Masculinity, the Probation Service and the Causes of Offending Behavior (From Working With Offenders: Issues, Contexts and Outcomes, P 96-115, 1996, Tim May and Antony A. Vass, eds. - See NCJ-161178)

• NCJ Number: 161183
• Author(s): K Buckley
• Date Published: 1996
• Length: 20 pages
• Sale Source: Sage Publications Ltd
• Publication Type: Survey
• Language: English
• Country: United Kingdom

Annotation

Concepts of masculinity and their potential relationship to criminal behavior are examined, with emphasis on the implications for the work of probation officers in England and Wales.

Abstract

Both research and the media reveal four prevailing themes regarding masculinity: curtailing emotion, success, fighting, and sexual competence. Families, schools, and peer groups place strong pressures on males to exhibit these characteristics. Nevertheless, many men become criminal justice professionals, not lawbreakers. An analysis of offending behavior based on masculinity could be useful to the criminal justice system. An acceptance of the relevance of stereotypes of masculinity to male criminality could reinform probation, but it would not require a major rethinking of practice and methods. Although in probation groups, men must be held accountable individually and collectively for their behavior, they can also be enabled to understand what has been done to them in the name of masculinity. Probation personnel should also examine the ways in which stereotypes of masculinity affect their attitudes and behaviors in their own work. 41 references