Gender and Crime - Chivalry Thesis | A Level Sociology

welcome to this tutor to you sociology topic video looking at gender and crime focusing on the chivalry thesis writing in the post World War II era otop Pollock examined the imbalance between male and female rates of offending and attempted to explain the reasons behind greater male than female criminality in society Pollock's belief was that the

crime rate for women was misrepresented and that there was more female criminality however the paternalistic attitudes of men meant that female crime was actually underrepresented in crime statistics Pollock referred to this as the chivalry thesis Pollock suggested that the police were less likely to record crimes committed by females than they were crimes committed by

males he also suggested that the Judiciary magistrates and judges were less likely to pass harsh sentences on females because they were socialized into protecting women these acts of chivalry as Pollock suggested meant that often women would have charges dropped or received cautions or community- based punishments rather than being charged with offenses or face

imprisonment this was due to assumptions that women's criminality was less harmful to society than acts committed by men often crimes committed by women were seen as being due to errors of judgment rather than a deliberate offense Pollock argued that this was due to the social expectations of women to be seen as good and moral as opposed to

views of male criminals as being violent and immoral women needed to be protected from the influence of crime and for women to offend it was seen as a failing of society in its duty of care to women this was backed up by crimes that were usually committed by women such as petty theft shoplifting and prostitution