9. Gender, crime and justice
Introduction/key assumptions on gender and crime
1. Official crime statistics show that males are four times more likely to commit crimes than females. Males are more likely to be repeat offenders, have longer criminal careers and commit more serious crimes such as, violence, sexual assaults and murder. However, women are involved in all types of crime, especially
property offences such as shoplifting and female crime is rising.
2. Self-report study data shows that males are more likely to offend than females (2.5 times more likely).
3. Female crime has largely been neglected by most sociological theories of crime and deviance. Radical feminists such as Heidensohn (1986) suggest this is because of the domination of sociology by men. The result is that crime issues relating to social class, age and ethnicity have been at the centre of most
sociological theories of deviance.
Explaining women’s
underrepresentation in crime
statistics
Explaining the lack of female offending
Response to OCS
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Functionalists and radical feminist
explanations largely accept ocs and believe that
females are less criminally inclined than male
(are not under-represented in ocs).
Postmodernism - masculinity and crime
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Carlen (1988) – feminist control theory - rejection of class and gender ‘deals’.
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Social constructionists abandon attempts to
offer causal explanations of female crime
and deviance.
Instead they examine the social processes
that lead certain women to be underrepresented and men over-represented in
official crime statistics.
Female crime (e.g. shoplifting and
prostitution) is less likely to be reported.
Chivalry thesis (theory) – male dominated
criminal justice system is biased in favour of
women. Female criminals are treated more
leniently. For example, they are less likely
to be charged, convicted or punished than
males.
Empirical evaluation
 Use any of the other theories that look at female crime on the LT to
argue against.
Radical feminists - control theory
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Carlen, Adler and postmodernist feminists largely reject official crime
statistics.
They believe females are under-represented in the statistics and attempt to
explain in causal terms recent rises in female criminality.
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The New Right support Cohen. They claim the absence of male role
models in single parent families leads boys turning to criminal street gangs
for status and identity.
Radical feminists such as Heidensohn (1986) claim that women’s
lower crime rates can be explained in terms of patriarchy.
She claims that both in the private sphere (family) and public sphere
(street, work, leisure) men exert power and social control over
women.
Heidensohn argues that the consequence of this is that women have
fewer opportunities to commit crime and acts of deviance. For
example, many women (wives and daughters) find themselves
confined to the home carrying out domestic and childcare tasks and
so have limited chances to engage in street crime or white collar
occupational crime. Women are also controlled in public places by
the fear of male sexual violence against them.
Empirical evaluation
 Radical feminist theories have been questioned on empirical grounds.
Media research into violent women would seem to suggest that violent
crime is in fact a significant and growing problem amongst females, e.g.
girl gangs and female domestic abusers. This suggests that the validity of
radical feminist ideas have to be questioned.
Theoretical evaluation
 Use any of the other theories that look at female crime on the LT to
argue against.

Response to official crime statistics
Social construction approaches reject
official crime statistics, seeing them as
invalid (females under-represented in ocs).
The extent of crime and deviance by gender is
socially constructed
 New Right
Gender and victimisation
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Functionalist sex role theory
Functionalists such as Parsons (1955)
maintain that males and females are socialised
differently.
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For example, they suggest that females are
socialised to be caring, compassionate, sensitive
and sympathetic (often picked up from the
‘expressive role performed by females in the
domestic division of labour) and are therefore
less likely to commit crime, especially violent crime.
On the other hand men are more likely to commit crime as they are
often socialised to be tough, risk taking and aggressive (often picked
up by rejecting the ‘expressive feminine role’ of their mothers).
Cohen (1955) argues males lack of an ‘expressive’ role model leads
them to turn to all male street subcultures as a source of masculine
identity – where status is earned through toughness, risk taking and
delinquency.
Why do men commit crime?
Response to OCS
Theoretical evaluation

Explaining female criminality
 Social
construction
theories have
gained empirical
support. The
Ministry of
Justice (2009)
found that females
were more likely
to receive cautions from the police than males and
Hedderman and Hough (1994) claim that female
offenders are far less likely than male offenders to
receive a custodial sentence for nearly all serious
offences. This suggests there is some validity in
social construction ideas.
 Social construction explanations have been
questioned on empirical grounds. Farrington and
Morris (1984) dispute the chivalry thesis. They
found that in cases of theft, magistrates did not
treat women more leniently than men. Walklate
(1998) has found the criminal justice system to be
patriarchal and biased against women. For
example, in r*pe cases female victims often feel
like they are on trial rather than the male
offenders. This suggests that the validity of social
construction ideas have to be questioned.
Theoretical evaluation
 Use any of the other theories that look at
female crime on the LT to argue against..
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Explains working class female crime in terms of a rejection of ‘class and
gender deals’ (‘deals’ are the perceived rewards/controls which prevent
working class women from offending).
Rejection of class deal (the promise of rewards for legitimate work) – unable
to earn a decent living working. Crime is seen as a rational way of escaping
poverty and feelings of social injustice.
Rejection of gender deal (promise of rewards from a conventional family
role) – physical and sexual abuse in families, time in care etc. leads many
working class women to mistrust oppressive patriarchal families. Crime
again becomes a rational choice - a way out for powerless women.
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Theoretical evaluation
 Postmodern feminists
Messerschmidt (1993) argues that crime is a way
for males to achieve and express their masculinity.
White working class youths – demonstrate
oppositional masculinity inside and outside of
school – toughness, sexist, anti-school.
Black working class youths – engage in gang
violence to express masculinity. Turn to street
robbery to achieve a subordinated masculinity.
White-middle class youths –
accommodating/conformist masculinity in
schools and oppositional outside e.g. drinking
and vandalism. May turn to white-collar crime as
adults to accomplish hegemonic (dominant)
masculinity.
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Winlow (2001) found that the expansion of the
‘night time economy’ (pubs, bars and clubs) gave
‘bouncers’ in Sunderland the opportunity to
demonstrate their masculinity.
 Use any of the other theories that look at female crime on the LT to argue
against..
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Bouncers achieved this through having paid work
(in an area of de-industrialisation/high
unemployment following globalisation), violence,
organised crime e.g. drug dealing, protection
rackets and looking big e.g. bodybuilding to
maintain their ‘hard’ reputation.
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Adler (1975) claims that as women have become liberated (freed) from
patriarchy, female crime has increased and diversified (wider range of crimes
committed e.g. armed robbery, violence, fraud).
For example, she suggests that the rise in female white-collar crime is linked
to the increase in female participation
in the workplace. She also claims
female street crime has increased as
illegitimate opportunity structures have
become less patriarchal.
Postmodern feminists claim that the
increase in female aggressive
behaviour is linked to shifting gender
roles e.g. more risk taking, more
competitive.
Empirical evaluation
 Tara Young’s (2010) research into girl
gangs lends partial support to the liberation
thesis. She found that although girl gangs in
the traditional sense of a male gang are rare in London (indicating that the
illegitimate opportunity structure has not fully opened up) there are plenty of girl
only groups which engage in a wide range of deviant and anti-social behaviour.
 The liberation thesis has been questioned on empirical grounds. Chesney-Lind
(1997) points out that most female criminals are working class – the group least
likely to be influenced by women’s liberation. This suggests that the validity of
Adler’s ideas have to be questioned.
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Globalistaion given rise to de-industrialisation
(decline of manufacturing industries) and
unemployment. Some unemployed males turn to
violent street gangs as a way of gaining back their
masculinity – ‘gangsta’s’ - ‘guns, women treated
as ‘bitches’ etc.
Naffine (1987) supports Carlen’s idea that crime is linked to poverty. She claims
changes in global economies have given rise to a ‘pink-collar ghetto’ of insecure,
low wage, part time jobs. She suggests that women employed in the ‘pink-collar
ghetto’ engage in petty crime because of economic necessity (poverty).
The liberation thesis
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Radical feminists such as Kelly
(1988) claim that women’s
greater risk of domestic violence
and sexual assaults is the result
of patriarchy.
They claim that such violent
crimes are the product of male
power and control in families and
society at large.
For example, domestic violence
is seen as an act that men
commit against women who
reject or resist their domestic
role.
Radical feminists also highlight
that such experiences impact a
great deal all women’s lives.
For example, women fear crime
more than men and as a
consequence adopt various
avoidance behaviours, such as
not going out alone at night,
dressing down.
Empirical evaluation

 Radical feminist ideas have
gained empirical support.
Dobash & Dobash (1979)
support the view that domestic
violence is a product of
patriarchal marriage
relationships. They found that
domestic violence was often
triggered by a husband’s
perception that his wife was
challenging his authority or not
carrying out her domestic
‘duties’. This suggests there is
some validity in radical feminist
ideas.

 Radical feminist ideas have
been questioned on empirical
grounds. Wilkinson (1996)
believes domestic violence is the
result of the stresses that go with
social inequality rather than
patriarchy. For example,
insecure jobs, living on a low
income and in overcrowded
housing. This suggests that the
validity of radical feminist ideas
have to be questioned.
Theoretical evaluation
 Left realism
Left realists argue that by focusing on masculinity the
underlying structural causes of male crime are
ignored – marginalisation, relative deprivation and
subcultures.
 Biological explanations
Biological theorists reject social explanations for gender
differences in violent offending. They favour instead
hormonal explanations such as high levels of
testosterone in males.
Victim surveys show that men
are more likely to be victims of
violent crime than females.
Females are more likely to be
victims of domestic violence and
sexual assaults than males.
Theoretical evaluation
 Use any of the other theories that look at female crime on the LT to argue
against..
In conclusion female crime is a genuine problem in postmodern or late modern societies which requires causal explanation. Postmodern feminist explain address the causes well in terms of changing gender roles and the interaction of gender and social class. It can further be concluded that although radical feminist ideas
on gender and offending seem dated, their observations and explanations of domestic violence and sexual violence remain significant today.
Sample questions
1a) Examine the value of the ‘chivalry thesis’ in understanding gender differences in crime (12 marks).
1a) Examine the relationship between gender and victimisation (12 marks).
1b) Using material from Item A and elsewhere, assess the claim that female crime is under-represented in official statistics (21 marks).
1b) Using material from Item A and elsewhere, assess the contribution of feminist perspectives to a sociological understanding of crime and deviance (21 marks).
Further reading
Pages 100-109 Webb R et al. (2009) AQA A2 level Sociology, Napier press.
Pages 191-198 Pilkington and Yeo (2006) Sociology in Focus for AQA A2 level, Causeway Press.