Gender and Crime

Donnovan Lyons Midterm

In order to understand gender, crime, and their relationship, an insight that is wider and deeper than their immediate appearance is required. In modern day society, one is often asked to identify on survey forms, applications, and other everyday paperwork where feedback is required, what one’s gender is. Yet, usually we are left with only two options: male or female. What is not told to you however is that gender is a social construction, and that it and sex while interconnected, are also separate and distinct. Sex is defined as one of two categories: male and female, and is dependent upon one’s physical reproductive organs. Gender on the other hand is typically defined as the attributes and behaviors associated with these sex categories, i.e. they are a social construction and a result of self-identification and practiced behaviors (Britton, p. 12-14). Gender is thus not limited to two categories, and differs from society to society. Crime, normally defined “as a violation of law, more specifically, criminal law,” is similarly thought of in unambiguous terms. Yet crime has a transient nature to it, exemplified by various changes in the law. This makes clear to us, that crime too is a result of the process of social construction (Britton, p. 6). What then is the connection between these two social constructions, and how can it be explained? This can be demonstrated by applying a gender lens to crime in which we question how gender affects the patterns of victimization and offenses in our society, whether in the context of inequality or individual motive (Britton, p. 2). In doing so, it will make clear that the assumptions and values that criminal law may be constructed on, and are then in turn used to perpetuate existing notions of masculinity and femininity.

Gender requires one to behave a certain way based on their sex, thus fulfilling their social expectation and reinforcing society’s notion of what is masculine and...