Feminists suggest that domestic violence is a problem of patriarchy. In particular, research indicates that men's view that women have failed to be 'good' partners or mothers is often used to justify attacks or threats. These gendered expectations may be particularly reinforced is a woman goes out to work and earns more than her partner. Many boys and men are still brought up in traditional ways to believe that they should…
There are gender differences in criminal behavior solely based up genetic makeup. Gottfedson and Hirschi’s theory provides two facts that make me believe that males are more criminogenic than females. First, as stated in the theory, females are less likely to commit crime because they have higher levels of self control. Second, parents tend to be more vigilant in monitoring girls than boys parents are likely to be more consistent in the application of parental management with girls than boys. Both of these factors I find to be extremely true, especially when dealing with self control. In general, males have more testosterone than females and are more likely to let their emotions get the best of them. When talking about crime I could see how…
Radical feminists such as Heidensohn claim that women’s lower crime rates can be explained in terms of patriarchy. She claims that both in the family and at work men exert power and social control over women. Women who challenge the traditional roles of women within the family run the risk of having them imposed by force. In public, women are controlled by the male use of force and violence, by the idea of holding on to a ‘good’ reputation, and by the ‘ideology of separate roles’. Women often choose not to go out into public places because of the fear of being attacked or raped. Heidensohn argues that the consequence of this control is that women have fewer opportunities to commit crime and acts of deviance whereas men have more opportunity.…
Graham and bowling (1995) did a self-report study on 14-25 year olds and found that 55% of males and 35% of females admitted to offences in the last twelve months. This suggests that males commit more crime than women in general although this self-report study is based on the younger generations of males and females. Women are also more likely to admit to their offences, which concludes this figure is an accurate one and may suggest that the male figure could also be even higher.…
During my junior year of high school, I somewhat became aware of Women's Right Issue. I have made an effort to evaluate majority of the culture standard that I had previously taken in as it just being “the untaught order of items.” One of the directions that I took to enlarge my knowledge of the female soul involved in women’s creative writing. That is one reason why I spent some time of my life crying, laughing, feeling puzzled, and often, feeling livid and worried. It all started when I decided to pick up a book called “The Women’s Room” and read the book.…
In contemporary society women still commit less crimes than men but their impute to crime statistics therefore their crime committal has risen dramatically compared to where is was and steadily stayed for many years. Society and male sociologists have developed different theories and views over the years for coping with female criminal behaviour. In the 16th Century there was the demonic theory, the idea of women who commit crime or act in deviant ways as being ‘evil’ or ‘witches’ resulting in wide spread witch hunts and burnings at the steak. (Vito & Maahas, 2011). This can be seen in modern day society when female criminals are portrayed in the media. This theory links with the naturalist view of women by society; the idea that women are seen as natural care givers, mothers and nurturers and any other type of behaviour is ‘unnatural’ and feared by the greater society. Lombroso (1876) created the 'mad or bad' theory to categorise female crime, suggesting the reasoning and logic behind female deviance could only be explained as them being mentally unhinged or fundamentally bad natured and of an 'evil' disposition. This perception that women may be mad because they dared to go against their natural biological givens such as 'passivity' and a 'weakness of compliance' appears to originate from…
Some of the areas have increasing women and crime. Through the years the number has been rising when it comes to women being incarcerated as the length of their incarceration. Women in this day and time are committing serious accesses which are giving lengthy prison terms, even life imprisonment. Young ladies are going front of the judge as a minor offenses for drugs and theft.…
Different gender roles comprise of all it takes to make the world continue, or so it seems. The separation of men and woman seemed to be drastic up until today’s standards. Men were to go and work, make the money, provide the food and shelter. Whereas the woman stays home: cook, clean, and take care of the family. In World War Two, the woman began to have more of a need in the community in the United States. While the men were away at war, the women were to take care of life on the home front. Life as we knew it was beginning to change. Flashing forward to today, gender roles still seem to be an implied factor in society. Dominant groups in present day society help structure our norms. Quoted, “in the U.S., these powerful messages affect both men and women on affective, behavioral and cognitive levels such that men and women conform or do not conform to these expectations with various associated consequences (Amato, 2012). Providing these guidelines leave expectations up to personal judgment. Looking at the study of men in prison, a scale was used to test the level of conformity. The Conformity to Masculine Norms Inventory (CMNI) is a ninety-four item, four point scale with eleven subscales. Tests such as this provide researchers with results that determine how gender roles affect daily lives. A study performed by Stanley Milgram (1974), tested how far an individual would be willing to harm someone else, just because they were told to do so. In this case, Milgram, a man wearing a lab coat provided the instructions to the two different participants. One was Teacher, the one being studied; while the other Learner, who was involved as part of the research team, unknowingly to the other participant. The teacher was to administer a shock to Learner when applied knowledge was not performed. “This suggests that individuals’ willingness to follow authorities is conditional on identification with the…
* There are many views and theories as to if and how gender affects delinquency. One of the major theories is the gender-schema theory which basically states that society influences create girls feminine and boys masculine and that they are expected to adhere to those gender roles. Others theorize that differences are based on traits and that it is the “interaction of biological and psychological traits with the social environment that produces delinquency” (Siegel & Welsh, p. 142). Much of this has to do with child development. Other theorists believe social factors such as family life and friendships play a major role in criminal behavior. The feminists hold that crime rates have fluctuated because of the increased role women have in today’s society .Another contributor to the debate is the power-control theory which attests that women commit less crime because men have a role as the breadwinner for the family.…
More than 2 million juveniles are arrested each year with nearly 600,000 entering into juvenile incarceration. (Kapp, Petr, Robbins, & Choi, 2013) There has been a steady increase of youthful female offenders. From the early nineties up until about 2006, simple assault crimes have decreased “4% for male juveniles and it increased 19% for females” (Espinosa, Sorensen, & Lopez, 2013). “25 to 50 percent of antisocial girls commit crimes as adults (Pajer, 1998)”. "Similar risk factors may play a role in both girls' and boys' delinquency. Gender differences in underlying biological functions, psychological traits and social interpretation can result in different types and rates of delinquent behaviors for girls and boys (Moffitt,…
The British Crime Survey (BCS) provides evidence on victimisation experienced by men and women. They have identified that men are at greater risk of victimisation than women, according to victim surveys, in 2004/5 the BCS reported that women aged 16-24 had a 6.3% chance of becoming a victim of violence compared with a 14.6% chance for men of the same age (Jansson 2007 as cited by Newburn 2007). However, it has been found that ‘domestic violence’ is the only category of violence that women are at a 0.5% greater risk than men (Nicholas et al 2005 as cited by Newburn 2007). Although victims of ‘stranger violence’ were found to be 2.3% of males in comparison to 0.6% females, this range of statistics suggests that perhaps men and women fall victim to specific types of crimes based on the social stereotypes and…
Previous to the emergence of feminist theories in the 1960’s and 70’s the criminal justice system and studies surrounding it were developed under the assumption that males were the predominate perpetrators and victims of crime- particularly in cases regarding interpersonal violence. Whilst this was and still is true, the number of women being involved in interpersonal crimes is increasing, causing a new wave of interest as to what circumstances a woman finds herself involved in a criminal situation; hence the emergence of feminist theory. Whilst this theory does not aim to dismiss the majority (males) in this form of crime, it acts to elevate the minority (females) so as they can be recognised by the criminal justice system and have their cases…
The study took samples of men and women arrested for domestic violence and compared and contrasted their percentages and severity of the crimes committed. “Using victim reported information and data collected by local criminal justice agencies, we found that female arrestees were significantly less likely than males to have histories that warrant concern regarding the potential for future violence.” (p. 69) This conclusion supports the numbers in the past that men are more likely to commit domestic violence than women, but also notes the increasing numbers of women committing crimes. “Finally, the present study adds a new direction to the continuing debate over the “equivalency of violence” between men and women. Specifically, researchers need to go beyond studying gender differences in the prevalence of intimate…
Haga, John, John Simpson and A. R. Gillis. “Class in the Household: A Power-Control Theory of Gender and Delinquency.” American Journal of Sociology 92.4 (1987): 788-816. Print.…
Gender is on the agenda” wrote Francis Heidensohn (1989) Feminist definition of crime is that “crime is politically informed and linked to particular interests”– of men. Before feminism, women were invisible in sociological research, this meant that explanations for female recidivism saw, female crime as a ’special case’ resulting from sexual promiscuity and biological deviance. Biological explanations for male criminality have lost credibility yet feminist research argued that biological explanations were used to understand female crimes for example the persecution of Maxine Carr. Some feminist criminologists accept that women commit less crime than men. Diana Leonard believes that the major explanation for this fact is that women are more likely to conform to rules and social controls as opposed to men. However, there are signs that this commitment to the rules may be undermined by social class and age. There are six main feminist explanations of the relationship between gender and crime.…