Women and crime

[Hegemonicretribution]

It is generally accepted that crime is predominantly a male activity, but reasons for this are often overlooked. Why is it that so few women are charged as criminals? In the U.K. for example there are about 85000 male prisoners and 1500 female prisoners.

Traditional criminological approaches fail to make reference to women's role in a criminal network, or their lack of it. Even most traditional Marxist approaches neglect this.

There are several reasons proposed for this by different schools of thouht, even the Marxist. It has been suggested that in capitalist society that women have lower aspirations, and do not feel as disenchanted; of course the cause of this is taken as sexism.

One argument asserts that crime is a masculine activity, and it reinforces values of aggression and domination that are seen as central amongst the "macho."

Or there is also a suggestion that coursts punish women lightly because of their perceived role in the home, and sentences are often also seen as being shorter for this reason.

It has even been suggested that men are naturally more aggressive, and in cases of female murder for example, the female has often been a victim prior to being the aggressor.

I was wondering what everyone thought about these views, or had anything new to add. I think it may well be a combination of theories, although I don't like the implication of "natural" in the last one.

[Monty Cantsin]

I think it’s a combination of societal conditioning and naturalistic causing underlying it.
An interesting fact is that Left-handed people are disproportionably convinced of homicide. Now does that mean that left-handed people are more violent? No I’d put it down to what’s called the ‘surprise factor’ in boxing. Left-handed people have an advantage in hand to hand combat because they don’t use the normal dominate side that’s the norm among everyone else i.e. right handers.

I’d have to say that man in the area of violent crime commit it more because their physically allows them to gain advantage by it. So I don’t think their really inherently violent by nature it just in a ‘tough situation’ they have that tool, their upper body strength. Whereas woman would have the same impulse but their violence isn’t as effective because on average their upper body strength is less. Anyway i.e. masculinity in my mind is not equal to violent behaviour. I’d put violent behaviour down do either that calculated pros and cons, what’s the opportunity cost? Or an impulse control disorder of some kind….

In a high school legal studies course a couple years ago we studied the factor of gender in sentencing and it came back pretty consistent from the cases we studied that woman where treated lighter for equivalent crime committed by males. We never really studied the courses of this though just the disproportion in sentencing. But I’d put it down the old idea that woman are passive and non-violent so their crimes represent abuse and so forth.

Interestingly until recently in New Zealand it wasn’t illegal for adult females to have sexual intercourse with male’s of pre-consent age. That was until a woman come out publicly about her activities with a young teenager (can’t remember the exact age) and the law was changed. But that shows that because society viewed sexual abuse like that as sonly the domain of man, crime committed by woman slipped under the radar.

[Chrysalis]

All very true.

In a lecture it was mentioned that even if women were charged with a crime, there really have been a discrepancy in court in viewing their crime, as compared to the same crime committed by men. So, social perception of men and women seems to play a great role. But, perhaps it is changing now.

[TC]

Its not only that women are less likely then men to be charged with a crime and less likely to be convicted and less likely to recieve a harsh sentince with a conviction...its also that non-white men are more likely than white men, and young men are more likely than old men, and poor men are more likely than rich men. Society has an image of what a 'typical criminal is', its not female, its not white, its not rich and its not old, so people who fit into those groups are both less likely to be suspected of a crime, law enforcement is less likely to concentrate on them, jurors and judges are less likely to view them as criminals, and lastly they're less likely to be given the opprotunity by their peers (who are also susceptable to internalizing societies view of them as criminals) to get involved in crime.

[Hegemonicretribution]

I see what most are saying, but I think there is another element to it. Even research carried out about crime itself, and not that which resulted in arrests or convictions, seems to be dominated by males.

I am not saying this is always the case, but I work in bars where most fights are caused by men, not all but most. I purchase drugs, and over 90% of the time it will be from a group of guys predominantly and over 80% of the time only consisting of men.

Apart from my personal perception of street level crime, which admittedly could be screwed, there are other factors that would suggest this. The lack of sociological research existing in certain areas has been due to the absence of cases to study. There have been a substantial number of studies into male street gangs, but only very few about female street gangs, this is because the latter is a rare occurance compared to the former.

I am not writing this to suggest that women are better, or that men are unfairly treated, but to focus on why these issues exist as they do. Traditional Marxist analysis sees property crime as direct action against the bourgeois, a redistribution of wealth if you will. Of course not all crime is seen as "revolutionary" but even that which is seems to be dominated by males.

I am thinking perhaps that sexism exists within the criminal world, actively preventing female potential members from becoming active. This just may go to highlight how institutional sexism exists beyond "institutions" as we normally see them.

[red team]

Testosterone

[TC]

Originally posted by red team@Mar 2 2006, 09:30 PM
Testosterone

I hope you're trying to be funny. Dismissing people by reducing their behavior to sex hormones whether attributing aggression and anti-social behavior to testosterone or hysteria and irrationality to estrogen is one of the most blatant old fashioned sexist claims you can make.