THE REVIEW IN THIS EDITION IS….
Britton, Dana M. 2011. The Gender of Crime. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield.
Reviewer: Andrea Nichols, University of Missouri-St. Louis
Dana M. Britton, a professor at Kansas State University and editor of the journal Gender and Society, has produced another book of interest to criminologists, sociologists, and those specializing in gender studies. Drawing from social and historical contexts, as well as theoretical works and empirical research, The Gender of Crime offers a nuanced account of the relationship between gender and crime, and is distinct in its intersectional focus. The book is not a simple review of similarities and differences in women and men’s crime and victimization. A key contribution of this book is its ability to illuminate understandings of offending, victimization, criminal justice system responses, and occupations within gender, race, sexuality, sex, and class contexts through a wide-ranging review of related research and theory.
In chapter one, Britton lays out the perspective that guides the overall book. In particular, she applies a “gender lens” to such criminal acts as school shootings, bias crimes, arrest rates, and prison populations to illustrate how gender is related to offending and victimization in society. Britton uses concrete examples to delineate the distinction between sex and gender, demonstrating the role of masculinity and femininity as a focal point of offending and victimization. Further, Britton illustrates the ways in which gender intersects with other identities such as race, class, and sexuality to shape crime and victimization. She draws attention to the way masculinity and femininity are related to power and resource stratifications, which are further impacted by intersecting identities. She then further demonstrates how law making and the definition of crime itself are socially constructed in a power matrix of gender, race, class and sexuality.
In chapter two, Britton applies a gender lens specifically to criminal offending. She uses empirical research to show how offending is structured by socio-cultural and socio-structural gender norms, as well as how acts of crime offer an opportunity to display various facets of masculinity and femininity—distinct from male or female embodiment. Britton describes sex differences in arrest rates, demonstrating how men and women are arrested for similar crimes, but at very different rates, with the largest gaps for violent crimes. She then explains these sex differences in arrest rates from a gendered perspective—she links them to social constructions of masculinity of aggression, dominance, and violence while traditional femininity is not associated with such crimes. Britton relates heterosexual masculinity and class masculinities to offending as well. Britton also applies a race lens, by showing differential arrest rates by race, noting some of the important gaps in the intersectional literature, including how such sex comparisons in offending often exclude distinctions by race in the empirical research. Britton relates heterosexual masculinity and class masculinities to offending as well. Further, Britton notes that men and women’s offenses are gendered in the methods employed and rewards received; yet she examines not only differences by gender, but similarities as well. Opportunities to commit crime are also shaped by gender, she argues, and crime offers opportunities for gender performance as well. While Britton credits Freda Adler and Rita Simon as pioneers in examining the relationship between gender and offending rather than the biological “nature” of women to account for differences in offending, she also further debunks the myth of the liberated female offender through empirical evidence in this chapter.
Chapter three emphasizes the criminal justice system and its gendered responses to men and women as criminal offenders. In particular, Britton challenges the “chivalry hypothesis” with research evidence, providing a nuanced account of how such dynamics are simultaneously gendered, raced, classed, and sexed. She shows discrimination in law-making, law enforcement, policing, sentencing, and incarceration by gender, race, sex, and class in both historical and current contexts. She reminds readers that the creation and definition of law is socially created- and both impacts, and is impacted by, such intersecting identities. Britton further illustrates how gendered assumptions and practices of enforcement are built into criminal justice system responses.
Chapter four focuses on men and women’s victimization rates and experiences, and their relationship to sex, gender, race, class, culture, social structure, and violence. Britton explores, in particular, how intersecting identities shape the probability, context, and outcomes of victimization. For example, she emphasizes the relationship between victimization and displays of entitlement and aggressive masculinity. She highlights empirical evidence and debates in the extant literature and reviews theories of victimization to examine the social contexts of victimization and gender. Moreover, Britton uses the issues of rape and intimate partner violence to show the relationship of victimization to gender and how it is shaped by a larger social context of inequality. Importantly, viewing these topics through a gender lens shows how and where solutions should be directed. Solutions, Britton argues, lie in changing the structures and culture that facilitate them (inequality). Recognizing structural/cultural roots of inequality and consequent victimization lends itself to structural/cultural change solutions.
In chapter five, Britton investigates men and women working in criminal justice occupations, an area for which she is already well-known. She focuses on lawyers, police officers, and correctional officers. Britton describes how perceptions, expectations, and performances of masculinity and femininity shape these roles through theoretical applications and case studies. Specifically, she argues, occupations in the justice system are largely masculinized and are associated with images of masculinity. Britton investigates wage gap statistics in these occupations, drawing from the historical and current context of the wage gap; this gap is not only gendered, but also raced and classed. Britton offers a gendered organizations perspective to examine and further highlight the ways gendered culture, structure, agency, and intersecting identities impact the wage gap, policing, prisons, and law.
Finally, in chapter six, Britton reiterates why applying a gender lens, as well as an intersectional perspective, is important and how it contributes to understandings of offending, justice system responses, victimization, and occupations in the justice system. She points out that gender is rarely a component in theorizing crime, but shows how criminologists are increasingly incorporating gender into their theorizing and research. Such theorizing and research are important, she argues, because dynamics of gender are socially constructed, they can also be socially deconstructed.
In sum, The Gender of Crime outlines the ways in which gender is related to sex differences (and similarities) in offending, victimization, criminal justice occupations, and justice system responses. Its intersectional approach – considering the roles of race, social class and sexuality – is a unique contribution. By reviewing empirical research, case studies, current and historical social contexts as well as classic and current theorizing. Britton introduces readers to current perspectives in the area and successfully illustrates the intersections of gender, race, class, and sexuality. Her clear writing style and inclusion of “real world” examples means that the book would make a great addition to both undergraduate and graduate courses on crime and gender. It would also make a valuable supplement to a sociology of gender course, or a sociology of crime and deviance course. The book is also useful for scholars working in the area as a concise overview of the current and lingering controversies in the study of crime and gender.