Gender and Crime

10 Key excerpts on "Gender and Crime"

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  eBook - ePub

  Gender, Crime and Victimisation

  • Pamela Davies, Author(Authors)
  • 2010(Publication Date)
  • SAGE Publications Ltd

    (Publisher)

  Chapter 1 , the pivot of gender, crime and victimisation was set out. From there on, the book has set out on a promise to draw upon, combine, compare and contrast perspectives and knowledges from criminology with those from its sub-discipline victimology with a view to opening up research, theory and policy agendas to new and developing ideas and possibilities. The book consequently set itself two major frames of reference which were: Gender and Crime and gender and victimisation. The book has developed both of these themes, occasionally in parallel and often in tandem, giving both roughly equal weight and attention throughout. This has produced a number of problematics and sometimes rather confusing outcomes in terms of research findings, theo-rising and policy considerations. Many of these have been left hanging in the air awaiting further debate and rigorous scholarly attention. However, what has been firmly established is that:

   

  • Crime is a gendered phenomenon − it occurs on a gendered terrain.
  • Gender impacts upon and influences experiences and recovery from victimisation, which is also gendered.
  • We understand more about crime and risks to criminal victimisation as well as other forms of harm that are not criminalised through gendered learning.
  • We also understand more about crime and victimisation in society generally having appreciated the influence of feminism and feminist perspectives, including all varieties of feminisms.
  • We further understand that the problem of crime and victimisation is not simply a problem of men but a problem of masculinity.
  • Further still, we understand through emerging developments and new theorising within masculinity, the significance of masculinities.

  This is by no means an exhaustive list of the certainties we know about gender, crime and victimisation. It is however, a convincing set of points which justify giving each and every topic which comprise the contents of the chapters within this book a detailed scrutiny in order to provoke further stimulating developments within the disciplines of criminology and victimology.

  Researching gender

  One of the main features running throughout this book has been its sustained use of past, present and emerging research developments and findings. How this research has been conducted and what has influenced this research has also been highlighted. Research that has a specific gender agenda to it has been exemplified and sources of information from which gendered data can be derived have also featured. How to conduct gender sensitive research has been considered as well as gaps in our research inquiries and our research capabilities. In this part of the concluding chapter we consolidate the arguments arising from the established focal points noted in the section above by drawing together the spinal arguments derived from the various research knowledges and wisdoms that have been covered in each substantive chapter. In this section you are also asked to revisit your thoughts on the seven provocative and highly controversial research questions, as posed in Chapter 1

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  Victims, Crime and Society

  An Introduction

  • Pamela Davies, Peter Francis, Chris Greer, Pamela Davies, Peter Francis, Chris Greer(Authors)
  • 2017(Publication Date)
  • SAGE Publications Ltd

    (Publisher)

  8 Gender, Victims and Crime Pamela Davies The most stable fact about crime in societies across the globe is that it is largely a male activity. Young men in particular are more likely to be convicted of crime than women, have longer criminal careers and commit more serious offences including murder or manslaughter, sexual and violent offences, terrorism, organised, state and corporate crimes. The distinctive male nature of crime warrants explanation and while the gender gap in the commission of crime masks some interesting nuances to the doing of crime by men and women, this feature is stubbornly persistent. Moreover, some crimes are highly gendered in nature. The latter refers to the unequal distribution of victimisation in society and how much interpersonal violence is typically male-on-female. The purpose of this chapter is to encourage critical thinking around gender, victims and crime. First we define gender and explain what a gendered understanding comprises. Key features of the gender patterning to criminal victimisation are outlined and discussed as we explore the nature, extent and impact of victimisation. Vulnerability and victimisation are then considered through a gendered lens. In this discussion the chapter draws especially upon the concepts of secondary victimisation and victim blaming to illustrate how social processes shape victims’ experiences. By examining these processes and illustrating these concepts in the context of criminal justice, the gendered nature of the justice gap is revealed. The emphasis in this chapter is largely on victims of rape, sexual abuse and exploitation. Importantly, the latter allows us to not only move beyond the confines of the criminal justice system, but also to contemplate the intersections of gender and age. Primarily, however, the chapter encourages critical thinking around how a gendered perspective can inform understanding of the social process that give rise to victimisations and what constitutes victimisation

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  Crime and Victimization

  • Anne Wade(Author)
  • 2020(Publication Date)
  • Society Publishing

    (Publisher)

  Gender and Crime 8 CONTENTS 8.1. Introduction .................................................................................... 112 8.2. Gender-Related Victimization ......................................................... 112 8.3. Female Victimization ...................................................................... 114 8.4. Rates Of Violent Victimization Between Males And Females ........... 117 8.5. Difference In Violent Crimes ........................................................... 119 8.6. Gender and Crime In Developing Countries ................................... 123 8.7. Victimization And Fear Of Crime .................................................... 124 Crime and Victimization 112 8.1. INTRODUCTION Victimization involves an individual becoming a victim during a given crime or the individual being made the victim. Victimization may be associated with other factors one of them being gender-based. The gender of the individual can contribute to the crime being committed by influencing how they are victimized. It looks at the potential of the gender of the individual influencing the role they play in the crime as the perpetrator or the victim. Under Gender and Crime, there are some relationships that will form the types of victimization. They include family violence, sexual assault, stalking, and intimate partner violence (IPV). Victimization is also linked to the fear of crime and in this case, which gender is afraid of crime. 8.2. GENDER-RELATED VICTIMIZATION Talks on gender-related victimization point to women and girls being the victims. This is because there are several crimes that lead to women being the victims of the crimes. Such crimes include female genital mutilation, sexual assault, trafficking for sexual exploitation. In most of the criminal cases, the women are victimized because of their gender. There are several reasons why women may be victims in some of the gender-based crimes.

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  The Cambridge Handbook of the International Psychology of Women

  • Fanny M. Cheung, Diane F. Halpern(Authors)
  • 2020(Publication Date)
  • Cambridge University Press

    (Publisher)

  IMPLICATIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH Feminist scholars have encouraged the development of research that is inclusive of gender and associated power relations and their effect on criminal and antisocial behav- ior. We do not, however, yet have a “comprehensive the- oretical base to explain women’s offending and compare and contrast it with men’s” (Liddell & Martinovic, 2013, p. 138). A theoretical understanding of female crime will require much additional work, particularly since it remains uncertain as to the necessity, feasibility, or appro- priateness of a single universal theory for all contexts. Looking forward, we expect that more direct tests of these theoretical assumptions will enable a clear assess- ment of the validity of these theories since the existing evidence is either not consistent or not covering the full process. For example, Shekarkhar and Gibson (2011) find that there are no consistent differences in the parenting of girls and boys; some scholars find that achievement frus- tration and anger are not mediators between gender and offending (Rebellon, Wiesen-Martin, Piquero, Piquero, & Tibbetts, 2015). Second, feminist theorists might consider systematically integrating their perspectives into traditional crimino- logical theories to formulate a more complete crimino- logical theory that has explanatory power for the criminal behaviors of both males and females. Such research has emerged since the 1970s but more investigation into the bio-psycho roots of persistent gender differences in anti- social behavior is needed (Choy et al., 2017). Third, gender inequality overlaps with other aspects of social inequality, and in terms of criminality the differ- ences between males and females may be far greater than differences amongst women globally. More comparative research is needed, especially considering differences between women in different cultures, with less reliance on the USA and other Western societies.

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  Student Handbook of Criminal Justice and Criminology

  • John Muncie, David Wilson(Authors)
  • 2013(Publication Date)
  • Routledge-Cavendish

    (Publisher)

  Chapter 7 Gender, Crime and Criminal Justice

  Sandra Walklate

  DOI: 10.4324/9781843147008-7

  Summary

  It is now some 45 years ago that Wootton (1959: 32) made the observation that, ‘Yet, if men behaved like women, the courts would be idle and the prisons empty’. Despite the intervening years, some would say that it is still a moot point whether or not criminology, or her sister discipline, victimology, has as yet managed to take Wootton's observation to heart. As Cain (1989 : 4) commented, ‘this is because the criminological gaze cannot see gender: the criminological discourse cannot speak men and women’. Some would say that, current theoretical and empirical agendas notwithstanding, criminology (and victimology; see Chapter 8 ) still struggle with the question of gender (see, for example, Walklate, 2001 ). The purpose of this chapter is to try to unravel some of the issues associated with this perennial disciplinary blindspot. In order to do this, it will first of all introduce the student to the ways in which varieties of feminism have considered this question. It will then consider the different ways in which thinking about men and masculinity can be traced within the discipline. Finally, it will offer a brief overview of how the question of gender may be pertinent in understanding the work of the criminal justice professionals and the formation of criminal justice policy. In doing all of this, the central question of this chapter will be: ‘when is gender the salient variable in facilitating our understanding of crime and criminal justice?’

  Key Terms

  Gender; victimology; feminism – liberal, radical, socialist, postmodern; essentialism; sex role theory; categorical theory; hegemonic masculinity.

  Sex Or Gender: What Is The Difference?

  Braithwaite (1989 : 44) suggests that the first ‘fact’ any theory of crime should fit is that males are disproportionately the offenders. Home Office figures for 2001 showed that 81 per cent of known offenders were male (Home Office, 2002 ). This is a figure that has remained remarkably stable over the last 10 years. Home Office figures provide considerable detail on the differences between men and women in relation to their known offending behaviour, their experience of the criminal justice system and their presence as workers in the criminal justice system. So, for example, in 2001, women sentenced to custody received shorter sentences than men, women made up just over 5 per cent of the prison population, and 42 per cent of women homicide victims, compared with only 4 per cent of men, were killed by a current or former partner (for further information, see Home Office, 2002 ). Before we go on to offer some understanding of these differences, it is important to clarify what they are referring to. These statistics are statistics relating to sex differences, ie differences that can be observed between the biological categories, male and female: they are not necessarily a product of gender. Gender differences are those that result from the socially ascribed roles of being male or being female, ie masculinity and femininity. In order to make this clear, let us return to the first ‘fact’ that Braithwaite comments on. Males are disproportionately the offenders. This ‘fact’ is presented as an observed difference between the sexes. The explanation for this ‘fact’ may lie in the different behaviour of the sexes and the social response to that behaviour (qua Wootton, 1959

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  Women in the Criminal Justice System

  Tracking the Journey of Females and Crime

  • Tina L. Freiburger, Catherine D. Marcum, Tina L. Freiburger, Catherine D. Marcum(Authors)
  • 2015(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  They include (verbatim from Daly & Chesney-Lind, 1988, p. 504) the following: 1. Gender is not a natural fact but a complex social, historical, and cultural product; it is related to, but not simply derived from, biological sex difference and reproduc-tive capacities. 2. Gender and gender relations order social life and social institutions in fundamen-tal ways. 3. Gender relations and constructs of masculinity and femininity are not symmetri-cal but are based on an organizing principle of men’s superiority and social and political–economic dominance over women. 4. Systems of knowledge reflect men’s views of the natural and social world; the pro-duction of knowledge is gendered. 5. Women should be at the center of intellectual inquiry, not peripheral, invisible, or appendages to men. These elements provided a stimulus for those interested in female crime with a strong framework from which to draw from for theoretical models and concepts. Daly and Chesney-Lind’s work was followed with a flurry of publications focused on creating new ways to examine female crime, the importance of additional variables in theoretical mod-els, and a renewed focus on critical feminist theory. Critical Feminist Theory Critical feminist theory places females at the center or core of the model and focuses on gender-specific relationships and variables that are unique to the female gender. Feminist theory views crime as a result of a social structure that is patriarchal, commodity or capi-talism based, and formulated on gender inequality. Therefore, the theory links criminality to gender conflict created by political, economic, and social inequality; physical and sexual victimization that is a result of male domination; and forces that control power relation-ships both in the workforce and at home. Components presented by Bishop, Pollak, Adler, and Smart are included in the current forms of feminist criminology.

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  Encyclopedia of Criminological Theory

  • Francis T. Cullen, Pamela Wilcox, Francis T. Cullen, Pamela K. Wilcox(Authors)
  • 2009(Publication Date)
  • SAGE Publications, Inc

    (Publisher)

  Criminology, 29, 115. Simpson, S., & Elis, L. (1995). Doing gender: Sorting out the caste and crime conundrum. Criminology, 33, 47. Steffensmeier, D., & Allan, E. (1996). Gender and Crime: Toward a gendered theory of female offending. Annual Review of Sociology, 22, 459–487. Suchman, L. A. (1987). Plans and situated actions: The problem of human-machine communication. New York: Cambridge University Press. West, C., & Zimmerman, D. H. (1987). Doing gender. Gender and Society, 1 , 125–151. M ILLER , J ODY : G ENDERED S OCIAL O RGANIZATION T HEORY Jody Miller’s work in criminology illuminates how gender shapes crime and victimization. Her work is innovative in its application of the con-cept of gendered social organization to criminol-ogy. Miller’s work focuses on how gender shapes experiences of crime and violence for women and girls, as well as men and boys, and on the ways that gender intersects with street environments and offender networks. To understand Miller’s theoretical contribution, it is critical to first appre-ciate that in the literature on gendered organiza-tions, gender is more than an individual attribute. It is not something that only individuals possess; it is rather a social, structural, relational, and institutional force. Therefore Miller’s theory of gendered social organization in criminology is best understood as the theory of how social, struc-tural, relational, and institutional gender orga-nizes crime and victimization.

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  Women Criminals

  An Encyclopedia of People and Issues [2 volumes]

  • Vickie Jensen(Author)
  • 2011(Publication Date)
  • ABC-CLIO

    (Publisher)

  Macro-level theory-building efforts ought to take into account both universal factors related to offending as well as gender-related concerns. Gender is not only an individual-level attribute but an integral part of social interactions and placement within a stratification system. Therefore, gender fundamentally shapes motives and opportunities for crime. Gender norms, affiliative concerns and sexuality, and so- cial control differences structure the effects and outcomes of broad social forces such as economic and familial deficits. Future empirical research should work to account for gendered processes of macrolevel relationships to better understand gender similarities and differences in the extent and nature of offending. Notes 1. Areas characterized by economic deprivation tend to have high rates of residential mobility (they are abandoned as soon as it is economically feasible). This mobility leads to rapid changes in ethnic composition of the neighborhoodÊs residents, and ethnic heterogeneity, in turn, does not allow residents to establish effective communication because differences in traditions, customs, and values, as well as a lack of shared experiences, may create mistrust among people and breed fear. As a result, disconnected residents of these disadvantaged neighborhoods have difficul- ties establishing common values, enacting informal control, and solving commonly experienced problems that can have consequences for criminal behavior. 2. More prevalent are studies that explore the link between gender inequality and womenÊs victim- ization (Bailey and Peterson, 1995; DeWees and Parker, 2003; Gartner, 1990; Smith and Brewer, 1992). 3. There is evidence of the latter provided by Steffensmeier and Haynie, 2000a, and Schwartz, 2006a; they both find that structural conditions exert marginally stronger effects on male pat- terns of crime.

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  Cultural Criminology

  • Anne Wade(Author)
  • 2019(Publication Date)
  • Society Publishing

    (Publisher)

  Crime and Justice: A Global Perspective 2 CONTENTS 2.1. Introduction ...................................................................................... 28 2.2. Crime ............................................................................................... 28 2.3. The State Of Crime Worldwide .......................................................... 31 2.4. Globalization And Crime .................................................................. 35 2.5. Socio-Cultural Theories Of Crime ..................................................... 38 2.6. How Culture Can Aid In Understanding Criminal Violence ............... 43 2.7. Conclusion ....................................................................................... 47 References ............................................................................................... 49 Cultural Criminology 28 Culture, defined as the sum of values, attitudes, and behavior patterns is one of the important factors influencing crime. This chapter explains crime as a product of culture. The chapter starts with a description of the crime and types of crime. It then discusses the state of crime at a global level. Globalization is considered as a cause of crime by many experts. This chapter explains the relation between globalization and crime and describes how the culture of crime has been globalized. The chapter then explains various socio-cultural theories of crime. Finally, the chapter describes how culture can help in understanding criminal behavior. 2.1. INTRODUCTION Culture may be defined as the sum of total ways of living created by a group of humans in a society, and it includes attitudes, patterns of behavior and values. The influence of cultural may be perceived as a process in which various elements are combined. Criminal activity has many motivators. One area of research that is becoming popular views crime as a product of culture or subculture.

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  Criminology

  Theories, Patterns and Typologies

  • Larry Siegel(Author)
  • 2017(Publication Date)
  • Cengage Learning EMEA

    (Publisher)

  109 Empathy for others may help shield girls from antisocial acts because they are more likely to understand a victim’s suffering. Girls are more concerned with relationship and feeling issues, and they are less interested than boys are in competing for material success. Boys who are not tough and aggres- sive are labeled sissies and cry babies. In contrast, girls are given different messages; they are expected to form closer bonds with their friends and share feelings. Their superior verbal skills may allow girls to talk rather than fight. When faced with conflict, women might be more likely to attempt to negotiate rather than to either respond passively or to physically resist, especially when they perceive increased threat of harm or death. 110 Feminist Views In the 1970s, liberal feminist theory focused attention on the social and economic role of women in society and its relationship to female crime rates. 111 This view suggested that the traditionally lower crime rate for women could be explained by their “second-class” eco- nomic and social position. As women’s social roles changed and their lifestyles became more like men’s, it was believed that their crime rates would converge. Criminologists, responding to this research, began to refer to the “new female criminal.” The rapid increase in the female crime rate, especially in what had traditionally been male-oriented crimes (such as burglary and larceny), supports the femi- nist view. In addition, self-report studies seem to indicate that (a) the pattern of female criminality, if not its frequency, is quite similar to that of male criminality, and (b) the fac- tors that predispose male criminals to crime have an equal impact on female criminals. 112 RACE AND CRIME Official crime data indicate that minority group mem- bers are involved in a disproportionate share of crimi - nal activity.

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