Carlen: Class and Gender deals

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  • Carlen: Class and Gender Deals
    • 1988 - unstructured tape recorded interviews
      • study of 39 15-46 y/o w/c women that have been convicted of a range of crimes
      • Some middle class offenders, but serious crimes are committed by working class
    • Uses Hirschi's (1969) control theory to explain female crime
      • Hirschi - humans act rationally and are controlled by a deal of rewards
      • People turn to crime if they do not believe in the reward
      • W/C women are led to conform on 2 things:
        • Class Deal: work allows material rewards, standard living and leisure opportunities
        • Gender Deal: Patriarchal ideology - material and emotional rewards to family life
      • Class Rewards not available, crime is more likely
        • 32 are in poverty
        • Gain qualifications in jail, no help outside of prison
        • Experienced problems trying to claim benefits
      • Gender Rewards not available
        • Sexually or physically abused, subjected to domestic violence
        • Over half spent time in care, broke bonds in family
        • Running away or leaving care = homeless, unemployed, poor
    • Carlen concludes, women that are poor, brought up in care or an oppressive family, went into crime
    • Being jailed made the class deal even less available to them and crime more attractvie
    • EVALUATION
      • Heidensohn - patriarchal controls help women from deviating
      • Carlen - failure of these promised deals, removes the controls that prevent them from offending

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