AQA A2 Sociology Crime and Deviance

Term used by Matza to describe a state where young men are unsure about their identity and their place in society, a period of boredom. It is in this period of life that any event that unambiguously gives them a clear identity is welcomed, and it could equally be an identity of offender as much as an employee.

A term used to describe the fact that male ways of thinking have dominated criminology.

He argues that masculinity is an 'accomplishment' - something that men have to constantly work at constructing and presenting to others.

The socially approved idea of what a real male is. According to Messerschmidt, it 'defines' masculinity through difference from and desire for women.

Some men, including many l/c and ethnic minority men, lack the resources to accomplish hegemonic masculinity and so turn to crime.

Explanations based on the restricted roles women are claimed to have in society.

Feminist theorists use this term to suggest a need to 'break out' of the confines of traditional criminology.

When people obtain a thrill by putting themselves in the place of another person.

Most crimes appear to be committed by males. 4/5 convicted offenders are male. Among offenders, a higher proportion of females are convicted of property offences (except burglary), while a higher proportion of males are convicted of violent or sexual offences. Males are more likely to commit serious crimes.

This argues that the criminal justice system (CJS) is more lenient to women, because its agents - police officers, judges, juries etc. - are men, who are socialised to act 'chivalrously' towards women.

He argues that 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 under-represents female crime. (May apply concepts such as stereotyping, typifications, interaction, negotiation).

They found 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 4 times more likely to offend,

His study of over 3,000 defendants found that women were about 1/3 less likely to be jailed in similar cases.

Their study of shoplifting witnessed twice as many males shoplifting - despite the fact that the numbers of male and female offenders in the official stats are roughly equal. This suggests women shoplifters are MORE LIKELY to be prosecuted than male shoplifters. (Relate to Cicourel's distinction between stats as a topic and stats as a resource).

She notes the double standards of courts punishing girls, but not boys, for promiscuous sexual activity.

She argues that in rape cases it is the victim who is on trial, since she has to prove her respectability in order to have her evidence accepted.

She found Scottish courts were much more likely to jail women whose children were in care than women whom they saw as good mothers.

He believed the absence of an adult male role model in the home means boys are more likely to turn to all-male street gangs as a source of masculine identity. Here they earn status by acts of delinquency.

She criticizes Parsons for assuming that because women are biologically capable of bearing children, they are best suited to the expressive role. Thus, although Parsons claims to explain gender differences in crime in terms of socialisation, his explanation is based on biological assumptions about sex differences.

Heidensohn argues that women commit fewer crimes than men because patriarchal society imposes greater control over women, thus reducing their opportunities to offend. It operates at home (housewife role for the wife, 'bedroom culture' in relation to the daughter), in public (threat of sexual violence and gaining bad 'reputation') and at work ('glass ceiling').

She studied 39 w/c women who had been convicted of a range of crimes. Twenty were in prison or youth custody. Carlen argues that most convicted serious female criminals are w/c. (AO2) Carlen's sample was small and possibly unrepresentative, consisting largely of serious offenders, over half of whom were in custody.

His CONTROL THEORY proposes that delinquents fail to form or maintain a bond to society consisting of attachment, commitment, involvement and belief.

She argues that w/c women are generally led to conform through the promise of two 'deals': the class (women who work will get a decent standard of living) and gender deal (women who conform to the conventional domestic gender role will gain the material and emotional rewards of family life.

1. In terms of the class deal, the women in Carlen's study had failed to find a legitimate way of earning a decent living. Most had always been in poverty; many could not get a job and had experienced problems claiming benefits. 2. In terms of the gender deal, some had been abused by their fathers or partners. Over half had spent time in care, which broke family bonds. 3. As they had gained nothing from either deal , they felt they had nothing to lose by using crime to escape poverty.

They tend to see women' behaviour as determined by external forces such as patriarchal controls or class and gender deals. This ignores the importance of free will and choice in offending.

Her LIBERATION THESIS argues that as women become liberated from patriarchy, their offending will become similar to men's. Women have begun to adopt traditional male roles in both legitimate (work) and illegitimate spheres (crime).

Female crime rate started rising before the women's liberation movement began and most female criminals are w/c and unlikely to be influenced by women's liberation.