Socialist Feminist Theory Analysis

For many years criminal behavior was considered to be male dominated. Generally, women are more likely to be law abiding citizens compared to men. Studies have shown that women are far less likely than men to commit a crime. “About 19% of known offenders are women (Thompson: 2012).” It has not always been common for a woman to engage in serious criminal behavior such as murder or bank robbery. In recent years, women seem to be just as involved with crimes as men and in some cases the crimes are more gruesome. However, crimes that women commit usually possess a more emotional characteristic. Socialist feminism is a form of feminist criminology and it is based on the belief that the intersection of social class and gender is the nexus of crime …show more content…
Theories that were produced by Robert Merton suggested that it was the pressure to follow social standards since there was a divide between the goals and aspirations of the youth and their ability to reach these goals through honest and legitimate means. As a result, they were motivated to offend (Merton: 1938). Contrastingly, Hirschi believed that we as humans already hold the drive to act in a selfish and aggressive manner which could lead us to engaging in criminal activities. His theory was built on asking why offenders engage in these activities when it comes to crime. It’s sought to believe that society plays a very important role on crime and how it progress or declines. “More precisely, social control theory, based on a consensus model of social order, denies the efficacy of competing subcultural norms and assumes that only conventional norms and definitions of morality influence behavior (Matsueda Heimer 1987:836). Social control theory has increased my theory on understanding female offenders greatly. Social control theory stems for values of social norms. If women are motivated to offend and while women are less likely to commit than men, women are still committing crimes often times to prove a point. Female offenders often times commit smaller crimes because they’re aware that the criminal justice system can show some leniency towards …show more content…
It is my understanding that female offenders commit crimes because they’re aware that their punishment will not be equal to a male offenders. Female offenders commit crimes because the social control theory explains that there is an option of one wanting to be a part of an antisocial behavior. This behavior stems from society and society is the only means for it to progress or