Crime and deviance - Topic 5: Gender, crime and justice
Introduction to Gender and crime-sociologist List
Key:
Heheh-Sociologist Heheh-Important information
Key information:
- Girls and women tend to commit less crime than boys and men
- Crimes committed by women are different to crimes by men
- Traditional views → Male-dominated criminology neglected female
criminality(due to less female crime and less need for behaviour controlling)
- Recent views → Feminists focus attention on the patterns/causes of female
criminality
- Also turned attention to male criminality → interest in the relationship
between masculinity and criminality(crime can express masculinity?)
Gender Patterns and Crimes
● Heidensohn and Silvestri (2012)
- Most crime is committed by males
- Gender differences in crime are an interesting concept
- Statistic shows:
1. 4 out of 5 convicted offenders in England/Wales are male
2. By the age of 40 → 9% of females have a criminal conviction, while 32% of
males have a criminal conviction
- Gender differences in types of crime:
1. A higher proportion of female offenders were convicted due to property
offences(not including burglary)
2. A higher proportion of male offenders(than female) were convicted of
violent/sexual offences
3. Repeat offenders → more likely to be male(longer criminal careers, commit
a serious crime) → e.g. Men are 15x more likely to be convicted of
homicide
1
,Do women commit more crimes?
- Some sociologists/criminologists argue that statistics underestimate the amount
of female crime
- Two arguments supporting this claim:
1. ‘Typical’ female crimes are under-reported (e.g. violence is more likely to be
reported than shoplifting, and prostitution is not reported by either party
involved)
2. Prosecution for women’s crimes when detected/reported is unlikely, and
prosecution tends to let women off lightly
The chivalry thesis
- ‘The chivalry thesis’ → most criminal justice agents(CJA or ASC) tend to be
male(e.g. Police officers, judges, etc), and men are socialised to act
‘chivalrous’ towards women
● Pollak (1950)
- Men have protective attitudes towards women
- The criminal justice system is more lenient towards women, so their crimes are
less likely to be on official statistics
- An invalid picture produced of gender differences in rates of offending
- Quote → 'Men hate to accuse women and thus send them to their
punishment, police officers dislike to arrest them, district attorneys to
prosecute them, judges and juries to find them guilty, and so on.’
● Graham and Bowling (1995)
- Self-report studies indicate that female offenders are treated more leniently
- Research on a sample of 1,721 14-25-year-olds
- Males were more likely to offend, however, the difference was smaller than
recorded in official statistics
- Males were 2.33x more likely to admit to having committed an offence in the
previous year → Official statistics show males as 4x more likely to offend
● Flood Page et al (2000)
2
, - A large difference in self-reports
- 1 in 11 female self-reported offenders has been cautioned/convicted
- 1 in 7 male self-reported offenders has been cautioned/convicted
- Official statistics support the chivalry thesis by:
1. Females are more likely(than males) to be released on bail rather than
remanded in custody
2. Females are more likely to receive a fine/community service(and receive
shorter prison times)
3. 1 in 9 female offenders receive a prison sentence for shoplifting vs 1 in 5 males
4. Hood (1992) → study on 3,000 defendants found that women were about ⅓
less likely to be jailed in similar cases
Evidence against the chivalry basis
● Farrington and Morris (1984)
- Study of sentencing 408 offences of theft in a magistrates court
- Women were not sentenced more leniently for comparable offences
● Box (1981)
- Review of (British and American) self-report studies
- Women who commit more serious offences are not treated more favourably
than men
● Buckle and Farrington (1984)
- Observational study of shoplifting in a department store
- 2x as many males shoplifting than females(despite more or less statistics)
- This could indicate that females shoplifters are more likely to be prosecuted
than their male counterparts
● Hales et al (2009)
- Self-report studies
- Evidence of males committing more offences
- Young males are more likely to engage in disorderly conduct(for example
Drugs/alcohol)
- Significantly more likely to have been offenders in major offence categories
- The gender gap increases as the offences become more serious
● Yearnshire (1997)
3
Introduction to Gender and crime-sociologist List
Key:
Heheh-Sociologist Heheh-Important information
Key information:
- Girls and women tend to commit less crime than boys and men
- Crimes committed by women are different to crimes by men
- Traditional views → Male-dominated criminology neglected female
criminality(due to less female crime and less need for behaviour controlling)
- Recent views → Feminists focus attention on the patterns/causes of female
criminality
- Also turned attention to male criminality → interest in the relationship
between masculinity and criminality(crime can express masculinity?)
Gender Patterns and Crimes
● Heidensohn and Silvestri (2012)
- Most crime is committed by males
- Gender differences in crime are an interesting concept
- Statistic shows:
1. 4 out of 5 convicted offenders in England/Wales are male
2. By the age of 40 → 9% of females have a criminal conviction, while 32% of
males have a criminal conviction
- Gender differences in types of crime:
1. A higher proportion of female offenders were convicted due to property
offences(not including burglary)
2. A higher proportion of male offenders(than female) were convicted of
violent/sexual offences
3. Repeat offenders → more likely to be male(longer criminal careers, commit
a serious crime) → e.g. Men are 15x more likely to be convicted of
homicide
1
,Do women commit more crimes?
- Some sociologists/criminologists argue that statistics underestimate the amount
of female crime
- Two arguments supporting this claim:
1. ‘Typical’ female crimes are under-reported (e.g. violence is more likely to be
reported than shoplifting, and prostitution is not reported by either party
involved)
2. Prosecution for women’s crimes when detected/reported is unlikely, and
prosecution tends to let women off lightly
The chivalry thesis
- ‘The chivalry thesis’ → most criminal justice agents(CJA or ASC) tend to be
male(e.g. Police officers, judges, etc), and men are socialised to act
‘chivalrous’ towards women
● Pollak (1950)
- Men have protective attitudes towards women
- The criminal justice system is more lenient towards women, so their crimes are
less likely to be on official statistics
- An invalid picture produced of gender differences in rates of offending
- Quote → 'Men hate to accuse women and thus send them to their
punishment, police officers dislike to arrest them, district attorneys to
prosecute them, judges and juries to find them guilty, and so on.’
● Graham and Bowling (1995)
- Self-report studies indicate that female offenders are treated more leniently
- Research on a sample of 1,721 14-25-year-olds
- Males were more likely to offend, however, the difference was smaller than
recorded in official statistics
- Males were 2.33x more likely to admit to having committed an offence in the
previous year → Official statistics show males as 4x more likely to offend
● Flood Page et al (2000)
2
, - A large difference in self-reports
- 1 in 11 female self-reported offenders has been cautioned/convicted
- 1 in 7 male self-reported offenders has been cautioned/convicted
- Official statistics support the chivalry thesis by:
1. Females are more likely(than males) to be released on bail rather than
remanded in custody
2. Females are more likely to receive a fine/community service(and receive
shorter prison times)
3. 1 in 9 female offenders receive a prison sentence for shoplifting vs 1 in 5 males
4. Hood (1992) → study on 3,000 defendants found that women were about ⅓
less likely to be jailed in similar cases
Evidence against the chivalry basis
● Farrington and Morris (1984)
- Study of sentencing 408 offences of theft in a magistrates court
- Women were not sentenced more leniently for comparable offences
● Box (1981)
- Review of (British and American) self-report studies
- Women who commit more serious offences are not treated more favourably
than men
● Buckle and Farrington (1984)
- Observational study of shoplifting in a department store
- 2x as many males shoplifting than females(despite more or less statistics)
- This could indicate that females shoplifters are more likely to be prosecuted
than their male counterparts
● Hales et al (2009)
- Self-report studies
- Evidence of males committing more offences
- Young males are more likely to engage in disorderly conduct(for example
Drugs/alcohol)
- Significantly more likely to have been offenders in major offence categories
- The gender gap increases as the offences become more serious
● Yearnshire (1997)
3
