Sociological Factors Of Society 's Behavior Essay

When the criminal justice system was established, the main objective was to create neutrality and fairness between the sexes. Even though people might believe that there is no such thing as ‘stereotyping’ in the criminal justice system, it is quite obvious that women are constantly being look down upon because of their sex. In general, women tend to be treated like fragile objects that could break at any moment; the truth is that women can be strong and courageous just like men. Society stereotypes women and the criminal justice system is no different.

In 2001, Andrea Yates drowned her five children in a bathtub in her home. This was very disturbing news. I am a native Houstonian. I was at home that day. The television was on and will never forget the news breaking announcements that broke the story of a homicide in Clear Lake. All the information the reporters had was a mother killed all her children then called the police to report it. The full story and the details that lead to this tragedy did not unfold until years later. It was sad because as details unfolded if Andrea Yates had been treated properly and followed her doctors

The United States criminal justice system, an outwardly fair organization of integrity and justice, is a perfect example of a seemingly equal situation, which turns out to be anything but for women. The policies imposed in the criminal justice system affect men and women in extremely dissimilar manners. I plan to examine how gender intersects with the understanding of crime and the criminal justice system. Gender plays a significant role in understanding who commits what types of crimes, why they do so, who is most often victimized, and how the criminal justice system responds to these victims and offenders. In order to understand the current state of women and the way in which gender relates to crime and criminal justice, it is first

Most women are more fragile and have domestic instincts. Our society describes women to be nurturing caregivers and less likely to receive the death penalty. Morin (2011) describes that women have religious beliefs that deter them from committing harsh crime (p.19). Waterbury, Connecticut district claims that seven percent of females are represented on death row. Gender presents a big gap in our correctional system in the preceding of capital punishment. Examples of the various methods that account towards the termination for capital punishment are clarified below.

The acceptance that the court system often treats female offenders differently than male offenders is an accurate statement; however, it comes with many caveats. Generally, the public views women as nurturers, motherly and incapable of

Female Criminality consists of several outdated statistics regarding the rise of female offending. However, in viewing the current research on the subject, it appears that the overall theme of this dissertation's discussion is still relevant despite changes in the accompanying statistics as seen in viewing the following topics: the rise in female offending; the continual rise that females are committing more crimes than men; and the types of crimes that women are committing. In viewing Bruce Gross's 2009 article, "Battle of the Sexes: The Nature of Female Delinquency," as well as Elizabeth Cauffman's 2008 article, "Understanding the Female Offender," one can begin to see where current statistics regarding the female criminal lie.

Submission refers to at least six sociological concepts covered in the lectures or textbook reading

With regards to female sentences, it can be seen on the one hand that the criminal justice system deals with female crimes more leniently than with male criminality, as referred to as the chivalry theory (Pollok, 1983). As many female offences are usually petty wrongdoings, such as shoplifting which makes up for nearly a half of all indictable convictions (Ministry of Justice, 2014), due to their gender, it is most likely that females are to be cautioned over receiving a prison sentence. However, this was not the case for Maxine Carr in 2003. A whirlwind of media interest surrounding Carr’s involvement, with the murders of two young girls from Soham, is argued to be the definitive reason as to why Carr received a prison sentence of three years, all for perverting the course of justice.

According to Lilly, Cullen, and Ball (232) Feminist theory has been on the back burner of modern criminology until the late 19th century. As with the other criminology theories there are many thoughts and ideas on why females commit crimes. In the beginning the theories seem to revolve around the victimization of the female gender. Then criminologist took a look at female delinquency, prostitution, and gender inequality in the criminal justice system. Lilly (233) wrote that Lombroso used physiological traits to determine what type of women would commit crime. Lombroso also argued that the women that committed the most crime were more masculine then the women who did not commit crime. He used physiological immobility, and passivity to make the argument. Lilly (235) also wrote that Sigmund Freud believed the reason women committed crime was because they has “penis envy”. Since women were physical different than men, women would become more aggressive trying to act like the male counterpart in order to fit in with the status quo.

Statistics show that the number of female offenders in the legal system has been increasing steadily. The number of female offenders entering the American justice system is growing at a rate faster than males. Statistics from the United States in 2010 show the female offender population to be increasing by 2.7% each year, compared to the male population at a rate of 1.8% each year, with similar statistics being seen in other Western countries (West & Sabol, 2010). The continued increase has made understanding female offenders and their catalysts for committing crime more imperative.

The paper should be typed, double-spaced, 11-point font, 1” margins. Both the write-up and your typed journal should be saved as ONE document with page numbers. Remember to include a citation for any resources referenced, in proper APA format, and make sure your name is on your paper.

A theory was come up with in the twentieth century in an article called “Gender and Crime: Toward a Gendered Theory of Female Offending” by Darrell Steffensmeier and Emilie Allan that became the standard reason for the gender gap in crime, which states “Increases in the female share of arrests could be attributed to gains in gender equality as a result of the women’s movement” (Steffensmeier, Allan 468). Many might debate the fact as the gender power struggle helps to mold women into criminals as a victim of their circumstances.

The first phase of this classification is entrenched with certain tasks for filling gaps of knowledge, critique, and comparison in the light of research. On the other hand, the second phase encompassed disruption of the existing criminology models in more essential ways so that growth of the research area could be resulted (DeKeseredy, 2015, p. 180). Provided overrepresentation of men as victims and offenders, the aspects of criminology and its linkage with masculinity and criminal activity has always been viewed as a contradiction. In this regard, feminist efforts in the area of criminology have drawn significant attention to highlight the above-mentioned issue. The first theoretical contribution made in this area entails Messerschmidt(1993) who discussed that the alternate mean of commencing masculinity is related to committing crime (Zatz and Gough, 2014, p. 1876).

The term socialization can be defined as the process in which individuals learn the behavioral patterns that are most likely accepted and tolerated in society. This process includes the learning values in which children are taught and they develop the social values of their parents or guardians just by observing them. Socialization occurs from the birth of the individual and continues throughout their life. Socialization is classified as one of the most important process in the family. Of all the major sociological perspectives, symbolic interactionism has probably developed the most detailed theory of socialization, Haralambos, Holborn. Sociology -

Social Reaction Theory and Feminist Theory of Crimes are the subject theories I am going to review, examine, and explain. I will be discussing the evolution of social reaction and labeling theory, which is mainly concerned with how individuals’ personal identities are highly influenced by the way that society has a tendency to classify them as offenders. I will also be reviewing the various forms of feminist theories, which began as reactions to the lack of reasonable theorizing about why females commit crime and why the tend to be treated far more contradictorily by the criminal justice system. Here, I will explain these various theories with more attention on how they thoroughly transformed the way that the crime and law were viewed.