2. ADLER = says that women lacked
opportunity to break the law because they are
housewives
But HOWEVER she argues that as time has
progressed women are taking up new roles
and going out to work SO ARE OPENING UP
NEW OPPORTUNITYS TO COMMIT CRIME
3. Similarly, HEIDENSCHIN agrees with Adler by
saying that society enforces more CONTROL
over women giving them less opportunity to
commit crime. (As they are housewives)
HOWEVER; HEIDENSCHIN argued that even
though women are going out to work more
than they used to, they are still CONTROLLED
In the WORKPLACE through male supervision
and male managers
4. Another reason why men may commit more
crime than women could be because of
GENDER DIFFERENCES
boys are encouraged to be tough and
risktaking and have aggressive tendencies
meaning they are most exposed to acts of
violence & criminal opportunities
5. PARSONS expanded on this theory when he
talks about the ‘sex role theory’
he said that men take the INSTRUMENTAL
role of the breadwinner and provider
and women take the EXPRESSIVE role of
taking care of the children and giving
emotional support by socialising them into
their NORMS AND VALUES
6. Messerschmitt agrees somewhat with PARSONS
ideas of men and women taking different roles
Messerschmitt says how males commit crime to
show a sense of masculinity and assertion
he says how masculinities are shaped by class,
ethnicity, age and sexual orientation and that
these differences lead to different forms of
crime.
By males committing crime, it not only re-
assures their own masculinity and show it to
others
he refers to the dominant form of masculinity as
‘HEGEMONIC MASCULINITY’.
7. However, Carlen said when women do commit
crime they are treated less harshly by the CJS
than men
perhaps this is due to leniency towards female
offenders known as the ‘CHIVALRY THESIS’
HOWEVER Carlen also argues that in fact when
women do commit crime they are treated more
HARSH than men.
This is because women are going against their
STEROTYPICAL roles
and because female crime is more rare = is
judged more harshly as the court sees them as
wives and mothers (double deviance)
feminists argue that these double standards
exist because the CJS is PATRIARCAL
