Gender and Crime

Frances Heidensohn suggests the question we should be asking is why women are so non-criminal? She has three explanations:

1.     Sex – role theory – Female roles contain elements of caring, passivity and domesticity. Whereas male roles have toughness, aggressiveness and sexual conquest. From childhood we are socialised to adopt our gender roles. Females generally lack values associated with delinquency and even prostitution can be seen as conforming to gender roles as it involves being a sex provider and females may opt into prostitution to be the family provider and bring money home to care for their children. This could be true in the case of the female gang culture in San Francisco, where single mothers participate in prostitution to provide for their children, conforming to their female gender role despite committing crime.

2.     Social contrast – women commit so few crimes because they are ideologically controlled by societies values and family relationships, they are subjected to closer levels of supervision, lack opportunity

3.     Biology – Normal females have a disposition that repels them from deviant behaviour, women are innately different to men and have natural desire to be nurturing,  although there has been a link between female menstrual hormones and committing crime suggesting crime may be influenced by internal biological factors i.e female hormones and male testosterone leading to aggression.

Frances Heidensohn suggested criminology as a study was malestream, ignoring females. She suggested this was due to the majority of crimes being committed by males so therefore it seems appropriate to study the majority rather than the minority. The majority of sociology academics are male suggesting investigation reflect male interest. Most traditional theories are gender blind.

Females used to commit less crime as they lacked opportunity, females were confined to the private world of the home and lacked criminal opportunity. Now as gender equality has begun women are entering the public sphere and workplace giving them more opportunity to commit crime. Wilkinson found in California with gender equality came equalising levels of white collar crime across the gender board.

Postmodernist Carol Smart introduced the concept of transgression looking at ideas such as self-imposed curfews, domestic violence and rape.

Chivalry factor – Women are protected by a chivalry factor by courts and police. Allen argues mental health explanations for females results in lighter punishment than males. Women may therefore be represented as committing less crime in statistics as they often get off with a warning rather than a written record. However, Leonard suggests “bad women” are actually treated more harshly, women deemed as bad mothers or promiscuous are punished harsher as they do not conform to their care giver role.

Statistics – Women seem to commit less crime than men overall, but they do engage in all types of crime including property, white and blue collar. Yet despite committing less crime, women are seen as “doubly deviant” for breaking legal and social rules.

Adler believes womens crime will increase with liberation just as women penetrate the labour market they are moving into criminal careers. She found that an increasing number of young girls were committing crime however it could be argued juvenile crime may not reflect adult crimes future.

James Messerschmidt argues there is “normative masculinity” what a real man should be, valued by men. Masculinity is something males have to work at, businessmen can exert masculinity through power over women in the workplace but men with no power in the workplace may turn to domestic violence to express their masculinity in the home. This may be why women are often more victims than offenders in violent crime.

Forms of masculinity include control over technology and women, men seek compensation for a lack of breadwinner status through aggression.

Katz suggests criminology has ignored the importance of thrill seeking when it comes to crime, crime is seductive and enjoyable for some. Postmodernists do acknowledge this.

Women as victims – the majority of crimes against women are carried out by men. 25% of serious violence takes place within the home ironically the females stereotypical place of control. As gender equality increases so does males emasculation and lack of power leading to an increase in domestic violence where men compensate for this lack of power. This increase could be due to more awareness and more recorded incidents, unlike in the 50’s when much went on behind closed doors without any record. Women may not report acts of domestic violence as publicly announcing there is a problem in the home can give them a sense of failure at their natural role of mother and wife. The police traditionally regarded “domestics” as private matters.

Rape – 1 in 20 women aged 16-60 have been raped. Rape is to do with masculinity and power not sexual desire, many rapists can only become aroused after they have terrorised their victims. Rape is a mechanism used by men to keep women in fear.

Key Factors of women as victims –

·        The relationship between crime and the wider patriarchal social control of women

·        Socialisation of males as dominant

·        Link between crisis of masculinity and crimes against women, exerting power

·        Mens reaction to the feminisation of the labour market and growing economic power

·        Sexual objectification of women, possession means men have a hold on women.

Evaluative point –

Whilst women have been victims and still are of male crime it must be noted the increase in female crime against females and levels of female domestic violence against men. The laddette culture promoted in the 90’s has lead to many women adopting masculine qualities and exhibiting aggression, many females have been involved in violence without any involvement of men.

Women and feminists have been striving for equality since the suffraggete movement, yet it could be argued when it comes to crime there is a stark lack of equality not only in the presence of females in criminology but with females as victims. It has been said that “women are equal until prosecuted for committing a crime, then they become or adopt the persona of a vulnerable infant victimised by their husband or a male” Suggesting females play their gender role and minority status to avoid punishment for crimes they do commit, blaming males for having an influence on an action they committed. Vicky Pryce suggested that the women she encountered in Holloway prison were there because of something their husband, brother or father had done to them, whether it was abuse or pushing them into drugs, highlighting the effect of male control and power over women actually causing them to offend themselves. In the case of Fred and Rose West, Myra Hindley and Ian Brady, infamous female murderers are often accompanied by a male, usually suggesting in court they were pushed into it by love, by fear or by violence. It seems often males are the puppeteers and females the puppets.

Punishment of women –

Punishment is often less harsh and softer for women and this can be shown by a recent proposal to create rehabilitation centres for female offenders rather than prison as prison can break up families, this is highlighting society’s value of females as care givers and mothers. Campaigners suggest 50% of women who enter prison have encountered abuse. Campbell argues women who are abused use drugs and alcohol to blot out the memory.

The most common offence for women is shoplifting whereas men it is violence, supporting the biological differences in gender.

Some evidence suggests women suffer harsher punishments in court if they do not appear vulnerable.  Norman Brennan suggests judges and magistrates already “bend over backwards” to not send women to prison, maybe by the chivalry factor or perhaps to avoid family break up.

Statistics –

·        Female prison population has increased by 173% in 10 years

·        Male crime has increased 50%

While it's true that male murderers far outnumber women, it's also true that all of our conclusions about violence are based on those who have been caught.