Gender and crime
SOCIOLOGICAL EXPLANATIONS FOR WHY WOMEN COMMIT LESS CRIME THAN
MEN
Functionalism
Key terms
Sex role
theory
Differential
socialisation
PARSONS
Men = breadwinner + performed largely outside the home
Boys reject feminine models of behaviour → express
tenderness, gentleness & emotion
Boys seek to distance themselves from such models by
engaging in “compensatory compulsory masculinity”
through anti-social behaviour → can slip over into acts
of delinquency
∵ men = ↓ socialised role than women in the
conventional nuclear family, socialisation = ↑ difficult
for boys than girls
Women = perform expressive role in home, where take the main
responsibility for socialising children
COHEN
Lack of adult male role model = boys ↑ likely to turn → all-male
street gang as a source of masculine identity
Status = earned by acts of toughness/ risk taking/
delinquency
EVALUATION
WALKLATE
Criticised sex role theory for its biological assumptions
Assumes that because women have to biological
capacity to bear children = best suited to the
expressive role
Based on untested biological assumptions about sex
diff.
SOCIOLOGICAL EXPLANATIONS FOR WHY WOMEN COMMIT LESS CRIME THAN
MEN
Functionalism
Key terms
Sex role
theory
Differential
socialisation
PARSONS
Men = breadwinner + performed largely outside the home
Boys reject feminine models of behaviour → express
tenderness, gentleness & emotion
Boys seek to distance themselves from such models by
engaging in “compensatory compulsory masculinity”
through anti-social behaviour → can slip over into acts
of delinquency
∵ men = ↓ socialised role than women in the
conventional nuclear family, socialisation = ↑ difficult
for boys than girls
Women = perform expressive role in home, where take the main
responsibility for socialising children
COHEN
Lack of adult male role model = boys ↑ likely to turn → all-male
street gang as a source of masculine identity
Status = earned by acts of toughness/ risk taking/
delinquency
EVALUATION
WALKLATE
Criticised sex role theory for its biological assumptions
Assumes that because women have to biological
capacity to bear children = best suited to the
expressive role
Based on untested biological assumptions about sex
diff.
