PICT103 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Feminist School Of Criminology, Victim Blaming, Welfare Fraud
5 Jun 2018
School
Course
Professor
PICT3
Crime and Gender
Statistical Snapshot
• Crime stats constantly report lower level of offending amongst women compared to
men - 3:1
• Women are typically involved in less serious crimes, men in more violent crimes
• Female offending exceeds that of males in:
- Killing of children
- Shoplift
- Prostitution
- Welfare fraud
• Promiscuity - higher rates of care and control orders of women under the age of 18
PART 1: What did early criminology say about women?
Women and early positivists
• Early biological positives believe that women like men were born criminals: but these
were rare
• Explanations as to why women offended less than men centered around their
supposedly 'primitive' nature. Seen as the lesser gender.
• Prostitution the 'natural' offence
• Sound archaic but these ideas has a profound and had a lasting effect on ideas about
female offenders and women more generally
• Lombroso: shows the way women wherever in the 1800s. They were inferior to men
but seen as a farer sex in some ways. No intellectual capacity. Women have specific
gender roles. Control theories - restraining factors for women. Misogynistic ideas.
Misogynist criminologists
• Pollack (1961) posited that female offending was actually higher than that of men -
He thought women were more deviant and were great liars- He thought that even
women's ability to fake orgasms because they don't have a erection meant that they
were born liars
• Women's mensuration is symbolic of their deviance/offending
• The higher rates are concealed by:
- Women's neutral deceitfulness and capacity to manipulate (women commit more
crime, but also, they get away with more crime)
- Women influence meant to commit crime (Adam and Eve idea)
- Agents of the criminal justice system (police, etc) who are reluctant to impose
punishment on women - chivalry thesis. Men reluctant to punish women)
Sociological criminology and 'invisible women'
• Failure due in part to women being ignored by important socio-criminological schools
and theories
• E.g. Strain theory (women were not bread winners back then), Chicago School,
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Statistical snapshot: crime stats constantly report lower level of offending amongst women compared to men - 3:1, women are typically involved in less serious crimes, men in more violent crimes, female offending exceeds that of males in: Welfare fraud: promiscuity - higher rates of care and control orders of women under the age of 18. Women and early positivists: early biological positives believe that women like men were born criminals: but these were rare, explanations as to why women offended less than men centered around their supposedly "primitive" nature. They were inferior to men but seen as a farer sex in some ways. Misogynist criminologists: pollack (1961) posited that female offending was actually higher than that of men - Women"s neutral deceitfulness and capacity to manipulate (women commit more crime, but also, they get away with more crime) Women influence meant to commit crime (adam and eve idea)
