Law Questions

Law Questions

1.Critically consider the idea that crime is a key resource for 'doing' masculinity.

'Masculinity' is a notion that is represented as praxis of human existence and an essentially contested concept in the existence of mankind and its relations with the society, yet it is complicated to be understood and interpreted. One of the notable protagonists in the studies of masculinity, Connell (2000) makes the claim that during the passage of recent year, there has been an enhanced concern over the issues regarding men and has gained considerable momentum and concentration from people. It is indeed the fact that, generally men have been held responsible for being the major holders of political and economic power. They tend to form a huge majority of top professionals, corporate executives and the political mandate and representation holders (Kirp, Yudof, & Franks, 1986). Men are constantly in control of most of the weaponry and the technological advances like internet in particular in the western culture. There are a very limited amount of restrictions in terms of men who possess a control over the judicial system, agencies of military force and other departments of intelligence agencies, army, prison, police, and court systems (Moyer, 1985).

The connection of men's masculinity with the criminal behavior has been indicated and debated upon in much discussion in the domain of criminological thought both in present and past. Parsons (1964) made an early attempt in linking the concept of masculinity and crimes with each other. He had professed in many of his works that it is the phase of adolescence during which the masculinity is internalized and this results in boys being involved in more delinquent behavior as compared to girls (Parsons, 1964). It was also discussed by Sutherland in terms of the elements of masculinity by mentioning that it is a norm to teach boys to be “rough and tough,” and this teaching usually tends to have more probability of making them prone to the delinquent behaviors (Sutherland and Cressey, 1924). The differential opportunity theory given by Cloward and Ohlin (1960) has also shown relevance with the debates over masculinity. According to them, the illegitimate and legitimate behaviors learned by the younger gang members is obtained by them through the male role models who are older and sometimes in close proximity. Precisely, when the adolescent comes in contact with the older males, in society or in family, he learns common traits of masculinity which include dominance and toughness and these elements are usually acknowledged to be essential for assuring a masculine reputation that is sufficiently strong (Mauer, Potler, & Wolf, 1999).

It was during the year 1987 that West and Zimmerman had introduced the idea of “doing gender”. According to this idea, the context of gender was conceptualized in the form of a routine accomplishment which is produced and sustained with the support of interaction taking place every day. According to this argument, the way of expressing masculinity in terms of its connection to the criminal behavior is ...