Suchergebnisse

AbstractThe alleged criminogenic nature of female liberation/emancipation has been tested recently by numerous North American researchers. Not only did the results lead them to different conclusions, but they did not test simultaneously for the effects on female conviction rates of increasing economic marginalization or less chivalrous treatment by the public, police, or courts toward female suspects. Data relating to England and Wales for 1951‐1980 are used to test these competing explanations for changes in female criminality. The results give little support to the emancipation/liberation causes female crime hypothesis, but do provide limited support for the marginalization thesis. However, changes in social labelling appear to have a significant impact on female conviction rates, suggesting that previous researches omitting this possibility were seriously deficient. The authors suggest further research on actual women's lives and behavioral responses as a means of testing the effects of liberation/emancipation and marginalization on female criminal behavior.

In this paper it is suggested that a sociological explanation of the process of differential professional socialization among working class chemistry students can be derived from an application of the theory of marginality. The working class university student is in a structural situation of marginality, but his unique experience of this situation and subsequent response to it will be mediated by three sets of variables. Factors pertaining to his past experience, present environment, and expectations about the future are all relevant to an understanding of the nature of his marginality. Where the experience of marginality takes the form of an acute identity crisis a solution may be found in the total embracement of one role. We suggest that of the roles available to the science student that of the dedicated scientist offers one of the most attractive identities. Data is presented which provides some support for the suggestion that embracement of this role, in the form of commitment to science, may be viewed as a solution to a marginality crisis for some upwardly mobile students.