Violence Among Women

‘Ladies Shouldn’t Act Like That!’: Policing Violence Among Young Women

Suzanne Young, from the University of Glasgow, made a contribution to the 2012 Annual Conference of the European Society of Criminology, in the category “Crime and Society,” under the title “‘Ladies Shouldn’t Act Like That!’: Policing Violence Among Young Women”. Here is the abstract: This paper presents empirical research findings that explored police officers’ perceptions of and responses to young women regarded as violent. Criminal justice institutions, including courts, prisons and probation services, have been shown to respond to women who offend on the basis of socially constructed gender norms instead of understanding the social context of women’s offending. By drawing on feminist perspectives within criminology, this paper considers whether these gendered stereotypes have any bearing on how police respond to young women who are classified as ‘violent’. The research found little evidence of police decision making being influenced solely by gender, however, the findings suggest that the masculinisation of violent behaviour and the police officers’ perceived uncooperativeness of young women could put some young women at greater risk of arrest.[rtbs name=”criminology”]

Resources

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Further Reading

• “‘Ladies Shouldn’t Act Like That!’: Policing Violence Among Young Women”, by Suzanne Young (Proceedings)