2. Gendered Patterns of Victimisation

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About this Lecture

Lecture

In this lecture, we think about the differences between men and women as victims of crime, focusing in particular on: (i) the source we use for this data: the Crime Survey of England and Wales; (ii) the fact that men are more likely to be victims of personal crime (including violent crime) than women; (iii) the fact that women are more likely to be victims of sexual assault and domestic violence than men – and the reasons why these crimes may be under-represented in the Crime Survey of England and Wales; (iv) the difference in location and relation to suspect between men and women in homicide cases; and (v) the extent to which women's relation to crime – as both perpetrators and victims – is bounded by their domestic responsibilities.

Course

In this course, Dr Karen Evans (University of Liverpool) explores several topics related to gender and crime. In the first lecture, we think about the differences between men and women as perpetrators of crime. To what extent, in other words, is there a difference between the kinds of crimes committed by men and the kinds of crimes committed by women? In the second lecture, we think about the differences between men and women as victims of crime. In the third lecture, we explore some theories of female offending. Next, we look at the topic of feminist criminology. In the fifth lecture, we consider how some of the more recent, feminist theories of criminology have enhanced our understanding of male criminality. In the sixth and final lecture, we think about the role played by gender in the criminal justice system in England and Wales, and consider whether the criminal justice system would be better served by pursuing substantive rather than formal equality.

Lecturer

Dr Karen Evans is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Sociology, Social Policy and Criminology at the University of Liverpool. Her work has focused, although not exclusively, on communities in excluded neighbourhoods and their responses to marginalisation and deprivation. From the early 1990s this focus on the urban experience took Karen into research which was more criminological in nature as the fear of crime and victimisation increased in many neighbourhoods.