1. Gender and Crime

2. Last Lesson Recap

3. Lesson Objectives
• To understand why there are gender
differences in offending rates.
• To be able to explain sociological evidence for
the reasons from different offending rates
• To evaluate these reasons and ways to reduce
male offending

4. Starter
• Make a list of typical male and female crimes.
Are their any similarities or differences? Are
there more offences for males and females?
• Why do you think women are more likely to
shoplift?

5. Facts
• Most crime appears to be committed by
males
• Gender differences are the most significant
feature of recorded crimes
• 4 out of 5 convicted offenders in England and
Wales are males
• By 40 9% of females had a criminal conviction,
as against 32% of males

6. • Females more likely to be convicted of
property offences than males (except
burglary). Males more likely to be convicted of
violence or sexual offences
• Males more likely to be repeat offenders, to
have longer criminal careers and commit
more serious crimes (15 x more likely to be
convicted of homicide)

7. Task
In small group, look at the statistics on gender and
offending sheet. Answer the questions
Do they tell the complete truth?
•Dark figure (a low amount of offences recorded for
crimes against women)
•Who appears to commit the most crime? Any age
differences?
•Chivalry factor (low amount of prison/not guilty
convictions because of judges leniency towards
females?)

8. Do women commit more crime?
• Some Sociologists and Criminologists argue that they
underestimate the amount of female as against to
male offending. There are two explanations:
1. Female crimes such as shoplifting are less likely to be
reported e.g. Property crime less likely to be noticed
or reported than the violent or sexual crimes more
often committed by men. Prostitution- more females
than males- unlikely to be reported
2. Women less likely to be prosecuted and more likely
to be let of lightly.

9. Research Task
• In groups you will create an information
booklet/cards etc to explain your chosen topic
• You have the rest of this lesson and the whole
of the next lesson (ICT room)

10. Lesson Objectives
• To understand why there are gender
differences in offending rates.
• To be able to explain sociological evidence for
the reasons from different offending rates
• To evaluate these reasons and ways to reduce
male offending

11. Chivalry Thesis- women are less likely to be prosecuted
• Criminal Justice Agents- police, magistrates and
judges are men. Men are socialised to act in a
‘chivalrous’ way towards women
• Otto Pollak (1950)- men have a protective attitude
towards women- so they are unwilling to arrest
them, charge, prosecute or convict them
• Female crime less likely to end up in official statistics-
giving an invalid picture that exaggerates the extend
of gender differences in offending rates
• Self-report studies show women are treated more
leniently

12. Evidence For:
• Graham & Bowling- showed differences between OS and self
report studies
• Flood-Page et al- found that women who had admitted to
committing crimes were less likely to be charged compared to men
• Hood- 3,000 defendants- women were about one third less likely to
be jailed in similar cases
Evidence Against:
• Farrington & Morris – women are not sentenced more leniently for
comparable offences. Box (1981)- if women are treated leniently,
may be because their sentences are less serious..also more likely to
show remorse
• Buckle & Farrington- study of shoplifting witnessed twice as many
males shoplifting- despite fact that OS are equal. Suggesting women
shoplifters may be more likely to be prosecuted than males

13. Bias against women
• Feminists argue that that the CJS is not biased in favour of
women, as the chivalry thesis claims but biased against
them.
• They argue that the CJS treats women more harshly,
especially when they deviate from gender norms of
monogamous heterosexuality and motherhood
• Heidensohn- double standards- courts punish girls but not
boys for promiscuous sexual activity
• Carlen- women are assessed more in terms of being wives,
mothers and daughters. Less conventional girls are
punished harsher. Scottish judges more likely to jail women whose
children were in care than women who they saw as good mothers

14. • Feminists argue that these double standards
exist because the CJS is patriarchal...most
evident in the way rape cases are dealt with.
• Walklate- in rape cases it is the victim who is
on trial, since she has to prove her
respectability in order to have her evidence
acepted

15. Activity
• Compare the strength of feeling shown against Maxine Carr
with the level to which she was actually involved in the crime.
• On the Internet, investigate accounts of the case of ‘Baby P’
and Tracey Connelly in 2009. How were the descriptions of
Tracey Connelly in the press different from the way in which
the male offenders (the actual killers) were treated? For
example, the item in the Daily Express
Tramp Tracey used-TV to mask son's screams
• What do these cases show about how women and men are
seen, especially in cases involving children? Does our society
expect higher moral standards of women than men? If so,
why?
• How would sociologists explain this difference?

16. Explaining Female Crime
• Women in general do have lower rates of
offending than men, how can we then explain the
behaviour of those who do commit crimes?
• First explanations were biological rather than
sociological. Lombroso & Ferrero suggest that
criminality is innate but there are very few ‘born
female criminals’.
• However the view is social rather than biological
factors are the cause of gender differences: Sex
Role Theory, Control Theory & Liberation Thesis

17. What is the Functionalist Sex
Role Theory?

18. AO2:
Walklate criticises Parsons for assuming that
because women are biologically capable of
What is the Functionalist Sex
bearing children, they are best suited to the
expressive role.
Role Theory explanation?
Parsons explanation based on biological
assumption about sex differences rather
than gender differences
Feminists explain differences in terms of Patriarchy: Control
and Liberation Thesis

19. Heidensohn: Patriarchal Control
• Heidensohn argues that women commit fewer crimes than men
because patriarchal society imposes greater control over women,
reducing their opportunities to offend. Patriarchal control operates
at home, in public and at work.
• Control at home- Women's domestic roles imposes
restrictions on their time and movement confining them
to the house for long periods of time reducing
opportunities to offend. Daughters subject to patriarchal
control e.g. not ale to go out or stay out late, developing
a bedroom culture (socialising at home) and required to
do housework reducing opportunities to engaged in
deviant behaviour on streets

20. • Control in public- Women fear sexual violence ,
Media reporting of rapes helps to frighten
women into staying at home. Also a fear of
being defined as not respectable (clothing,
make up etc can create a bad reputation).
• Control at work- Women's subordinate
positions at work reduces criminal
opportunities . The ‘glass ceiling’ prevents
women rising to senior positions where there
are more ops for white collar crimes.

21. Carlen: Class and Gender Deals
• Carlen studied 39 W/C women who had been
convicted of a range of crimes; 20 were in prison or
youth custody. He suggests most convicted serious
female criminals are W/C
• Carlen uses Hirschi’s control theory to explain
female crime. Hirschi argues that humans act
rationally and are controlled by being offered a
‘deal’ (rewards in return for conforming to norms).
People commit crime if they don’t believe they will
get rewards or if the rewards of crime appear
greater than the risks

22. • Carlen argues that W/C women are generally led to conform
through the promise of two ‘deals’:
• Class deal- women who work will get a decent standard of
living
• Gender deal- women who conform to the conventional
domestic gender role will gain the material and emotional
rewards of family life
• In terms of the class deal, women in Carlen’s study had
failed to find a legitimate way of earning a decent living.
Most had always been in poverty; many could not find a
job and had experience problems claiming benefits
• In terms of the gender deal, some had been abused by
partners/fathers. Over half had spent time in care
(breaking family bonds)
• They had gained nothing from either deal and so felt they
had nothing to lose by using crime to escape from poverty

23. Liberation Thesis (Adler,1975)
• As women become liberated from Patriarchy their
offending will become similar to men’s. Liberation is
leading to a new type of female criminal and a rise in
the female crime rate
• Patriarchal controls and discrimination have lessened
and ops have become more equal as a result women
have begun to adopt traditional male roles in both
legitimate (work) and illegitimate spheres (crime)
• Women no longer just commit trad female crimes
(e.g. shoplifting, prostitution).
• More women in senior positions giving them the
opportunity to commit serious white collar crimes

24. Evaluation of Liberation Thesis
• Female crime rate began rising in 1950s – long
before women’s liberation
• Most female criminals are working class – who have
not been hit by women’s liberation
• Lind (1997) – women branching into ‘male’ crimes like
drugs..but mainly due to links to prostitution (very
unliberated lifestyle)
• Very little evidence of illegitimate opportunity
structure of professional crime has opened up to
women

25. Male Crime
• Evidence strongly suggests most offenders are
males
• However what has been overlooked is what is
it about being male that leads men to offend
• Focus on Masculinity as a way of explaining
higher offending rates

27. • James Messerschmidt (1993)- masculinity is a social
construct or ‘accomplishment’ and men have to
constantly work at constructing and presenting it to
others.
• Some men have more resources than others to draw upon
• Messerschmidt argues that different masculinities co-exist
within society. Hegemonic masculinity is the dominant,
prestigious form that most men wish to accomplish (what is it
defined as?)
• Some men have Subordinated masculinities e.g. gay men
who have no desire to accomplish hegemonic masculinity
as well as lower class and some ethnic minority men who
lack resources to do so

28. • C & D used as a resource that different men
use for accomplishing masculinity
• Class and Ethnic Differences among youths
lead to different forms of rule breaking to
demonstrate masculinity (what are these differences?)
• M/C men too may use crime. The difference
lies in the type of crime- M/C males commit
white collar and corporate crime to
accomplish hegemonic masculinity, poorer
groups may use street robbery to achieve a
subordinated masculinity

29. Criticisms of Messerschmidt
• Is masculinity an explanations of crime or just a
description of male offenders? (e.g. Tough,
controlling etc). He is in danger of a circular
argument, that masculinity explains male crime
(e.g. Violence) because they are crimes committed
by males (who have violent characteristics)
• Messerschmidt doesn't explain why not all men
use crime to accomplish masculinity
• He over-works the concept of masculinity to
explain virtually all male crimes, from joy riding to
embezzlement

30. Postmodernist ideas about
masculinity
• Loss of traditional manual jobs in recent years.
These helped working class men express
masculinity
• Growth of night-time leisure economy that many
men can gain legal employment form, criminal
opportunities & express masculinity
• Winlow – study of bouncers in Sunderland showed
this
• Organised criminal subculture emerging in nightlife
economy – violence is a way to earn a living

31. • Reputation and employability depends on their
bodily capital
• Body – symbol of worth – looking the part – signs
of masculinity....(the sign is all – geek gets
muscle and tats!)
• Winlow study shows how expression of
masculinity changes with the move from a
modern industrial society to a postmodern,
industrial once.
• The change opens up new criminal opportunities
for men who are able to use violence to express
masculinity

32. Task
Using material from this handout and
elsewhere, write a newspaper/
magazine style article about young
men and reasons for their criminal
behaviour.
Include reference to ‘fictional
characters’ that you go out observing
and interview – like the Moss Side
Story)

33. Quick Check Questions
Page 108
Exam Question: Assess the value of ‘chivalry
thesis’ in understanding gender differences in
crime

34. Key facts The Chivalry thesis Feminism
 Girls and women appear This argues that most They argue the criminal
to commit less crime. police, judges and justice system is
 4/5 convicted offenders magistrates are men and patriarchal and is bias
in Britain are male. men are socialised to be against women when they
chivalrous to women. step outside gender roles.
 Women more likely to be Roger Hood found women Women are judged more
convicted of theft and are 1/3 less likely to be harshly for having
property offences. jailed than men in similar promiscuous sex and
 Men more likely to cases. being bad mothers rather
convicted of violence and than the seriousness of
sexual offences. Gender and crime their crimes. This is what
happens in rape cases
where the victims sexual
Liberation thesis Explanations for activity is always on trial.
Freda Alder (1975) argues female criminality
that if feminists are right
and women only commit less Feminist - Control Functionalist -Sex role
crime because of patriarchy theory theory
then greater equality should Women commit less The way girls are
see a rise in women crimes because men socialised to be quiet and
offenders. This equality will control women through demur doesn’t encourage
bring about more female domestic roles, fear of them to behave
offenders for violence and being a victim and aggressively or break the
white collar crime. financial dependence. law.

35. Women demonised in the media
Myra Hindley Maxine Carr
Sentenced to 30 years in prison for Was convicted and sent to prison for
her part in the murder and torture of providing a false alibi for boyfriend Ian
5 children along with Ian Brady. The Huntley who murdered Holly wells and Jessica
media widely reported her true crime Chapman in 2002. Maxine had nothing
as not having any motherly instincts directly to do with the murders but many
as a women. Newspapers still to this protested for reintroduction of the death
day publish a sinister picture taken of penalty outside the court. The media had a
her 30 years ago because it portrays definitive role in demonising Maxine Carr by
her as a cold sadistic killer. producing sensationalist stories of her past.
Gender and crime
Why do men commit crime?
Postmodernity and masculinity James Messerschmidt (1993) makes a link
Others have suggested that between male offending and masculinity. He
previously jobs in manufacturing says all men want the dominant hegemonic
allowed men to express their masculinity which is achieved through
masculinity. An increase in domination of work, women and sexuality. He
service sector jobs like bouncers argues that lower class men and ethnic
allows men to express their minorities lack the resources to achieve this
masculinity through violence, masculinity so commit crime in order to
drug dealing and racketeering. achieve it.

36. EXPLANATION KEY ARGUMENT/POINTS/ CRITIQUE
THINKERS
Gender socialisation Parsons
•Boys are raised to be active/aggressive/risk taking
•Boys reject feminine gender roles in nuclear family
•Boys role model is breadwinner – outside home
•Compensatory compulsory masculinity – aggression
and anti-social behaviour to prove they are men!
Cohen
•Lack of male role model - so boys turn to street gangs
for masculine identity (toughness etc)
New Right (Dennis/Murray)
•Absence of father figure – boys turn to gangs for
status
Social control • Boys are less controlled than girls – more freedom
• Boys dominate public spaces
• Boys have more opportunity to commit crime ‘on
the street’
• Boys are pressurised to be risky and reputation is
not an issue..being ‘hard’ is