Notes on feminist view on crime

Feminists, similar to Marxists, view crime and deviance as a structure of power, where, how
people are treated is based on what their economic background is or what resources they have.
Or, to be more specific to this case, what gender they are.

When analyzing this topic, feminists primarily focus on how female perpetrators are viewed.
They'll compare female and male convicts to see if society reacted with a double-standard, or if
morality was used to blame a specific gender. They'll also look to see if the motive of a crime
was to show power or dominance over another person.

For example, if a woman physically and psychologically abuses her husband on a regular basis,
feminists will compare society's reaction to this crime vs. the reaction to a man committing the
same exact act to see if there are any double-standards or biases.

The majority of times, the perpetrators will be treated differently based on their gender.
According to Ruth Mann (Intimate Violence in Canada: Policy, Politics, and Research on
Gender and Perpetration / Victimization, 2007), violence should be "degendered" and attention
should be on the motive of the crime and not who committed it because much of the time, males
will have a harder sentence than females when it comes to domestic violence.

Society tends to view males as bigger and more powerful, and the reason why men are abusive is
that the man wants to show dominance. Whereas when it comes to females who commit the
same crime, society views the male in this situation as weak and lacks the capability of
defending himself, thus putting the blame on the victim.

In conclusion, feminists focus on patriarchy and want all criminals to be treated and viewed as
the same, not based on social power.

Crime statistics tell us that men commit more crimes then women, and sociologists have different
explanations as to why this is.

Sutherland (1949) said girls have a stricter upbringing whereas boys are encouraged to take risks;
boys also have more opportunities to commit crimes due to their freedom.

Relevance to the Caribbean: Applewhaite study of education in Trinidad proved that girls
got more supervision from parents than males and therefore boys tend to fail or drop out. In
dropping they become lackadaisical and turn to a life of crime. In fact according to Ronald
Thwaites (minister of education in 2015) if a young person stays in school, even if they are
not achieving passes, it reduces by 40 per cent the likelihood that they are going to find
themselves in a gang or in some criminal activity- based on statistics of Peter Bunting
Carlen found, using qualitative research on Scottish sheriffs and judges, that sheriffs were less
likely to imprison women whom were good mothers but were more likely to punish single mothers
or mothers with children in care.

Allen found that females are treated more leniently for motoring offenses.
Also, women who conform to the judges’ perspective of femininity were more likely to get lesser
sentences.

Relevance to the Caribbean: In Jamaica we see where there is a stereotype placed on the way
women drive by men. For example, if a car infront of a male is driving too slow (based on the
male's standard) we will see where the man curses the driver up until he realizes that it is a
female driver. We can also see this type of behaviour amongst the police force.

This suggests that the feminist view that there is gender bias in the criminal justice system is true

Before feminism, women were invisible in the sociological perspective. Crime by women was
explained by saying female criminals were a ‘special case’ and were a result of sexual promiscuity
or biological deviance. Essentially sociology didn’t accept that normal women committed crime.

Feminists say that this ignorance of female crime is because society is patriarchal and is focused
on men, ignoring the women. So feminists argue that the issues that other perspectives debate
aren’t the really important ones, the biggest problem is that women are ignored.

Bias in the criminal justice system

A vast amount of research has looked into the way in which the criminal justice system might be
gender bias.

RADICAL FEMINISTS
Claim that patriarchal ideologies keeps women restricted to subordinate roles. If and when they do
not perform these roles, they are considered deviant.

Relevance to Carib: Portia Simpson Miller was seen to be a deviant by some members of the
Jamaican society when she became the Prime Minister of Jamaica which in a sense could be
recognized as the most 'dominant' position in society - and is usually filled by a male. She seen as
a deviant because women aren't supposed be some high up the political ladder.