Gender Patterns in Crime

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  • Gender Patterns in Crime
    • Official Statistics
      • Four out of five convicted offenders in England and Wales are men
      • By age 40, 9% of females have a criminal conviction compared to 32% of men
      • A higher proportion of female than male offenders are convicted of property offences (except burglary)
      • A higher proportion of male than female offenders are convicted of violent or sexual offences
      • Men are more likely to be repeat offenders, have longer criminal careers and to commit more serious crime
      • Men are 5 times more likely to be convicted of murder than women
    • Why do Official Statistics Say Men Commit More Crime
      • Men are more likely to be convicted if arrested than women
      • Teenage girls are encourages to spend time in their rooms so have less opportunity to commit crime (bedroom culture)
      • Women tend to commit less detectable offences e:g shoplifting
    • Issues With Official Statistics
      • Sociologists have put forward two arguments as to why statistics misrepresent the gender difference in crime:
        • Female crimes are typically less likely to be reported
          • For example, shoplifting is less likely to be noticed or reported to police than violent crimes that men usually commit
        • Even when women's crimes are reported, they are less likely to be prosecuted, or if they are prosecuted they are more likely to be let off lightly (which is the key premise to the chivalry theory

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