Lesson 8: Gender,
Crime and Deviance
Introduction to Women’s Studies
Robert Wonser
Perpetrators and Victims

Who usually commits crimes?
 Depends

on the crime, but usually men
Who is usually the victim of said crimes?
 Depends
on the crime:
 Rape, women… maybe men?
 Murder, men
Lesson 8: Gender, Crime and Deviance
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
Lesson 8: Gender, Crime and Deviance
Men die
from
homicides
and commit
homicides
more than
women.
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
Lesson 8: Gender, Crime and Deviance
Males
commit more
violent
crimes and
also are
victims of
most violent
crimes.
4
Violence Against Women

Defining Rape and Battering
 Rape:
Forced sexual intercourse
 Sexual assault: Unwanted sexual contact not
involving intercourse
 Battering or domestic violence: Physical
attacks committed by intimates

Intimate partner violence (IPV)
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The Victim-Offender Relationship

Strangers v. Nonstrangers
 Strangers
commit only about one-third (of
aggravated/simple assault, rape, robbery
combined according to NCVS)
 Remainder
committed by friends, family
members, and acquaintances


Strangers commit 44% of men’s victimizations and
27% of women’s
Nonstrangers commit 70% of women’s victimizations
and 49% of men’s
Lesson 8: Gender, Crime and Deviance
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Lesson 8: Gender, Crime and Deviance
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Social control

Gender isn’t something we choose to do – it’s
enforced by individuals and social institutions
 This
includes both physical and emotional control and
coercion

4 types of intimate partner violence (CDC):
 Physical
violence
 Sexual violence
 Threats of physical or emotional violence
 Psychological or emotional violence

Much of violence against women isn’t reported to
authorities
© Pine Forge Press, an Imprint of SAGE
Publications,
Lesson 8: Gender,
Crime Inc.,
and2011
Deviance
8
The Victim-Offender Relationship
•
Intimate-Partner Violence
 Refers
to any rape/sexual assault, robbery
or aggravated/simple assault committed by
someone with a relationship to the victim
 Women are much more likely to suffer
violence at the hands of intimates
Lesson 8: Gender, Crime and Deviance
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Lesson 8: Gender, Crime and Deviance
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Institutional enforcers

Much of the reasons for violence and abuse are
related to the maintenance of hegemonic
masculinity
 Hegemonic
masculinity depends on the subjugation
and degradation of women

Examples of social institutions that enforce
gender:
 Religion
– many religions exclude or segregate
women
 Sexual harassment – usually subtle and unnoticed,
and starts in grade school
© Pine Forge Press, an Imprint of SAGE
Publications,
Lesson 8: Gender,
Crime Inc.,
and2011
Deviance
11
Men’s Personal Safety and Gender
Violence
Masculinity requires that boys and men
confront violence and be skilled in the use
of violence in those confrontations.
 Most boys and men, of course, are not
accomplished fighters and they are
victimized by those who are.
 Violence against men and boys by other
men and boys is often sexualized.

Lesson 8: Gender, Crime and Deviance
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Rape and Domestic Violence




Most violence against women and girls is
perpetrated by men and boys the women
know well.
Age, race ethnicity, and social class make
some women and girls most vulnerable.
Men and boys are also victims of rape but
less frequently than are women and girls.
Date rape is a particular form of rape that
victimizes young women who are raped by
men they believe are friends.
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Accounting for Rape: Evolutionary Theory,
Individual Psychology and Inequality





Darwinian Evolution
Some theorists argue that men have a natural
proclivity to rape and that women are responsible
to keep men under control by not enticing them.
This position has been criticized because it can’t
explain variation from one society to the next in
regard to the incidence of rape.
Societies can appear anywhere along a
continuum from rape free to rape prone.
Societies on or near the rape free end of the
continuum are less male dominated and have
more sharing of jobs between men and women.
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Accounting for Rape: Individual
Psychology


Psychological explanations focus on the disturbed and
pathological personalities of those who rape.
This position has been criticized because it doesn’t
recognize the importance of social context in shaping our
behavior.



In addition, it doesn’t address the gendered character of rape.
Why are men more likely to sexually assault others than are
women?
Finally, the methods in the research that makes the claim
that psychological deviance is the root of the problem
have been criticized because their samples come from
prison populations that over-represent poor men and
men of color and rarely, if ever, include wealthy powerful
men who rape but are able to avoid prison.
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Rape as an Outcome of Gender
Inequality
Some theorists argue that rape is a result
of the political differences between women
and men.
 Power inequality evokes resistance which
then demands some way to keep the
“rebels” in line.

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Rape Culture

Rapists as
hyperconformists to
rape culture
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Rape and Battering

Cultural Myths
 Rape
Myths
Women liked to be raped
 Women “ask for it”


Many believe real rape hasn’t occurred unless the following
has happened:
o Injury or other evidence of force
o Woman has not been sexually active
o Woman didn’t dress provocatively
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Rape and Battering

Cultural Myths
 Battering
Myths
Must have angered their partner
 Battering not that bad because they don’t leave


Reality
o Often nowhere to go
o Fear will track them down
o They continue to love their batterers
o Other factors include the overuse of alcohol,
unemployment, and male peer support
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State Violence Against Men





The fight to stop domestic violence required changes
in the criminal justice system making it more cognizant
of violence against women and capable of protecting
women.
The criminal justice system also needs alteration to
prevent it from perpetrating violence against men in
the form of prison system.
The U.S. has the largest proportion of incarcerated
people.
Prisons have been a booming business in the past few
decades.
Most prisoners are men, and most of them are Latino
and African American men.
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Prison Rape
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Sexual Violence in Men’s Prisons
Sexual violence is prevalent in men’s
prisons.
 Prison rape is an aspect of “doing gender”
where men are required to “act like
women” as part of their degradation and
subordination.

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Sexual Violence in Men’s Prisons


Prison rape is an aspect of “doing gender” where
men are required to “act like women” as part of their
degradation and subordination.
In men’s penitentiaries, for 2008, the government
had previously tallied 935 confirmed instances of
sexual abuse. After asking around, and performing
some calculations, the Justice Department came up
with a new number: 216,000. That's 216,000
victims, not instances.
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Masculinity in Crisis
Masculinity is a performance
 One aspect of the performance of
masculinity is being tough and/or violent
(or at least willing to be)
 Tough Guise

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The Extent of Rape

NCVS estimates nearly 204,000 rapes and
sexual assaults occurred in 2008
 81%
were committed against females for a rate of 1.3
per 1,000 women
 63% were committed by someone the woman knew
 32% were committed by a stranger

NVAW surveys find that close to 18% of women
are raped at least once in their lifetime; over
83% by men they know
 Other

studies:
20 to 25% of women have experienced a rape or attempted
rape

70 to 80% of the rapes committed by men they know
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The Extent of Battering

NCVS estimates nearly 61,000 aggravated
assaults and 380,000 simple assaults were
committed by intimates against women in 2008
 341,000

overall; 2.6 assaults per 1,000 women
NVAW survey concluded that 22% of women are
assaulted in their lifetime by a partner
 1.3%
(or 13 per 1,000) in the past year
 1.3 million assaults annually
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The Social Patterning of Rape
and Battering
Age: Young women more likely than older
women to experience IPV
 Social Class: Poorest women higher rates

 College

students
Race and Ethnicity: Higher rates for Native
American and black women than for whites
 Problem
of underreporting
 Cultural traditions
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Factors that Predict Spousal Abuse






Alcohol
Weapon
Stepchild
Estrangement
Hostility toward
dependency
Excessive brooding






Social learning
Socioeconomic
factors
Anger
Military service
Abuse as a child
Unpredictability
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Explaining Rape and Battering
Are these crimes more psychological or
sociological in origin?
 Gender and Economic Inequality

 Inevitable
consequences of patriarchy or male
dominance
 Gender-based analysis of violence against
women is necessary
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Rape and Battering: Gender and
Economic Inequality



Anthropological evidence supports this
view
Research reveals states with greater
gender inequality had higher rape
rates
Women are scapegoats for anger
some men feel over low SES
Lesson 8: Gender, Crime and Deviance
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Battered Men

Fact or Fiction?
 Men
are just as battered by women
 Research by Straus argues women often initiate
violence, not just use it in self-defense
 NCVS disputes sexual symmetry claim citing
85% of intimate violence committed against
women
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Stalking
Stalking: persistent following, observing,
and/or harassment of an individual
 Common goal to intimidate woman into
staying in a romantic relationship
 Can produce severe stress and
psychological trauma
 Estimated 30-40% of victims eventually
attacked

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