The main idea of the chivalry thesis is this prospect that men are socialised to act in a way more chivalrous – or gentlemanly – toward women so they end up convicting men more than women. Otto Pollak (1950) argued that women’s crimes are less likely to end up in official statistics due to the fact that “men don’t like to accuse or punish women” so the criminal justice system is more lenient toward them. The chivalry thesis can be supported by the work of Graham and Bowling who used self-report studies and found that men still commit more crimes than women although the gap is now smaller. They also found that women are more likely to be cautioned whereas men are more likely to be arrested. Nevertheless, the chivalry thesis also has many criticisms including results from a study carried out in a
There are several differences in the amount of crime that men and women do. Men are 15 times more likely to commit homicide than women are. By the age of 40, 9% of females had a criminal conviction as opposed to 32% of males. These statistics show that there is a definite distinction in the amount of crime that is committed by the genders. Women have always been thought of as the weaker sex and Sociologists such as Heidensohn argue that men see the need to protect women.
There are a lot of gender differences in patterns of crime, from which gender commit more crime to which crimes each gender commits more of. In this essay I will be giving explanations on why this different patterns in crime for gender happen. Men have a higher crime rate than women but the gap in this crime rate is slowly closing in recent years. Some Sociobiologists have the explanation that it is biological for the reason women are less likely to commit crimes than men. They argue that women have a more natural desire to be caring and this does not correspond to the values of crime, so they are less likely to offend due to them not having the nature to commit the crime.
August 7, 2011 JUS 110- Crime and Criminology Critical Feminist Theory VS Grauwiler and Mills A critical feminist views gender inequality as stemming from unequal power of men and women in a capitalist society, which leads to the exploitation of women by fathers and husbands. Under this system women are considered a commodity worth possessing like land or money. (Siegel 2010) In knowing this view we know that men feel that they have power over women since they are generally stronger they take advantage of this and try to control the women in their lives. Many times the control that they have over women is abusive. It is a known cultural difference that men usually dominate the world.
In this essay I will explore the fundamental reasons why there is a significant difference between crime rates concerning men and women and I will also give reasons why men seem to commit more crimes on the surface and why women seem to commit less crime. I will base my Sociological concepts on Heidensohn but I will also use ideas from Pollack, Adler, Smart etc. The official crime statistics show how recorded crime tends to be a predominantly ‘masculine activity’. One explanation as to why there was a significant difference in patterns of crime concerning gender could be because Sociologists tended to focus on male criminality. Heidensohn (1985) said that female crime was either overlooked or ignored by sociologists or sociologists would merely assume stereotypical ideas on females regarding their criminal activity, for example, they would be too busy cooking and cleaning to have time to take part in crime, whereas men are stereotypically the bread-winners which means they are out in public more and so would have more opportunity to commit crime than women.
One of these theories is the Choice Theory. According to the text book, Criminal Justice in Action, Choice Theory is when criminals weigh the benefits of the crime they want to commit to the tragic costs. If in the end the if the criminals benefits over weigh the costs he or she is more likely to commit the crime (pg.31). Most crimes are committed because of the rewards that come along with it. The rewards can involve money or even a sense of gratification according to sociologist Jack Katz in the text book Criminal Justice in action when said “’rewards’ of crime may be sensual as well as financial.
The study states that men are more likely to act on jealous emotions. That they have a higher rate of abuse and homicide on a cheating spouse than women. He believes that men and women have different things that would set of their jealousy. In his study, it shows that in each country, men are more jealous over a sexual relationship than a woman does. It also shows that in the United States that the jealousy rates are higher overall.
I believe that boys tend to be more aggressive than females. Most cultures throughout the world expect the men to be aggressive. Sometimes it is a way of survival, protecting the women from harm or finding food for them. Men also have 20 times more testosterone than women. (2010 Amanda Hermes Children's Exposure to TV Violence & Aggressive Behavior) Of course females are also aggressive, but their aggression tends to focus more on verbal and social assaults instead of physical violence.
12 2 gender and crime Frances Heidensohn and Marisa Silvestri introduction Men commit crime at higher rates than women, are involved in more serious and violent ofending, and are more prone to recidivism. While this statement has been called ‘one of the few undisputed “facts” of criminology’ (Lauritsen et al. 2009: 362) it was an unconsidered one for much of the subject’s history. hat it is now a central and much debated matter is due largely to the advent of feminist criminology which took this ‘gender gap’ in recorded crime as one of its key themes. Gender is now an established and central topic in criminology and studies of criminal justice (Heidensohn, forthcoming).
Sex-role stereotypes are magnified in male-dominant firms and are harmful to women psychologically as stereotypes generate violence and gender inequality that is a form of exclusion (Forret & Dougherty, 2004). Stereotypes place women in a subordinate position to men in a patriarchal and sexist model in which their function is to serve the other and not to lead (Llopis, 2006). Men can handily adjust to male-dominated structures because they can read masculine culture better than women and because their peers are just as them. Increasing internal visibility is greatly related to the number of promotions and total compensation for men but not for women. There can be several explanations but one explanation might be that the work assignments