Gender and Crime
Should gender be taking into consideration when convicting a criminal?
Heidensohn
(1985) suggests that women are treated more harshly when they deviate from
societal norms of female sexuality. In Heidensohn’s
own words; “The majority of British born women who go to prison in England,
Wales and Scotland are less likely to be sentenced for the seriousness of their
crimes and more according to the court’s assessment of them as wives, mothers
and daughters” (Heidensohn, 1997 as cited in Haralambos and Holborn, 2004, pg
386).
Another feminist Otto Pollak (1950) would
agree highlighting how the police and other law enforcement officials tend to
be men therefore are usually more lenient with women so this is why less women
appear in crime statistics. Pollak also argues that some women are more deviant than they appear but are protected by a 'chivalry factor'.
Hillary
Allen (1987) argues that court officials are more likely to ask for
psychological reports to carried out on female offenders in the search for and
underlying psychological problem. As Allen points out this is only
disadvantaging women more and encouraging society to continue to reinforce
sexist ideologies. However in contrast to these points Eileen Leonard (1982) argues that women are sometimes treated more harshly compared to some men due to society portraying them as 'doubly deviant'.
Official
statistics from 2011/12 show that women commit far fewer crimes than men, with
only 468 females being in prison which is 5.7 % of the prison population, these
figures have increased since 2002/03. Heidensohn suggests then that the question we should be asking is not why some women commit crime but rather why women are not so criminal? The three aspects that Heidensohn looks at are: biological theory, sex-role theory and transgression. Furthermore Heidensohn suggests that the reason women commit less crimes is because of the way in which they are ideologically controlled. In other words society expects women to behave of a loving and caring nature therefore most women try and live up to this expectation.
For further reading:
Investigating Crime and Deviance by Stephen Moore
Sociology Themes and Perspectives by Haralambos and Holborn
What is the "chivalry factor"?
ReplyDeleteThe 'chivalry factor' is the protection of women offenders from the police and courts etc just because they are female in which Pollak argues helps hide how deviant some women really are.
ReplyDeleteI see that the above post concentrates on why some women commit crime and some do not. Have you come across theorising regarding male criminal activities?
ReplyDeleteIndeed I have F.Muir. James Messerschmidt (1993) looked at male criminals and different types of masculinity. He suggests that males commit criminal offences due to constantly having to portray masculinity. Messerschmidt looks at social classes and race when studying male criminals suggesting working class males are more likely to be prosecuted for their crimes compared to middle class males whos crime sometimes gets put down to 'pranks' and letting off steam.
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