Transcript The Gendered experience of Young People

The Gendered experience of
Young Women
Troubles of Youth
8.12.08
Lecture Outline
• The Different Experiences of Transition
• Gender and Youth Offending
– Empirical considerations
– Theoretical Explanations
• Doing Gender
– Girl Gangs – myths and realities
– “Troublesome Girls”
Transition
• Characterised by senses of uncertainty, and
individualisation
– Timing of transitional events changing
– Identification with structural position (class, ethnicity
and gender) reduced
– Youth constructing their own biographies
– Traditional gendered “Life plans” are increasingly
questioned – the separation of the domestic and work
sphere has lessened
• However, realities still limited by limited provision of
affordable childcare, inflexible paid work, and division of
domestic labour
Proportion of all Persons found guilty or
cautioned who are Female
Gender Ratios - A Stable Picture?
0.3
0.25
0.2
10-17 year old
0.15
18-20 year olds
21 +
0.1
0.05
0
1992
1994
1996
1998
2000
2001
2002
Source: Statistics on Women and the Criminal Justice System (2003)
25% increase in girl’s offending
• Youth Justice Board Annual Workload Data
Report
– 2003/04 – 47,538 crimes
– 2006/07 – 59,236 crimes
• Things to note
–
–
–
–
Still around a quarter of male crime
More girls around
Does not take into account repeat offending
Less tolerance for girls’ offending?
• “there is a change in behaviour, but it is not the
dramatic change the figures might suggest” Dr
Elaine Arnull
% Prevalence
On Track Survey (2005)
11-16 year olds
Behaviour
Boys
Girls
Alcohol
60%
61%
Smoking
12%
19%
Drugs
14%
Stealing
% Prevalence
Offending Crime and
Justice Survey (2004)
10-25 year olds
Boys
Girls
12%
25.5%
19.1%[1]
29%
29%
15%
9%
Receiving
26%
16%
21%
14%
Attacked Someone
19%
8%
18%
9%[2]
Carried a Knife
15%
4%
6%
2%[3]
Vandalized Property
33%
32%
4%
2%[4]
Official caution, warning or
court conviction
17%
8%
Played Truant in previous 4
weeks
16%
18%
[1] The drugs question refers to "ever" in the On Track Survey, and "In the past 12 months" for the OCJS
[2] In the OCJS, the questions refers to "Assault".
[3] The "Carried a Knife" category refers to 10-17 year olds in the OCJS
[4] In the OCJS, the category refers to "Criminal Damage".
Questions posed for Criminological
theory
• Why is there a gender-gap in offending
patterns?
• Why does it seem to be reducing?
• Why would young women offend at all?
• Do women experience different levels of
criminogenic conditions, or do they react
to them differently?
Robert Agnew &
General Strain Theory
• Limitations of classic Strain Theory
– Fail to explain gender differences in offending
– An assumption that women feel less
economic strain
• Agnew’s
– Gendered differences in sources of strain and
adaptations
– Women: relationships and purpose of life
– Men: finance, work and status
Agnew & GST
• Why are men more delinquent?
– Do men experience more strain? No
– Do they experience different strains? Possibly: may be
becoming more similar
– Do men react differently to strain? Probably
Men
Situation
Reaction
Response
Work/Status
Strain
Fairness of Outcome
Anger; need to
rectify; moral
outrage
Crime
Sadness;
Depression;
Fear; anxiety
Self-destructive
deviance eg.
Eating disorders;
drug use
Women Personal Strain
Fairness of Procedure
GST - Evaluation
• Addresses weaknesses in traditional strain
theory
• Addresses gender differences in a range
of loci
– Structural strain
– Reactions to strain
– Adaptations to Strain
• Possibly tendency to simplification of
these gender differences
John Hagan: Power-Control Theory
Different Work Patterns
For Mothers and Fathers
Different Levels of Gender
authority in workplace and
power in the home
“Free-floating” patriarchal
Ideologies of control
Different Patterns of
Delinquency
Different Parenting styles
For boys and girls
Gendered Patterns of Risk
amongst boys and girls
Changes over time have seen these gender distinctions reduce
Hagan PCT
• Useful integration of Risk and Deviancy
theory
• Can be used to explain a range of
gendered risky behaviour, not just crime
• Prioritises the “fourfold family” and
gendered parenting: revisions address this
(somewhat)
Economic Marginalization?
• Argument:
– Economic Marginalization is a important
causal determinant of crime
– Women have become increasingly
economically marginalized – the “feminization
of poverty”
• Higher number of female headed single parent
households
• Reduction in welfare provision
– The gender gap in offending is narrowing
One Specific Social Problem:
Girl Gangs?
The Feral Sex: The terrifying rise of violent
girl gangs (Daily Mail, 16 May 2008)
“The most recent Metropolitan Police estimate put the
number of gangs in London at 174, of which at least three
were exclusively girls.”
Troublesome Girls – Annie Hudson
• Girls judged by dual standards of
behaviour, and gender
– Girls expected to be ‘domesticated’
– Conduct, esp. sexual conduct viewed as
‘beyond control’
– Emotional reactions by girls problematized
• Attempts to enforce these standards, esp.
in a care setting, can result in rejection by
girls -> a further source of ‘deviance’
Girls in Gangs –
A denial of Femininity?
• Laidler (2001)
– Growing concern about girl gangs: the “masculinization” of girl
gang members
– Laidler (and others) see the ‘bad girl’ is seen as a particular form
of femininity, combined with more ‘culturally appropriate’ forms:
gender drift theory?
– Status an important concern for girls and boys: not simply the
masculinist sense of power and control, but ‘respectability’ a key
concern for girls
• Strength; independence; maternal roles; community involvement;
ethnic distinctiveness; avoidance of excessive drinking and
drunkenness
• As with last week, we have to ask ourselves what
constitutes a “gang”
– here, the suggestion is that ‘girl gangs; constitute a relatively
unproblematic grouping, but by referring to them as ‘gangs’ there
is a danger of ‘stretching’ the term
Summary
• Young women are particularly affected by
aspects of late-modernity
• Offending patterns show a reduction in the
gender gap, but these findings need careful
interpretation
• Some developments in “traditional”
criminological theory attempt to explain the
changes
• ‘Folk Devil’ of the feral girl gang member might
be triggering the changed CJ response.