SOC219H5 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Social Control Theory, Differential Association, Self-Control
SOC219; Lecture 2 - Doing Gender, Doing Crime?
Last Class review;
● Gender is a social construct -created and recreated
○ Ex. father on subway with baby
● Criminological theories either overlook women's criminality entirely or use all male
samples and apply those results to women or just adding women and stirring (taking
theory developed by and about men and applying that to women without considering
the gendered nature of women to which crime occurs.
Traditional criminological approaches
● Explained crime rates using male-only samples
○ So not mainstream but more ‘malestream’
● When women are included, there were considered anomalies
○ Despite that men are more likely to engage in criminal behaviour, question is
why do women commit crime less as opposed to why do men commit crime
more?
○ When women do commit crime, they tend to be viewed worse than men,
because they are breaching crime laws but also are breaching
cultural/societal norms related to femininity
■ Known as doubly-deviant - break laws and cultural norms
○ Portrayed as being misfits, monsters, worst kind of offenders when women
commit crime - tend to always relate it to sexuality as well (biological features
such as menstruation period or pregnancy)
● Gender rarely factored into the analysis despite being one of the strongest correlates
of crime
○ Instead, these theories looked at other economic, structural, institutional, and
individual factors to explain crime:
■ Economic marginality (Marxism)
■ Strain
■ Neighborhood disadvantage and social control (disorganization)
■ Learned definitions of crime - differential association
■ Social bonds
■ Self control
Reviewing Mainstream Theories
● Original Positivist Theory;
○ The actavistic female offender
○ Women identified as their biological and physiological features
○ Lumbroso used women involved in sex trade - said that these women
committed crime because of their physical features making them look like
men and said that these women did not conform to traditional feminine norms
and were essentially masculine and so committed crime
○ Based true femininity on upper class white women standards and anyone that
didn’t adhere to those standards was more prone to commiting crime
○ Crime stems from individual inability to conform to feminine standards
○ Said women lacked intellect to commit crime and were passive and
conforming
● Traditional Strain Theory;
○ Merton and Albert Cohen
○ Strain occurs when individuals are taught the same values in culture but lack
access to attain the same values and goals
○ Focuses on strains that are oppressed on middle and working class
■ only looks at boys
○ Women tend to make up the vast majority of the population that requires more
economic needs - economic marginality omitted women from sample
○ Recent extensions have attempted to bring women into picture
○ Cohen highlighted role in masculinity in strain - strain came from employment
and needing to maintain certain threshold of income
■ Only looked at women for 4 pages in book
■ Said women don’t focus much strain other than needing to find
adequate marriage partners
■ Women didn’t commit crime according to Cohen
○ Focuses on economic inequality
● Differential association
○ Non sex specific
○ By associating with people who looked favorably towards offending or
breaking law, meant that individual would learn benefits and motives of
commiting crime so would be more prone to committing crime
■ Ex. parents do criminal behaviour and make children think it is ok to
do certain criminal acts - child grows up to think its ok to steal
○ If you’re living with someone like a police officer you would be less likely to
commit crime because the associations and rules around you would stop you
from breaking the law
○ Shows that crime can occur in any class - looked at white collar crime
○ Didn’t focus on women in any particular way and claimed that it was neutral in
terms of sexual indication - never mentioned women’s offending though
○ Feminist scholars have reviewed this theory and tried to explain if women’s
offending can be explained and found that differential socialization such as
curfews for girls, limited interactions with people that might be crime prone
■ Boys awarded more freedom and parents didn’t control actions so
allowed associations with delinquent peers leading to a higher rate of
delinquency in boy
● Labelling Theory;
○ Looks at social construction of what classifies as criminal - looks at how
deviant actions get labelled and how individuals get labelled and the effect it
has
○ Self fulfilling prophecy - once you get labelled as a criminal, ou internalize that
label and it increases you propensity to commit crime in the future
■ Escalates criminal engagement once you get labelled as a criminal
○ Howard - in study, when women mentioned, he referred to them as boring
and didn’t see much value in applying his theory to women crime
Document Summary
Gender is a social construct -created and recreated. When women are included, there were considered anomalies. When women do commit crime, they tend to be viewed worse than men, because they are breaching crime laws but also are breaching cultural/societal norms related to femininity. Known as doubly-deviant - break laws and cultural norms. Portrayed as being misfits, monsters, worst kind of offenders when women commit crime - tend to always relate it to sexuality as well (biological features such as menstruation period or pregnancy) Gender rarely factored into the analysis despite being one of the strongest correlates of crime. Instead, these theories looked at other economic, structural, institutional, and individual factors to explain crime: Learned definitions of crime - differential association. Women identified as their biological and physiological features. Based true femininity on upper class white women standards and anyone that didn"t adhere to those standards was more prone to commiting crime.
