Gender and Crime

Gender Patterns in Crime

Among offenders, a higher proportion of females are convicted of property offences (except burglary).

Do women commit more crime?

Some sociologists and criminologists argue that official statistics underestimate the amount of female offending.
Female crimes are less likely to be reported; e.g. women's shoplifting is less likely to be reported than men's violence.
Even when women's crimes are reported, they are less likely to be prosecuted.

Chivalry Thesis

The idea that women are less likely to be prosecuted for their offences.
CJS is more lenient to women because its agents - police officers, judges, juries, etc - are men, who are socialised to act 'chivalrously' towards women
Pollack - men have a protective attitude towards women, so they are unwilling to arrest, charge, prosecute or convict them. Their crimes are less likely to end up in the official statistics, giving an invalid picture that underrepresents female crime.

Evidence for the chivalry thesis

Self-report studies suggest that female offenders are treated more leniently.
Graham and Bowling - young males were 2.33 times more likely than females to admit to having committed an offence in the previous year whereas the official statistics show males as four times more likely to offend.
Compared with men, women are also more likely to be cautioned rather than prosecuted.
Hood - studied 3,000 defendants and found that women were 1/3 less likely to be jailed in similar cases.

Evidence against the chivalry thesis

Farrington and Morris - study of magistrates court and found women were not sentenced more leniently for comparable offences.

Box - reviewed self-report studies and concluded that women who commit serious offences are not treated more favourably than men.

Buckle and Farrington - studied shoplifting and found that twice as many males shoplifted despite the fact that the numbers of male and female offenders in the official statistics are roughly equal. This suggests that female shoplifters are more likely to be prosecuted than male shoplifters.

Bias against women

Feminists argue that the CJS is not bias in favour of women but biased against them.
The CJS treats women more harshly, especially when they deviate from gender norms of monogamous heterosexuality and motherhood.
Heidensohn - double standards of courts punishing girls, but not boys, for promiscuous sexual
Carlen -
Walklate -

	Created by Gabzay about 10 years ago

Note on CAGE and Crime, created by Gabzay on 21/05/2014.