1. Explain why women offenders are labelled as double-problematic in
society
Female offenders are seen as “double problematic” in society because not only
do they break the written laws of a country, but they also defy traditional gender
roles. They break the unwritten rules of gender norms and what being feminine
entails. Women are traditionally expected to behave in a sensitive/ non-
aggressive/ vulnerable manner. Women are expected to fill the role of a nurturer,
emotional, submissive and maternal figure. These gender roles put women in a
box and create stereotypical views of them. Therefore, it is hard to identify with
females who act in contrary to the expectation of traditional gender role by
committing violent crimes. It is much easier to identify with females who are
victims because they more closely resemble the societally expected female
gender roles.
2. Critically examine the reliability and validity of official crime statistics
with specific reference to female offending
There is general distrust around the validity and reliability of crime statistics.
There are various reasons for this such as some police agencies do not record all
crime incidents which come to their attention called the grey figure of crime.
Therefore, people debate that official crime statistics is just a product of police
decision-making. Accurate recording of crime is important because whats
recorded leads to further action, what isn’t recorded get ignored, reported crime
can help make people aware of emerging crime threats and can help alter
agencies that certain victims need support and safeguarding, this cannot happen
if it is not recorded and victims are left unprotected and exposed to further risk.
The overall crime problem in a country can be compared to an iceberg. The tip of
the iceberg (observable part- which is the reported crimes) is only 35%-
45%.There is also an unreported section of total crimes known as the dark figure
of crime, which is the unobservable part of the iceberg (55%-65%) .Different
types of crime have higher rates of reporting, while others go unreported like
domestic violence purely because there could be a lack of trust in the police and
CJS, they wish to avoid secondary victimisation and want to avoid being labelled
as a victim and the stigma attached. Crimes that have higher report rates could
be property crimes because to claim from insurance you need to get a claim
number from the police. There is an endless variation in the relationship between
the observable and unobservable parts of the crime problem (certain times the
official crime rate may be higher or lower) which can be compared to when the
water levels drop more iceberg is revealed, when the water rises less of the
iceberg is seen. If the crime rate is higher it is known as the ‘crime wave’ and
there are various explanations for this, such as people might be reporting more
and trusting the police and the police could be doing their jobs more such as
doing more roadblocks and arresting more people. A dark figure for reported
crime also exists, this is crimes that are reported but don’t lead to arrest,
prosecution, conviction and punishment. From the above and according to the
research project on the funnel of the CJS the 3% of women prison population is
not a reliable indication of the total female crime problem. The funnel of the CJS
diminishes the number of crimes that actually lead to conviction. Therefore, the
statistics derived from the prison population will be an inaccurate reflection of
, the total female crime problem. An justification for the underrepresentation of
women in the CJS is the chivalry hypothesis which states that women receive
favourable treatment by the decision makers in the CJS because they are in need
of protection and if this is factual, it would be very challenging to conclude the
actual amount of female crime.
3. Explain how you would approach research in a South African context
which aims to examine the contribution of women to the crime rate.
Women have a lower official crime rate than men. They have neglected female
crime as a research focus area because female crime is not a serious problem,
rather focus on the real problem (male crime) and the small number of women
offenders make scientific study difficult. This isn’t a valid argument, qualitative
research would provide valuable insight into the problem of female crime. It aims
to gain sight into people’s values, motives and lived experiences, which doesn’t
focus on large numbers. Eg. 10 women in prison who kill their children, to
understand their motives and to understand why they did this. This doesn’t make
it not scientific. Females and males can’t be studied in isolation and analyses
should occur over an extended period of time. When working with small numbers
you must be careful not to express your increases in %. Comparing the inflated
results will lead to a blown up impression in increase in the number of female
crimes. Police statistic must also be supplemented with other methods like victim
survey and self-report studies and the funnel of the CJS must also be kept in
mind. According to the marginalised hypothesis more women are becoming
leads of single-parent households cause of divorce and illegitimacy, these
women live below the breadline which causes economic stress. Poverty along
with other pathways is an omnipresent factor which lead women in SA to
incarceration. There are 42% single-parent households in SA with an
unemployment rate of 34,5%.These women are also in traditional female low
paying occupations such as domestic helpers etc which creates more economic
stress as they don’t get paid well. The participation of women in crime is u-
shaped (Mukherjee & Fitzgerald). When doing research must be aware of socio-
political and historical context as this can reflect in crime statistics. For example
before apartheid abortion was seen as a crime, post 1994 abortion is no longer a
crime. Separate pre 1994 and post 1994.
Fredler Adler stated female crimes rates are rising rapidly due to the
emancipation of women in society and crime would become a problem in the
future as women achieved greater equality with men and women would be
involved in more violent crimes.
Theme 2:
1. Examine the broad explanations used for the fact that women commit
significantly less violent crime than men. Trace the roots of the
explanations back to the most relevant criminological theories.
Women commit less violent crime than men there are 3 explanations for this.
Firstly, individuals who are inclined to violence have poor verbal and social skills;
they use physical violence to achieve their needs. However, women are more
verbal and are able to express their needs using their social and verbal skills
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