible division in the genders. This can suggest that perhaps it is not just a lack of acceptance of female crime but a difference in the gender constructs. All this has led to sociologists somewhat ignoring females in crime analysis, assuming it is a male phenomenon Social, biological, economic, and psychological explanations have been used to develop theories to explain why women commit crime, as well as why they commit less crime than men. During the late 1800s and early 1900s, theories of human behaviour tended to be deterministic. Major sociological explanations of crime (differential association, anomie, social disorganization) were emphasizing social and cultural factors that could account for female as well as male criminality. Some
Outline and Assess Sociological Explanations of Gender Differences in Crime Rates.
Outline and Assess Sociological Explanations of Gender Differences in Crime Rates Official statistics show that when it comes to crime statistics, males clearly overshadow any crime committed by females. According to the Home Office in 1997, of people aged 20 years old in the population, fewer than 2% of females were found guilty of an offence compared with 9% of males. This would suggest that somehow statistics often ignore female offenders to a certain degree. However to add to this problem even self-report studies and victimisation studies, which are designed to eleviate the problems with official statistics, show a discernible division in the genders. This can suggest that perhaps it is not just a lack of acceptance of female crime but a difference in the gender constructs. All this has led to sociologists somewhat ignoring females in crime analysis, assuming it is a male phenomenon. So to successfully assess why there are gender differences in crime rates we must first find out why sociology ignores female offenders. Frances Heidensohn in 1989 suggested four reasons why sociology is, malestream, dominated by men. Firstly, males are the main and dominant offenders, so it seems unnecessary to study a small minority of female offenders. This is also combined with a largely male outlook and interest on the subject, as most sociologists who are academics are men. Due to this
How important is gender to an understanding of crime?
How important is gender to an understanding of crime? The fact that men commit more crime than women is a truth universally acknowledged in most western industrialized countries. However, this fact has been taken for granted and many theories of crime have used it as an underlying assumption, without analysing in more detail the reasons behind this gender gap, which more recent theories have attempted to understand, most notably within the field of feminism. This issue is multi-faceted as it must deal not only with an understanding of female crime, and the inextricably linked questions of whether the patterns and motivations behind criminal activity are the same for both genders, but also must ask the more basic question of why this gender gap exists. Many feminist criminologists have attempted to tackle this issue, criticizing the more mainstream (or malestream) criminological explanations for crime, whilst attempting to understand female criminal activity, however the varied theoretical outcomes of such investigations have left little opportunity for any overall theory of crime which encompasses both genders. More recently, questions have returned to a focus upon male crime, and the implications of 'doing gender' and 'masculinities' in explaining a gender gap which has remained consistent throughout a time when the position of women, in a more general context, has
Explain the gender differences in particular types of crime.
Explain the gender differences in particular types of crime. The object of this paper is to explain gender differences in particular types of crime. I intend to do this by using various books and the Internet to briefly explore burglary, prostitution and crime related to a violent nature. I also wish to include any graphs or statistics I may find of interest and relevance to this essay. It has been stated that the differences between men and women, and their upbringing, has greatly influenced the crimes they commit and whether they commit crimes at all. I personally feel that this is a generalisation and may border on stereotyping and discrimination, for example if you asked people who they thought would commit an offence related to football hooliganism they would often say a man. To show evidence to support this statement I conducted my own short survey and recorded my findings. I was alarmed to find that not only did most of the people I asked related the crimes to males, but then they went onto describe them as "a skinhead" "lots of tattoos" "lager lout", all very stereotypical roles. It is believed by various sociologists that factors influence us from the period of our upbringing. This belief is supported by Thomas 1967, who said "the girl as a child does not know she has any particular value until she learns it from others" Internet resource, five, 2003. There are
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Outline and assess feminist explanations for the relationship between gender and crime [50]
Outline and assess feminist explanations for the relationship between gender and crime [50] There is a very clear relationship between gender and crime in terms of official statistics. Men appear about six or seven times more likely to offend than women. In self-report studies the figures are closer but men are still in the majority. Even when we look at victims of crime it appears that men are more likely to be victims of crime than women. So what have feminists argued about these patterns? The feminist Heidensohn believes that the patterns above have meant that women have been ignored by most criminology until recently. She accuses criminology of being ‘malestream’ for a number of reasons. The first is that the majority of offenders are male and therefore it is easy to study the majority rather than the minority. Secondly the majority of sociologists seem to be male and therefore their work may reflect a male and biased viewpoint. However this bias increases when you consider that the bulk of sociological research that is published concerns the lives of the exciting – young males. And finally Heidensohn describes most theories as ‘gender blind’ as the sociologists do not think about how their theory could be applied to females, ignoring the female viewpoint. However, over recent years feminists have become very influential in criminology and some of their views
Outline and asses sociological explanations of gender differences in the pattern of crime
Outline and asses sociological explanations of gender differences in the pattern of crime By looking at official statistics it would appear that 80% of all crime is committed by men. Crime committed by women is generally more minor and men commit more crime in every area with the exception of shoplifting. However in the past 10 years female crime has increased three fold. Although women only make up 4% of the prison population, in the 1970's government experts predicted that there would be no women in prison at all, which has evidentially not occurred. Even so men still commit a much higher proportion of crime. An early study into the causes of crime by Lombrosso claimed that men commit more crime as they are more likely to have physical flaws such as an extra nipple creating a more ape like appearance. By studying criminals in one Italian prison he argued that a more ape like features that he claimed could be seen in convicts and not in the prison officers, suggested that the individual was less evolved and therefore predisposed to committing crime. He noted that women are less likely to have these flaws and are therefore not born criminals explaining less female criminal activities. However Lombrosso ignored socialisation as being a factor in creating a criminal disposition, which is the idea favoured by most sociologists. In the nature vs. nurture debate Lomobrosso
Choose two criminological theories and critically assess their usefulness in enhancing our understanding of one of the following (a) youth crime (b) gender and crime or (c) race(TM) and crime.(TM)
'Choose two criminological theories and critically assess their usefulness in enhancing our understanding of one of the following (a) youth crime (b) gender and crime or (c) 'race' and crime.' Words - 1, 583 Danielle Mc Fall The purpose of this assignment is to develop a greater understanding of the topic Gender and Crime. To gather this information the assignment will be investigating both Biological and Feminist theories in relation to Gender and Crime. The biological theory will investigate the works of Lombroso, William Shedons and other genetic hypothesises, while the Feminist theory will focus on why the feminist theory was introduced, the differences between criminologists understanding of female criminal behaviour and the problems in studying gender in relation to crime. An explanation for criminal behaviour has been studied since the early 17th century through the works of Beccaria and Betham in the famous Classical theory to the sociological theories of the present day. In this assignment biological and feminist theories will be the main focus in relation to Gender and Crime. Biological theorists and theories concentrate on the relationship between biology and crime. One of the first theorists to develop this concept was an Italian prison psychiatrist called Cesare Lombroso. His ideas where very much influenced by the work of Charles Darwin,
Gender and Grime
UNIT TITTLE-SOCIOLOGY- UNIT B 21 JANUARY 2003 MOHAMMED EMAMY DRAFT RESEARCH / GENDER AND CRIME INTRODUCTION As in other areas of sociology, criminological studies have traditionally ignored half the population. An example of this is the account of social order and anomie. Merton (1930), cited by Taylor et al (2000), argued that American society encouraged people to seek 'money success', and as the social structure was unable to provide unlimited opportunities for all, this resulted in a 'strain to anomie', which lead to different types of deviance. Therefore it has been argued by various sociologists that women should figure more prominently in various categories of deviance including crime. The reason as to why their seems to be low crime rate for women is explained by Pollok (1950), cited by Haralambos, M. Holborn, M. Heald, R (2000), and the related chivalry theory to be the result of the higher numbers of men in the police force and the judicial system. Men have stereotypical views about women and how they should behave. Therefor they tend to be less harsh with them. However Pollok argued that this was only a minor factor. He stated that much of female crime was unreported. Moreover, he suggested that women's domestic roles gave them the opportunity to hide their crimes. Stanko and Hobdell also reflected polokk's view of unreported crime.
Women and Crime
WOMEN AND CRIME A consistent feature of the statistics, not only in England and Wales but across Europe and America, is that far fewer women are convicted of crime than men - a fact which has changed little over the years. Female offenders also show a different pattern of offending being less involved in violent offences and proportionately more involved in theft. In general most now accept that girls and women do commit fewer offences than boys. GENDER AND PATTERNS OF CRIME Writing in 1977 Carol Smart stated: Our knowledge is still in its infancy. In comparison with the massive documentation on all aspects of male delinquency and criminality, the amount of work carried out on the area of women and crime is extremely limited. Although the years since Smart's study have seen much more interest in the study of female crime and deviance, many general theories in this area continue to neglect gender as a factor influencing criminality. This is despite the fact that official figures suggest that gender is perhaps the most significant single factor in whether an individual is convicted of crime. Any theories which fail to explain this relationship could therefore be seen as inadequate. OFFICIAL STATISTICS, CRIMINALITY AND GENDER Pollak - the 'masked' female offender - 'chivalry' thesis Writing in 1950, Otto pollak argued that official statistics on gender and crime were
