Gender and crime pt 1

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  • Gender and crime
    • Do women connect more crime than thought?
      • some argue that female crimes such as shoplifting are less likely to be reported
        • women are also more likely to be 'let off'
    • The chivalry thesis
      • most criminal justice agents are male
        • they have been socialised to act in a protective way towards women
          • this leads to them acting in a more lenient  way towards women ; their crimes don't end up as official stats.
            • however, it can be argued that female offenders are not treated differently and that the reason why they are less likely to be prosecuted is because the crimes they commit are less serious
    • Bias against women
      • Feminists
        • women are treated more harshly than males when they deviate from gender norms
          • Carlen; women are jailed often as a result of their assessment as a wife or mother
            • she also found judges in Scotland are more likely to jail mothers who's children are in care
    • Explanations for lower female crime rates
      • 1. Differential socialisation
        • in the traditional nuclear family , girls have caring passive roles whereas boys do not
          • this may lead to boys joining street gangs as a form of gaining a masculine identity
      • 2. Social control
        • All females traditionally spend more time at home and their lives have been more tightly controlled and regulated
          • Girls are controlled more by their parents and develop a 'bedroom culture'
            • women are also controlled at work through male supervisors and bosses. sexual harassment is also more widespread and keeps women in their place
      • 3. opportunity
        • crime rates peak during adolescence
          • this is when women spend less time at home than males
            • in the past, limited female employment meant females had fewer chances to commit crime in the workplace
      • the liberation thesis
        • Alder
          • argues that patriarchal controls has lessened we are seeing changes in female patterns of offending
            • increases of women working has seen a increase in corporate crime
              • there is also a rise in girl gangs
                • Alder argues that women become liberated we are going to see a higher frequency of female crimes
                  • however, this has been criticised for ignoring the fact that female crime has been on the rise in the 1950's

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