Statistics for Sociology: Sociological Perspectives on Gender

-Many working-class women will not be able to achieve those rewards as a result of poverty and other social issues.

-For example, many women who are convicted of crime have been in abuse relationships.

-They will turn to crime as it offers potential benefits like consumer goods that they are not getting otherwise.

-In reference to the chivalry thesis, this sociologist argues that women suffer from 'double jeopardy' - they are on trial for the crime they commit but also their deviance from the 'norm' of femininity so are more likely to receive a harsher punishment - referred to as the 'evil woman' theory.

-The patriarchal society ensures that there are social controls which prevent women from committing crime.

-Men dominate the public sphere where most crime is committed.

-Social controls in all areas of life prevent women from committing crime - there was more informal control of girls than boys in society more generally (to be 'respectable' girls had less freedom than boys).

-The domestic sphere: women are controlled by patriarchy to fulfil domestic role, teenage girls are more closely supervised than teenage boys.

-She specifically argues that girls are controlled by fathers and male siblings - they have to be home earlier than their brothers, and have less time when they are unsupervised.

-While boys were playing out together out of the home, girls had a 'bedroom culture' in the home.

-The public sphere: women are controlled by discrimination, sexual harassment, physical and sexual violence, the 'glass ceiling', all of which prevent them and restrict their opportunities.

-She goes on to argue that this control of girls, both by family members and social expectations, continues for women in adulthood.

-They go from being controlled by fathers to being controlled by husbands.

-While working men would socialise with their fellow workers at pubs or sport, working women would return home to carry out homework and childcare.

-Social norms: women who deviate from norms of acceptable behaviour are labelled and threatened with condemnation for going against their 'femininity'.

Evaluations:

-Adler suggests women today have much more freedom (and suggests that is why female crime is now increasing).

-Functionalists would suggest that men and women perform different gender roles in the family in order for society to function properly, rather than society being patriarchal and male-dominated.

-In the 1990s and early 2000s, a 'ladette' culture developed with young women taking on more traditionally male behaviours, such as binge-drinking and risk-taking.

-Women are generally more confident in their status and have more workplace status, giving them more opportunity to commit financial crime.

-However, the patterns of the types of crime committed by women have remained similar and most convicted women are working-class.

-He stated, 'Men hate to accuse women and thus send them to their punishment'.

-Women do not appear in crime statistics in any way comparable to men.

-They have more mitigating factors in their favour.

-This study was based on interviews with 39 women, looking at why some women commit crimes.

-She concluded that working-class women made this class deal and gender deal that kept them under control.

-The class deal was that they would work hard in exchange for pay which they could then use to pay for consumer goods.

-The gender deal was that they should do domestic labour and give love and companionship to their husbands, in exchange for love and financial support.

-Both these deals keep working-class women respectable.

-It was, she suggested, when these deals broke down that working-class women were then more likely to commit crimes, as a rational choice.

-For her, both these 'deals' were really exploitative - as a Feminist she believed that women were exploited in families, and she also believed that the working-class was exploited by employers in the capitalist system.

-However, there was an illusion of fairness and respectability about these deals that, most of the time, kept women under control.

-In one respect, this sociologist agrees with functionalists, such as Durkheim or Hirschi, that social control prevents crime and a lack of control can lead to an increase in crime.

-However, she points out how that control is often maintained through exploitation.

-The characteristics of being a 'man' according to social norms, can lead to competitiveness, aggression and risk-taking.

-Hegemonic masculinity can also explain why crime is not exclusive to men of just one social class background and why men of all backgrounds commit violence against women.

-Women's traditional expressive or homemaker roles encourage women to take responsibility for the home and family.

-Women are also socialised to be nurtured, less aggressive and less likely to take risks than men.

-Therefore, women are less likely to commit crime but also have less opportunities to commit crime.

-While their roles limit them to the domestic sphere, men's allow them more freedom and opportunity.