Carlen: Gender and class deals
Carlen conducted unstructured tape-recorded interviews on 39 W/C women who were
convicted of a range of crimes including theft, fraud, handling stolen goods,
prostitution etc. At the time of them being interviewed, 20 were in prison or youth
custody.
W/C women are led to conform because of promise of two types of rewards or deals:
● Class deal - women who work will be offered material rewards
● Gender deal - patriarchal ideology promises women material and emotional
rewards from family life by conforming to the norms of a conventional
domestic gender role.
If these rewards are not available or worth the effort, crime becomes more likely.
- Class deal
Women who commit crime have failed to find a legitimate way to earn a
decent living. Felt powerless, oppressed and victims of injustice.
It was found that 32 out of the 29 women have always been in poverty.
Some found jail qualifications no use for getting jobs and encountered
problems and humiliations in trying to claim benefits.
Crime and
Deviance - If they get no gain or rewards of any type from the class deal, they use
crime to escape poverty.
Gender and
Females and violent crime - Chivalry thesis and Double
Crime (2) - Gender deal
Deviance
Most women hadn’t had the opportunity to make the deal or saw few
rewards but lots of disadvantages in family life.
Chivalry thesis is an argument that the CJS is likely to be more lenient with
women and therefore any crimes that they commit are less likely to end up in It was found that the women were abused physically or sexually by
the official statistics. their fathers or they were victims of domestic violence by partners.
Over half spent time in care and leaving or running away led to further
Typically, female crimes are less likely to be reported. problems.
For example, shoplifting is more likely to go unnoticed, Even when women’s
crimes are in fact reported, they are less likely to be prosecuted. If they get no gain or rewards of any type from the gender deal, crime is the only route
to a decent standard of living; nothing to lose and everything to gain.
HOWEVER, this isn’t always the case. Heidensohns argument that the CJS is
biased against women with courts treating women more harshly than males
when they deviate from gender norms. This deviation from gender norms - Evaluation
alongside the fact that it is criminal is known as Double Deviance. For the women in Carlen’s study, poverty and being brought up in care/oppressive
family lives were the two main found causes of criminality.
Contribution from drug/alcohol addiction and desire for excitement was also found.
Being criminalised and jailed makes the class deal even less available to them and
crime even more attractive.
Carlen conducted unstructured tape-recorded interviews on 39 W/C women who were
convicted of a range of crimes including theft, fraud, handling stolen goods,
prostitution etc. At the time of them being interviewed, 20 were in prison or youth
custody.
W/C women are led to conform because of promise of two types of rewards or deals:
● Class deal - women who work will be offered material rewards
● Gender deal - patriarchal ideology promises women material and emotional
rewards from family life by conforming to the norms of a conventional
domestic gender role.
If these rewards are not available or worth the effort, crime becomes more likely.
- Class deal
Women who commit crime have failed to find a legitimate way to earn a
decent living. Felt powerless, oppressed and victims of injustice.
It was found that 32 out of the 29 women have always been in poverty.
Some found jail qualifications no use for getting jobs and encountered
problems and humiliations in trying to claim benefits.
Crime and
Deviance - If they get no gain or rewards of any type from the class deal, they use
crime to escape poverty.
Gender and
Females and violent crime - Chivalry thesis and Double
Crime (2) - Gender deal
Deviance
Most women hadn’t had the opportunity to make the deal or saw few
rewards but lots of disadvantages in family life.
Chivalry thesis is an argument that the CJS is likely to be more lenient with
women and therefore any crimes that they commit are less likely to end up in It was found that the women were abused physically or sexually by
the official statistics. their fathers or they were victims of domestic violence by partners.
Over half spent time in care and leaving or running away led to further
Typically, female crimes are less likely to be reported. problems.
For example, shoplifting is more likely to go unnoticed, Even when women’s
crimes are in fact reported, they are less likely to be prosecuted. If they get no gain or rewards of any type from the gender deal, crime is the only route
to a decent standard of living; nothing to lose and everything to gain.
HOWEVER, this isn’t always the case. Heidensohns argument that the CJS is
biased against women with courts treating women more harshly than males
when they deviate from gender norms. This deviation from gender norms - Evaluation
alongside the fact that it is criminal is known as Double Deviance. For the women in Carlen’s study, poverty and being brought up in care/oppressive
family lives were the two main found causes of criminality.
Contribution from drug/alcohol addiction and desire for excitement was also found.
Being criminalised and jailed makes the class deal even less available to them and
crime even more attractive.
