The gender ratio problem
Differences in crime rates of men and women. Women (according to official statistics) commit less crime, less seriously and less frequently.
Women's offences in the USA
Women commit:
- Just under 1/2 all fraud
- Just over 1/3 all embezzlement
- 30% of dishonesty/property
- 15% of violence
- 8% of robbery
Women in prison (USA)
6.5% of prison population.
There was an increase in female violence (60%) between 2002 and 2009. Explain.
This is misleading because we are dealing with small percentages. In 2002 women accounted for 16% of all violence apprehensions. In 2009 it was 18%.
Polk
- Behaviour of men more criminalised so women feature more heavily in dark figure
- Women inherently more deceitful
(But he didn't consider the dark figure of rape and other crimes that predominantly involve men)
The "lost letter experiment
#NAME?
Example of how statistics can misrepresent gendered patterns?
Observational shoplifting studies:
- Men 2x as likely to shoplift
- But women more scrutinised than men because of stereotypes
3 explanations of women's offending and conformity
1. Traditional gender blind and universally applicable theories
2. Special explanations
3. Feminist explanations
Universal and gender blind theories
#NAME?
Smart
- "malestream" theories
- considerations of gender overlooked and marginilised
Leonard
Gender blind theories can be adapted for women, particularly those involving socialisation
Daly and Chesney
Generalisability problem
Generalisability problem
#NAME?
Special explanations
#NAME?
Lombroso (on female offending)
- Females less involved, have not reached same evolutionary progress as males
- Studied criminal and noncriminal women in Sicily
- Female criminal" short, dark hair, masculine features
- Normal women have small heads (less intelligent/passionate)
- Criminal women are more like men
- Sexual deviancy in women = male crime
- Lack of maternal instincts etc make them dangerous
Socialisation, women and crime
#NAME?
Adler and Simon (1970s)
- Increase in women's crime linked to changing roles of women and impact of women's movement
- movement into more masculine roles created opportunity for female crime
- The Emancipation thesis
The Emancipation thesis
Liberation causes crime"
Women, freed from their domestic roles, are more involved in crime because they have begun mirroring the social roles of men
Steffensmeir (1980)
the new female criminal is more a social invention than an empirical reality
Criticisms of the emancipation thesis
- if women's crime is increasing independently of overall increases, it is more to do with economic marginalisation than liberation.
- The change did not affect all women across all classes
3 feminist explanations
1. differential socialisation
2. differential social control
3. differential opportunities
Differential socialisation
#NAME?
Differential social control
- Men and women are controlled differently and by different agents, in different spheres/realms of society
- Women are more scrutinised (by parents, then within marriage/relationships)
- Societal expectations
- Informal modes of social control
Differential opportunities
#NAME?
2 perspectives on women and the criminal justice system
1. Chivalry hypothesis
2. Women treated more harshly
Statistics of imprisonment by gender
- male:female inmates is 15:1
- 13% of convicted males are imprisoned, 6.5% of females
Explanations for imprisonment statistics
- Demeanour/attitude is a major factor in the decision to arrest
- Police tend not to arrest for petty/trivial matters; more women fall under that category
Double deviance'
Women are doubly punished for breaking two sets of rules
1. criminal law
2. gender expectations