SG2043- Key Issues in Criminolog
Lecture 7
Gender, ‘Crime’ & Justice
, LECTURE OVERVIEW
❖What is gender?
❖Men & ‘crime’
❖Women & ‘crime’
❖Beyond ‘the home’ or public
space: Violence against women
within the CJS
, WHAT IS GENDER?
❖The cultural definition of behaviour defined as appropriate to
sexes
❖A set of cultural roles: “a costume, a mask, a straitjacket in whi
men and women dance their unequal dance” (Lerner, 1986: 238
❖ Mistakenly used as interchangeable with biological sex…
… BUT ‘sex’ describes a biological given, while ‘gender’ describes
cultural/social construct.
, WHAT IS GENDER? (CONTINUED)
❖Something fluid, shifting, changing, elusive – rather than solid, s
fixed: e.g. gender nonconforming/ non-binary or transgender ide
❖A form of individual/personal social/cultural identity, but also a s
division and a form of social inequality – in a patriarchal,
heteronormative and sexist social order…
…that is defined & shaped by the ideology of male supremacy/supe
and beliefs and social institutions that support and sustain such an
ideology (e.g. education, employment, criminal justice system)
, IN OTHER(S’) WORDS…
❖In a letter to The Times, in 1872, the anonymous The Earnes
Englishwoman asked: Are Women Animals?
❖“The modes of formation and expression -by no means mer
linguistic- that our culture places at the disposal of the psych
interior, have essentially been created by men”
❖“Indeed, with the exception of very few areas, our objective
culture is thoroughly male” (Simmel, G. 1902/1997: 5)
, MEN AND ‘CRIME’
❖Masculinity (=cultural performance of male identity) as a causal f
for ‘criminal’/violent behaviour: particularly sexual & domestic vio
against women
❖Such violent acts are seen as examples of male
dominance/oppression expressed via aggression
❖Sexual violence, implicitly or explicitly expressed, is
sanctioned/justified by stereotypical notions of “maleness”—als
celebrated as male pride; ‘You’ll never catch the Ripper’, or ‘11-0’
chants on the Leeds football grounds referring to Peter Sutcliffe (t
‘Yorkshire Ripper’)
Lecture 7
Gender, ‘Crime’ & Justice
, LECTURE OVERVIEW
❖What is gender?
❖Men & ‘crime’
❖Women & ‘crime’
❖Beyond ‘the home’ or public
space: Violence against women
within the CJS
, WHAT IS GENDER?
❖The cultural definition of behaviour defined as appropriate to
sexes
❖A set of cultural roles: “a costume, a mask, a straitjacket in whi
men and women dance their unequal dance” (Lerner, 1986: 238
❖ Mistakenly used as interchangeable with biological sex…
… BUT ‘sex’ describes a biological given, while ‘gender’ describes
cultural/social construct.
, WHAT IS GENDER? (CONTINUED)
❖Something fluid, shifting, changing, elusive – rather than solid, s
fixed: e.g. gender nonconforming/ non-binary or transgender ide
❖A form of individual/personal social/cultural identity, but also a s
division and a form of social inequality – in a patriarchal,
heteronormative and sexist social order…
…that is defined & shaped by the ideology of male supremacy/supe
and beliefs and social institutions that support and sustain such an
ideology (e.g. education, employment, criminal justice system)
, IN OTHER(S’) WORDS…
❖In a letter to The Times, in 1872, the anonymous The Earnes
Englishwoman asked: Are Women Animals?
❖“The modes of formation and expression -by no means mer
linguistic- that our culture places at the disposal of the psych
interior, have essentially been created by men”
❖“Indeed, with the exception of very few areas, our objective
culture is thoroughly male” (Simmel, G. 1902/1997: 5)
, MEN AND ‘CRIME’
❖Masculinity (=cultural performance of male identity) as a causal f
for ‘criminal’/violent behaviour: particularly sexual & domestic vio
against women
❖Such violent acts are seen as examples of male
dominance/oppression expressed via aggression
❖Sexual violence, implicitly or explicitly expressed, is
sanctioned/justified by stereotypical notions of “maleness”—als
celebrated as male pride; ‘You’ll never catch the Ripper’, or ‘11-0’
chants on the Leeds football grounds referring to Peter Sutcliffe (t
‘Yorkshire Ripper’)
