ESSAY EXAMPLE A/B GRADE ~ A2 SOCIOLOGY ~ GENDER DIFFERENCES 21 MARKER

Question: Using material from Item A and elsewhere, assess the value of the 'chivalry thesis' in understanding gender differences in crime. (21 marks)

As Item A quotes "the chivalry thesis argues that women are treated more leniently than men by the criminal justice system". For example, according to the Ministry of Justice, 49% of females recorded as offending recieved a caution in 2007, whereas for males the figure was only 30%. This suggests that women are less likely to be jailed straight away.

Graham and Bowling performed research on a sample of 1,721 14-25 year olds, found that although males were more likely to offend, the difference was smaller than that recorded in the official statistics. This suggests that official statistics miss out a 'dark figure', meaning they're not accurate as not every crime is recorded nor reported.

Similarly, Flood-Page et al found that, while only one in eleven female self-reported offenders had been cautioned or prosecuted, the figure for males was over one in seven self-reported studies.…