Transcript Document
Globalisation Women’s employment opportunities Technological advancement More public crimes perhaps? Has a political crack down on juvenile delinquency exacerbated attention to the prevalence of youth crime. Backlash against constructions to conform Consequence of wider social shifts Parental influences The desire to rebel and be different Against who? To feel important and be someone in an increasingly diverse society Changes in family structures and composition Underlying motivations Are there specific patterns? Causes Changes in police treatment and reaction to female violence (Weiler, 1999). Black women are more likely to be found guilty or receive harsher sentences than white offenders (Soler, 2001). Necessary to understand the cultural context behind each informant. Race What crimes? The increase of female violent crime is thought to be specific to advanced industrial societies (Goldson, 2006). Feminist critique- can we draw generalisations from such findings? Environmental factors Ethnicity Life experiences and personal biography Ideas of institutional racism Geographical location •Does physical position affect respondents flows and access to crime? Women have always committed crimes, and therefore is not a new phenomenon in this sense. Operational ideas Social structures What makes UK different? •Does it affect the type of crimes committed? •Practicalities Gangs Will putting money into detention help the problem? Power relationships •Access Class Intersectionality •Lack of legitimate opportunities to feel self-worth. Is this “universal” ideal suitable across age boundaries? Are girls really becoming more like boys? Ladette culture One of the guys (Miller, 2001). But what about other crimes? Reinforced by statistical insignificance Crime is linked to masculinity 13 yr old girl mugs two adolescent men Is this panic justified? Child empowerment Violence provide the shock factor to readers By who? Political tool perhaps? But is youth crime divisible by gender alone? Offenders can hold many identities; victim and perpetrator! Intervention needs to accept that causes of female youth crime is often gender related (Weiler, 1999). Women are victims (Katz, 2000). Do we have real reason to fear? Victims of what? Myth? Suggests they have no agency Power and patriarchal structures Changes risk groups and crime categories Creates youth culture Legitimatising stereotypical images Have we experienced a breakdown in morality? One perspective fits all (Weiler, 1999). A reason to study this topic! This breaks our traditional ideologies of crime; an inherently male sphere. Problematic as it causes us to reevaluate the ways in which we define, manage and believe crime operates. Creates the need to confront stereotypes Psychological interplay Plays on personal security fears to enhance and stimulate public concern What similarities exist? An assumption that women are coerced into crime. Telegraph headlines: “Savage cuts to youth spending could rob a generation of chances” (Williams, 2011). Sensitivities the problem Childhood in crisis? Distraction from greater political issues? Have we incorrectly assumed that only men and boys hold the “ability” or “means” to commit crime, especially violent ones? •Adopt the “bad girl” image as a means to achieve status and power in adolescence (Chesney-Lind and Sheldon, 1998). How much agency do children have? Violent female offending has increased by 48% in the last five years (Salman, 2009). Leads to female crime going unnoticed •Failing to achieve in the school system. Gender is not enough! No crime exists in a vacuum. We cannot assume that female youth crime is all the same, with the same motivations, rationalisations, trains of thought and opportunities. A complex picture is painted. Acquiring or imitating traits we have assigned to males Economics and resources The sex ratio of youth crime has not changed. Both boys and girls crimes have seen an increase. How, and to what extent is this fear played out in society and in what ways does this problematise preventative policies? Fractured femininity. Girls have not been socialised correctly (Artz, 1998). Fostered by, and blamed on, the women’s movement (Adler, 1975). Result of the destabilisation of traditional gender roles. Encourage offenders to replicate “bad girl” images. Way to achieve status in society/peer groups Alienates and marginalizes Reinforces stigma Are these wider social changes implicated in the young female offenders experience of crime? Are these legitimate reasons or excuses? Is there any evidence to suggest that there is a causal relationship?