Theories Of Crime And Criminology Behavior - Myassignmenthelp.Com

Question: Discuss about the Theories Of Crime And Criminology Behavior. Answer: Introduction Gender and crime are two interrelated terms and help in bringing out different perspectives on deviance. One of such perspectives is the feminists approach where the different aspects of the criminal justice system are stated to be affected as a result of the difference in the approach adopted towards the genders. Crime is something which is committed by both men and women, but it also cannot be denied that men commit more serious crime against women and that women are mostly the victims of criminal activities (Kruttschnitt, 2013). Feminist perspective majorly relates to the stereotyping of the women in the criminal justices system, which includes them being victims and even perpetrators of heinous crimes, in addition to being the justice providers under this system, due to their perceived soft nature. The key belief of feminism is that men and women are equal. The feminism perspective is thus aimed towards getting an equalized treatment when it comes to gender and crime and also sho ws that there is equality between the genders under criminology (Belknap, 2014). In the following parts, the feminist perspective has been critically evaluated in order to analyse their contribution to criminology. Critical Analysis Feminism is not a single theory and expands to a diverse set of agendas and perspectives. The need for feminism perspective stems from the fact that in all the guises of criminology, women are ignored to a huge extent (Bryson, 2016). The formation, production and even the dissemination of criminological knowledge is dominated by men and their discussions. It has been stated that the developments in the 20th century criminology have been inhabited by men alone, and the experiences of women are not even registered for passing comments by the researchers. Even when women are noted, the same is done just through the eyes of men or the male youth. This is the reason why women are always deemed as victims of crimes or weak and feeble creations. Women are victimized when it comes to crime and they become the target of heinous crimes, particularly from sexual assault and domestic abuse. This perceived feeble biological and psychological nature of women has portrayed them as victims of crime more often than their male counterparts (Connell, 2014). Criminal justice systems have, as per the arguments of feminists, neglected the victimization of women and as a result of this ignorance, the female exploitation continues. Even when it is known that crime is conducted against women more often than men, the conviction for rape remains low, which shows the bias. Till a few years back, it was possible for a man to kill his wife after raping her and plead provocation. Even though women used to stay silent in the past about abuses and assaults, the changed times have led to voice being raised against such criminal activities against women. There is also an underrepresentation of women in criminal justice field which has further fuelled the need for a feministic perspective. Women, owing to them being deemed as the caring section, are usually present in the Probation Service Staff. And when it comes to the stricter positions, they are dominated by the males owing to them being deemed as strict and stronger. So, the criminal justice system adopted an asymmetric approach towards gender (Rosenfeld and Penrod, 2011). Feminist criminology was born in late 1960s and 1970s and this was deemed as a second wave of feminism movement which helped in projecting issues which had an impact over the women in public domain. This view helped in gaining an understanding on the women being victims and also the perpetrators of crime. The relationship of criminology and feminism had been embedded with rich exploration of discipline, policy, methods and epistemology. The existing theories and concepts in the criminology field were challenged with this perspective. The critique of British Criminology, Carol Smart (1976) made an observation that women accounted for a very small percentage as being offenders, which led to the focus being placed on women and crime as an issue. It had been argued by Smart that there is a discrimination against women on the basis of sex, and sexism influences the determination of sentencing, punishment and incarceration of women (Simpson, 1989). The police, judges and the other personne l in the criminal justice system have been blamed for the stereotyping of women where it is assumed that a woman would go mad where they go against their biological nature of compliance or passivity and thus commit some criminal activity. This view has been furthered by Spelman who have stated that crime has overlooked the difference as an issue. She placed an argument that feminists concentrated on the privileged women and this results in stereotypical outlooks towards the female offenders (Simpson, 1989). Conversely, the dramatic upsurge of women in criminal activities is seen as the second wave of feminism by Alder. Alder (1995) has placed the argument that even when women were fighting for equal opportunity in context of the male counterparts, the determined women made their way in the key crime scenes like the white collar crimes, robbery and murder. Apart from this, he also stated that the climbing corporate ladder is also changing the nature in the growing involvement of women in criminal activities. The feminist scholars basically attempted challenge the approach of male criminology and towards rectification of the failure in addressing the role played by women when it came to crime and criminal activities. A study was conducted in 1979 by Cerkovich and Giordano for women between the ages of 17 to 29. These studies showed that the response of more liberated participants was less delinquent. An example of this was when they discovered that women responding to the women being involved in the work force instead of staying at home and carrying domestic chores were the least delinquent. When a study on women prisoners was conducted, it was further shown that a high number of women came from impoverished and uneducated backgrounds. The motives of their offending were not liberated which was contrary to the theory of Alder on emancipation conformity posing an offending opportunity. It had been highlighted by Farrington that women were not subjected to severe punishments when compared to the males. It also came to the notice that women indulged in less serious crime and used less violence. Along with this, the feminists in criminology field used defences like post natal depression as giving the reason for their offending. There have also been cited the biological reasons in the majority cases of female criminality which shows that the society has ignored the social and economical reasons behind the offending by females (Gelsthorpe Morris 1990). The work of feminists has not only developed a critique over the accumulated wisdom regarding the female victims and offenders, but they have also highlighted the institutional sexism in the criminological theories, practices and policies. As has been touched earlier, the treatment of women in courts shows that there is an assumed practice of chivalry which shows a huge misunderstanding regarding their sentencing, and the women who do not hold proper gender roles as being a good wife or a good mother, as seen as doubly deviant. The women who have been imprisoned have been shown to be promoted and enforced in domestic roles in the penal regimes. It has also been revealed by the feminist researchers that the girls are penalized for such behaviour which in case is no condoned in boys, is seen as normal (Gelsthorpe, 2003). However, this feminist view has been deemed by the mainstream criminological theorists as being politically driven instead of being neutral (Pinnick, Koertge, and Almeder 2003). Though, this very criticism can be weakened through the realization that all the theories, which includes the theories of such mainstream criminologist is value laden (Kathleen, 2006). Jody Miller (2003) has highlighted that the rejection of feminist criminology as being political holds critique which certainly could not be deemed s legitimate. It has been pointed out that some of the key critiques of this perspective have been formed from the debates carried out amongst the feminists. Feminists perspective has also been criticized for being primarily focused on heterosexual, white and middle class womens interests. It has been argued within the feminist criminology that this view deems men as criminal yardstick; the result of which is equating justice with equality, instead of taking into consideration the o ther influential views like ethnicity, race or social class. Another major criticism of feminism perspective stems from the need of reconciling the difference amongst them in order to steer clear of polarization, especially when it comes to sexuality. This is particularly important due to the factions formed between the feministic perspectives, which include racial feminism, socialist feminism, Marxist feminism, cultural feminism and liberal feminism. Amongst the criticism of radical-libertarian is the hesitation regarding the consensual heterosexuality, as this view provides that such relations can be pleasurable for the women. There have been warnings of dangers of heterosexuality by radical-cultural feminists and they have stated that there can never be a concept of consensual heterosexuality. Thus, this view purports that in a patriarchal society, only lesbians can indulge in consensual sex. Such contrasting views within the feminism perspective open the doors for the same being criticised. The criticism in liberation feminism theory inclu des the claims of manipulating of statistics in order to support the presumption that the gender equality produces higher crime rates in women (Morash, 2017). Janet Saltzman Chafetz, after reviewing the feminist theory made an argument that the present topic amongst the feminist scholars was an intersection of gender, race and class. There has been a range of feminist scholars who stated that there was a need of examining the differences instead of equality. Even though some scholars have stated that this has shifted the focus, the other has stated that this has led to introduction of new conflicts in the feminist studies. There has also been placed an emphasis over the examination of intersection of gender, race and class. And this intersectional perspective has been a focus of women of colour who presented the view that feminism was basically focused upon the experience of middle class white females (Schram and Tibbetts, 2017). In this regard, Amanda Burgess-Proctor provided that there were conceptual factors which led to the difference between the multiracial feminism from the other perspectives. It has been claimed that gender relations did not take place in vacuum and instead men and women were characterized by sexuality, age, race, physical ability, class and other basis of inequality. Also, the focus of multiracial feminism was on the significance of recognizing the manner of intersection system of privilege and power, which interacts on social structural levels. The concept of relationality is the basis of multiracial feminism where the assumption is that people in a group are socially situation in relation to other groups based on their differences. The other factors include social structure and the womens agency in implementation of different approaches and the need of putting focus on the lived experiences of women. This is in addition to the blurred boundaries of criminalization and victimization which are based on false categorization of women as offenders or victims which fails in providing an enhanced understanding regarding the women who indulge in criminal activities (Schram and Tibbetts, 2017). Conclusion Thus, in the preceding parts, effort was made to provide a basic context of the feminist theories regarding crime. Feminism was born in the backdrop of womens movements back in late 1960s and early 1970s. It was born as a concept focused on brining equality of women when it came to the criminal justice system and highlighted the different instances where women are discriminated against in the criminal justice system. For this purpose, the focus is placed on women being deemed as feeble creatures who are not deemed as capable of heinous crimes. However, this perspective successfully highlighted how the same is untrue. The discussion not only highlighted this view, but also criticized the same, where the difference in the branches of this view often seem to clash with each other, making this view unrealistic, particularly when one sect states something and the other says the opposite. Even after all the criticism, the issues raised by feministic perspective cannot be denied and continu e to be true even at the present time. References Alder, C. 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