Explain how criminology has been criticised for being ‘gender blind’ and access how feminist have sort to address this problem.
For this essay I will define the difference between sex and gender and what the term ‘gender blind’ means. I will mention why some offences can be male dominated and detail women’s role in society. I will talk about the feminist approach to dealing with this problem; the feminist I will explore will be liberal, radical, socialist and post modern.
First and foremost gender and sex are two different terms. Sex defines ones biological status which differentiates them either male or female whereas gender is a socially constructed term, it is the way society puts together ideas and associations about boys and girls and how society expects them to behave, gender is a term which can be stereotyped. The term ‘Gender blind’ refers to sense that most crime are male dominated. Examples include rape, domestic violence, child abuse and sexual murder Walklate.S (2003:77). Rape and violence are hidden crimes and usually go unreported, these crimes are not counted in reports but still the popularity of offenders is 81% male. Gender blindness is a socially constructed term so for women to commit crimes it is not ‘lady like’, women have gender roles which are associated to how they should behave and women and crime is not ‘normal’ Susan S. M. Edwards (1985:4). It is normal for men to commit crimes and ‘women have a consistently lower rate of officially recorded crime then men’ Frances. Heindershon (1985:2) the reason why women commit a smaller account of crimes that men is because women commit ‘white collar’ crimes i.e. shoplifting Frances. Heindershon (1985:7) and the number of women committed for serious offences are small Frances. Henidershon (1985:5). It has been seen that rape and other forms of sexual and physical assaults are expressions of male denomination and male’s sexual needs and desires and it is beyond their control although this...