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Unlock This CourseThe "gender deal" refers to the unwritten social agreement about how males and females should behave in society. This concept helps explain why crime rates differ significantly between genders, with males consistently overrepresented in criminal statistics worldwide.
Key Definitions:
Males account for approximately 75-80% of all recorded crime in the UK. This gender gap is even wider for violent and serious offences. Sociologists suggest this is linked to masculine socialisation that encourages:
Females commit fewer crimes overall and tend toward different types of offences:
Several sociological theories attempt to explain why males commit more crime than females:
Girls are typically socialised to be nurturing, compliant and risk-averse, while boys are often encouraged to be adventurous, competitive and physically assertive. These different socialisation patterns shape attitudes toward rule-breaking.
Females traditionally experience greater social control and supervision from parents and society. Their activities are more monitored, limiting opportunities for deviance and providing stronger social bonds that discourage criminal behaviour.
This theory suggests that patriarchal family structures create different levels of freedom and control for sons and daughters. Boys are given more freedom to take risks, while girls are more closely supervised, directly affecting criminal opportunities.
In the 1990s, the UK witnessed the emergence of "ladette" culture – young women adopting traditionally masculine behaviours including heavy drinking, fighting and public disorder. Some sociologists argued this represented a challenge to the traditional gender deal. However, statistics show that while female crime rates increased slightly, the fundamental gender gap in crime remained. This suggests the gender deal may bend but has not broken.
The "class deal" refers to how different social classes experience different relationships with social institutions, including the criminal justice system. This concept helps explain patterns of crime across different socioeconomic groups.
Key Definitions:
Official crime statistics consistently show higher rates of recorded crime in working-class areas. However, sociologists debate whether this reflects:
Research suggests police resources are disproportionately focused on working-class areas and communities. This creates a cycle where:
Limited access to resources and opportunities may push some working-class individuals toward crime as a means of obtaining goods or income. This explains higher rates of acquisitive crimes like theft in deprived areas.
Lower educational achievement in working-class areas can limit legitimate opportunities for success, potentially making illegitimate opportunities more attractive. This creates what Merton called "innovation" – seeking success through deviant means.
Working-class youth may experience status frustration when they cannot achieve society's goals through legitimate means. According to Cohen, this can lead to the formation of deviant subcultures that reject mainstream values and create alternative status systems.
The 2008 financial crisis exposed widespread fraud and misconduct in the banking sector, causing global economic damage far exceeding that of street crime. However, few bankers faced criminal charges. This illustrates how middle and upper-class crime often receives different treatment in the justice system. Edwin Sutherland argued that white-collar crime causes more harm than street crime but is less likely to be criminalised or prosecuted, demonstrating class bias in how society defines and responds to deviance.
Gender and class don't operate in isolation – they interact to create complex patterns of criminal behaviour and justice system responses.
Young working-class males often face a "double bind" of masculine expectations and limited legitimate opportunities. Researchers like Willis and Connell have shown how this can lead to:
The criminal justice system's response varies based on both gender and class:
It's important to approach gender and class explanations of crime critically:
When discussing gender and class in exams, always consider multiple perspectives. Strong answers will recognise both the patterns shown in statistics and the limitations of these explanations. Remember to discuss how the criminal justice system itself might create or reinforce these patterns through differential policing and processing.