SOC219H5 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Waterloo Region Record, Dangerous Offender, Homicide
SOC219; Lecture 4 - Constructing Women's Offending
Last Class;
● Differential socialization
● Gender differences in pathways
● Risk factors
● Context of offending and differences in opportunity
● Issues with pathways research
● Differential socialization shapes how we understand and define criminality amongst
boys and girls/ women and men
● Women’s pathways to crime are heavily influenced by past events (abuse, parental
neglect, poverty, etc).
● Victimization is an important risk factor for boys/men as well
● Caution against essentializing women’s victimization as the only reason they commit
crime
Midterm;
1. 20 M/C questions - 1 mark each
2. 1 short answer - worth 5 marks (themes that tie in all 4 of the lectures)
3. Material from lec 1-4
4. Full class time to write (3-5pm)
5. All lectures and reading material + photos and videos shown in class = fair game
6. When studying, look for overlap in lecture notes and readings**
Women as Other; Gender Stereotype
● Acoby; Canada’s only dangerous offender
○ Became violent after age of 11 after she found out about her parents reality
○ Cycled through institutions and got a youth criminal record - ended up in
prison where she began taking hostages (staff) and threatened to kill
○ Tortured a nurse in a facility - said she took pride in seeing them suffer
○ Deemed a dangerous offender - Canada's only female dangerous offender
(Global News)
○ Psychopath who took hostages a kitchener prison loses appeal (Kitchener
Record)
○ Dangerous offender = unlikely for status to be removed
○ “Provocative” photos shown at Acoby hearing
● Sexist ideology continues to influence depictions of women’s offending
○ Ex. Acoby’s provocative pictures to depict her sexual promiscuity
○ Historically has developed by associating women with lower intellect and
being passive, weak and conforming
● ALL women as inferior and of low intellect (this also applied to men of colour) BUT
also passive, weak, and conforming
○ Marker = white men
● Society is preoccupied with abnormalizing women’s violence and propensity to
commit crime
○ Women go against traditional strips and threaten the social order
Document Summary
Context of offending and differences in opportunity. Differential socialization shapes how we understand and define criminality amongst boys and girls/ women and men. Women"s pathways to crime are heavily influenced by past events (abuse, parental neglect, poverty, etc). Victimization is an important risk factor for boys/men as well. Caution against essentializing women"s victimization as the only reason they commit crime. Became violent after age of 11 after she found out about her parents reality. Cycled through institutions and got a youth criminal record - ended up in prison where she began taking hostages (staff) and threatened to kill. Tortured a nurse in a facility - said she took pride in seeing them suffer. Deemed a dangerous offender - canada"s only female dangerous offender (global news) Psychopath who took hostages a kitchener prison loses appeal (kitchener. Dangerous offender = unlikely for status to be removed. Sexist ideology continues to influence depictions of women"s offending.
