Why Do Men Commit Crime
- Created by: Jakeyboy13579
- Created on: 13-10-20 14:19
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- Why Do Men Commit Crime
- Messerschmidt (1993): Masculinity & Crime
- James Messerschmidt (1993) argues that 'masculinity' is a social construct which men aspire to accomplish and have to continuously work at presenting it to others
- Argues that different masculinities coexist within society:
- Hegemonic masculinity
- The dominant and prestigious form of masculinity that most men wish to accomplish through paid work, competitiveness, toughness, aggression, being straight and subordination of women
- Subordinated masculinity
- More present amongst men who have no desire or lack resources to accomplish hegemonic masculinity, such as gay man, lower class and some ethnic minority men
- Hegemonic masculinity
- According to him, crime and deviance are resources that different men may use for obtaining masculinity.
- For example, class and ethnic differences among youths lead to different forms of rule breaking to demonstrate masculinity
- White middle class males
- Must subordinate themselves to teachers in order to achieve middle class status, leading to an accompanying masculinity in school. Outside school their masculinity takes an opposing form for example through drinking or vandalism
- White working class males
- Less chance of educational success so masculinity is oppositional both in and out of school. It is constructed around sexist attitudes, being tough and opposing teachers authority such as the 'lads' in Willis' (1977) study
- Black lower working class males
- May have fewer expectations of a reasonable job and may use gang membership and violence to express their masculinity, or turn to serious property crime to achieve material success
- White middle class males
- For example, class and ethnic differences among youths lead to different forms of rule breaking to demonstrate masculinity
- Evaluation of Messerschmidt
- Strengths
- Points at the social construction and relationship between gender and crime
- Weaknesses
- Does not explain why not all men use crime to accomplish masculinity
- Strengths
- Police Assumption & Stereotypes
- Labelling theory suggests that police assumptions and stereotypes are the opposite of those discussed in relation to women
- Because of the pattern shown by official stats, the police are more likely to see men rather than women as potential offenders, to label their behaviour as criminal and press charges against them
- Labelling theory suggests that police assumptions and stereotypes are the opposite of those discussed in relation to women
- Control Theory, Rational Choice & Opportunity
- Basically that men are in work and women are at home so men have more opportunity to offend
- Winlow (2001): Postmodernity, Masculinity and Crime
- In recent decades, globalisation has led to a shift from modern industrial society to a postmodern de-industrialised society
- Led to loss of traditional manual jobs jobs through WC men expressed masculinity
- Simon Winlow (2001) studied Sunderland bouncers.
- The night clubs and pub bouncer jobs provided young men with paid work and the opportunity for illegal business ventures
- Winlow noted that in modern society there has always been a violent subculture in Sunderland, in which 'hard men' earned their status
- In contrast, under postmodern conditions, an organised professional criminal subculture has emerged as a result of the new illegal business opportunities found in the night time economy
- In recent decades, globalisation has led to a shift from modern industrial society to a postmodern de-industrialised society
- Messerschmidt (1993): Masculinity & Crime
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