Using material from Item A and elsewhere, assess the value of the ‘chivalry thesis’ in understanding gender differences in crime. When looking at official statistics it is clear to see that there is a difference in the amount and type of crime that is committed by the two sexes. The chivalry thesis is the idea that the cause for this difference is the experience of women within the criminal justice system (CJS). The thesis argues that women are treated more leniently by criminal justice agents such as the police , magistrates and judges because men are socialised to behave in a ‘chivalrous’ way towards women. There are several differences in the amount of crime that men and women do.
Introduction Men and women have not shared equal rights as citizens in this country since the beginning of time. Over the past seventy years, women have taken steps to equalize the rights between men and women. Women have also increased their rate of incarceration rate over this time, could it have to do with inequality? But why are prison and incarceration rates still unequal between the two genders? What is causing this injustice in our criminal systems?
The media portray criminals and victims as older and more middle class than those found typically in the criminal justice system. Felson (1998) calls this the age fallacy. Media coverage exaggerates police success in clearing up cases. This is partly because the police are a major source of crime stories and want to present themselves in a good light and partly because the media over represent violent crime which has higher clear up rates than property crime. The media exaggerate the risk of victimisation especially to women, higher status individuals and whites.
Domestic Violence is not random but follows particular social patterns and these patterns have social causes. For example, the most striking pattern was found by Coleman et al (2007), who said that Domestic Violence mainly occurs through men being violent to women, she found that women were more likely than men to have experienced ‘intimate Violence’ across all four types of abuse, - partner abuse, family abuse, sexual assault and stalking. Statistics by Mirrlees – Black show that 99% of Domestic Violence cases against women were committed by men. She also found out that 1 in 4 women have been assaulted by a partner at some time in her life, and 1 in 8 women, repeatedly so. This is also
According to Schneider, homicide is highly gendered. When we look across time and space, at preliterate peoples and at modern ones, at developing countries and developed ones, we see men commit approximately ninety percent of all homicides. The only differences in these homicides may be the groups of men as well as the different societies and social context. This helps psychologist understand the reason why the rate increases. The inability to form families also plays a factor in the crime increase.
The number of people behind bars has grown substantially in many countries over the past 20 years.” (para. 9). Better policing can also be attributed to the decline in crime rates as evidence of the growing prison population. According to Mitchell (2010), "In Denver, 30 of the 2009 murders — almost 80 percent — have been solved, according to Mary Dulacki, records coordinator for Denver police.” Per a Denver Police spokesperson, another factor in the reduction of murders is the improvements with emergency medical treatment and services. First responders are able to save more lives than in the past (Mitchell, 2010).
The fear of an aggressor “outing” their victim varies between lesbian and gay couples (Messinger, 2011, p.2233). Lesbian victims are much more likely to call the police in a battering case than gay men. A possible theory for this occurrence would be that society has socially constructed the belief that it is much more acceptable for a women to come out as a homosexual than a man. To protect
Most people arrested are males, which doesn’t seem to be a big surprise to me at all. The male crime rate exceeds the female crime rate basically universally, in all nations, and in all communities. In some traditional countries the crime gender arrest ratio can be anywhere from 200 males for every 1 female or even more from 1000 males to one female. In modernized societies the gap has been closing the disproportionate rate can best be explained by differential treatment of males and females. Males are socialized to be dominant, active, and aggressive.
With the Affirmative Action program there was a dramatic increase in college attendance among blacks, yet there was still an astounding amount of unemployed blacks. In 1975, the overall black unemployment rate was 1.8 times higher than the white unemployment. Affirmative Action not only helps blacks it also helped women. In 1977 the percentage of full time female faculty was 10.6 percent, and it had grown to 21.7 percent by 1987. The present percentage of law school appointments that are women has reached 40
Some people get trigger-happy when it comes to tense situations. Because of this, criminals are killed more often by citizens than by law enforcement (Huntwork). Firearm injuries are the second leading cause of injury (Ruben). There are more gun related fatalities in the United States than in the worlds thirty-six other richest nations. Murders by firearm rates are 17.5 times higher than in twenty-two other populous high-income nations combined.