Assessment of the Arguments and Evidence Which Suggest Women Commit Much Less Crime Than Men

Assessment of the Arguments and Evidence Which Suggest Women Commit Much Less Crime Than Men

The sociology gender of has mostly been focused on women and

femininity, but over the recent years men and masculinity has also

been studied. Some sociologists believe that gender can be identified

as male and female through their organs that produce sex cells and

their hormones, enabling women to bear children but not men. There is

also the difference of men being physically strong and women being

weak. The biological differences in men and women are determined

through their behaviour and their roles played in society. For

example, men’s role is to go out and provide for the family, they’re

seen as the ‘breadwinners’, and men are seen as ‘housewives’,

producing children, cooking and cleaning. This may lead to the

large-scale view that women commit less crime than men because women

are assumed to not having the time and motive to commit crime and men

having both. In this essay views from different writers and

sociologists will be discussed on gender and crime. For what reasons

are women stereotyped and assumed to commit less crime? Can

sociological situations affect the crime committed by gender? If so,

how and why?

Frances Heidensohn (1985), a famous feminist, believes that women do

commit less crime than men. She looked at women and social control,

saying that it was difficult for women to commit a crime in a male

dominant society; a patriarchal society. She believed that women spend

all their time in housework and do not have enough time to get

involved in crime. If women tried to get out, the ‘man’ of the house

would force them to st...

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In: Haralambos, M. Holbron, M. (2000), Sociology, Fifth edition,

London, Harper Collins Publications Limited.