Gender and crimeRevision – Millie price

ADLER = says that women lacked opportunity to break the law because they are housewives

But HOWEVER she argues that as time has progressed women are taking up new roles and going out to work SO ARE OPENING UP NEW OPPORTUNITYS TO COMMIT CRIME

‘FEMALES ARE LESS LIKELY TO COMMIT CRIME THAN MALES’

Similarly, HEIDENSCHIN agrees with Adler by saying that society enforces more CONTROL over women giving them less opportunity to commit crime. (As they are housewives)

HOWEVER; HEIDENSCHIN argued that even though women are going out to work more than they used to, they are still CONTROLLED In the WORKPLACE through male supervision and male managers

Another reason why men may commit more crime than women could be because of GENDER DIFFERENCES

boys are encouraged to be tough and risktaking and have aggressive tendencies

meaning they are most exposed to acts of violence & criminal opportunities

GENDER DIFFERENCES

PARSONS expanded on this theory when he talks about the ‘sex role theory’

he said that men take the INSTRUMENTAL role of the breadwinner and provider

and women take the EXPRESSIVE role of taking care of the children and giving emotional support by socialising them into their NORMS AND VALUES

PARSONS

Messerschmitt agrees somewhat with PARSONS ideas of men and women taking different roles

Messerschmitt says how males commit crime to show a sense of masculinity and assertion

he says how masculinities are shaped by class, ethnicity, age and sexual orientation and that these differences lead to different forms of crime.

By males committing crime, it not only re-assures their own masculinity and show it to others

he refers to the dominant form of masculinity as ‘HEGEMONIC MASCULINITY’.

MESSERSCHMITT

However, Carlen said when women do commit crime they are treated less harshly by the CJS than men

perhaps this is due to leniency towards female offenders known as the ‘CHIVALRY THESIS’

HOWEVER Carlen also argues that in fact when women do commit crime they are treated more HARSH than men.

This is because women are going against their STEROTYPICAL roles

and because female crime is more rare = is judged more harshly as the court sees them as wives and mothers (double deviance)

feminists argue that these double standards exist because the CJS is PATRIARCAL