What Ideas About Masculinity And Femininity Shaped Responses Towards Juvenile Offenders?

Juvenile crime was rampant in the nineteenth century. In 1880, there were 6,500 children under the age of sixteen in adult prisons, 900 of which were under the age of twelve 2. The publication of Oliver Twist in 1837 raised awareness of juvenile crime in Victorian London as many people began to realise that the streets were teeming with artful dodgers 1. A boy interviewed in the New Bailey prison in Salford remarked 'I have seen "Oliver Twist", and think the Artful Dodger is very like some of the boys here' . Juvenile crime shocked ordinary people and strict measures were taken to deal with crime, for example between 1842 and 1877 ninety new prisons were built in Britain. Many contemporary writers such as Henry Mayhew and John Binny believed that juvenile criminals were exclusively male, however we now know this is not the case as many young women took part in crime in the nineteenth century. In the case of the Road Hill Murder, when Constance Kent was first suspected of the crime, the outrage of the press and public and the unwillingness to believe that a girl could brutally murder a child highlights the notion that juvenile crime was exclusively male . This essay will look at how young male and female delinquents were perceived, how they were prosecuted and how ideas about masculinity and femininity shaped the responses towards juvenile offenders. This essay will take 'juvenile' to mean children up to the age of nineteen as King in highlights that many parliamentary committees in the nineteenth century believed that juvenile did not go beyond the age of seventeen and at very most nineteen was the latest age . Victorian attitudes towards femininity are key in explaining how female juvenile offenders were perceived by the public. In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century females were expected to conform to ideas that they should be obedient, respectful, of a gentle nature and should carry out their work either helping in the house and in employment without question. Women were seen to be morally superior to men and it was believed that women were morally pure. However, women were also seen as weak, and it was popular belief that women were malleable and could be easily led astray. This explains the more lenient sentences given to females in courts, as often the judges believed they may have been under the influence of a violent man and could be easily reformed. This tells us then that when young girls did partake in crime it was seen as worse than when young males partook in crime because not only were they committing a crime but they were nt acting as females should act. Davies highlights that 'women were judged.not only according to their crimes but also according to the extent to which their behaviour contravened dominant norms of femininity' . This unwillingness to believe that young females were capable of committing crimes is evident in the case of Constance Kent. On 30 June 1860, three year old Francis Saville Kent was found dead in the servant's privy. Among the suspects were the father Samuel Kent, the nursemaid who shared the same room as Francis, Elizabeth Gough, however Jonathan Whicher the detective who was sent to solve the case suspected Constance Kent, Samuel's sixteen year old daughter from his first marriage. The public and press showed outrage at this, as it was an inconceivable notion that a sixteen year old girl could stab her stepbrother to death. This is shown in an article in The Royal Cornwall Gazette, 'her appearance elicited no manifestation of disapprobation or otherwise, the crowd behaving with the utmost decorum and being apparently astonished at the apprehension of Miss Kent' . Even after Constance Kent confessed to the murder in 1865, people still could not accept that she had committed this murder and there was speculation that she was helped by her brother William, even though Constance denied this . The conceived 'norms' of femininity shaped attitudes towards female juvenile offenders as it was seen as less common for girls to commit crimes than for boys to commit serious and violent crimes like murder. If the murder was particularly brutal or the body was in a bad state then it was hard for people to imagine that a girl had committed the crime. Ideas about masculinity also affected how male juvenile offenders were perceived by the press and public. The typical generalisation in the nineteenth century was that juvenile crime was predominantly committed by males. 250 cases of gang-related crimes were reported in Manchester and Salford from 1870-1900, a total of 717 people were charged in these cases and 93.7% of those charged were male . The notion that crime was mainly a male activity sprung from masculine notions that men had to be violent and fight to be a 'real man'. Davies notes that 'toughness and the capacity to drink heavily.could earn a man peer recognition as a 'hard' man or a 'man's' man' . Adult men who fought in public could earn a good reputation and status from his displays of manliness and courage. Juvenile crime was also seen as predominantly male because many working-class boys learned violence from the hands of fathers who vented their anger on their wives and children. The idea that boys aspired to be 'hard' men is shown by an account from William Bowen who grew up in Salford in the 1880's 'two men.fought until their naked bodies were streaming with blood. I thought, when I am a man I would like to be able to fight like that' . When looking at the role of masculinity in pushing boys towards joining gangs, Davies assess that 'for young men who possessed little or no economic or political power, gang membership offered at least a partial and temporary "solution" to the experience of inequality and subordination in other spheres of life' . Ideas about masculinity shaped how juvenile offenders were perceived as Victorian notions that boys grew up learning violence and that they aspired to be violent like men they saw fighting on the streets, led to the belief that juvenile crime was solely committed by young males. Female and male juvenile offenders were punished differently for similar crimes and this highlights the gendered attitude of the police and judiciary system in the nineteenth century. Many of the laws passed at this time to combat juvenile offenders would be considered sexist in today's society. Public whipping was a popular form of punishment in the late 1700's and early 1800's, however in 1817 public whipping for women was abolished . However, public and private whipping for men was not abolished until 1948 . This tells us that the punishment given to women was often reflective of different attitudes as the more brutal forms of punishment were outlawed for women but not for men until a much later time. Another example of this is the Bill for the Correction and Reformation of Juvenile Offenders which was passed in March 1850 . This Bill proposed that 'for the first offence by children of vagrancy and larceny, boys were to be whipped and girls to be reprimanded' . This again highlights how the judiciary system differed on their punishments of female offenders and male offenders, giving female offenders more lenient sentences for similar crimes. Looking at different individual cases and the outcomes and sentences received by female and male juvenile offenders can show us how ideas about femininity and masculinity shaped how juveniles were punished. Davies remarks that 'magistrates appear on the whole to have been more willing to adopt alternatives to imprisonment for disorderly young women than for their male counterparts' . On 4 July 1722 ten year old Hannah Starky was convicted of stealing a watch and several clothing items, was found guilty of grand larceny and was sentenced to a punishment of transportation . On 25 February 1719 James Thompson found guilty of stealing a perriwig of the value of ten shilling and he was found guilty of grand larceny and punished by transportation . This shows us that although most of the time female and male delinquents were treated differently, in some of the cases were treated the same and the punishments were given without gender being taken into consideration. Thus, although there are a lot of examples showing that male and female juvenile offenders were treated differently sometimes they were not and were given the same sentences A very good example of how female juvenile offenders were sentenced differs to that of how male offenders were sentenced is in the case of Sarah Ann Higson. She was convicted of disorderly conduct and was then charged along with two others four months later for stealing a shawl. Joseph Makinson, the magistrate who was dealing with her case was determined that Sarah Ann Higson should be removed from the streets as this environment was corrupting her. She was given the choice to either go to a 'respectable home' as a domestic servant or serve a months imprisonment with hard labour. She chose to go to the goal. Davies, who mentions this case comments that 'male gang members were never presented with such an option' and that he believes that Makinson felt that Sarah Ann Higson was as much in need of moral rescue as of punishment . This type of discrimination against male juvenile offenders is also evident in cases where males and females were brought in on the same case and the females were still given more lenient sentences. Eight members of the Ordstall Lane Gang were arrested for injury caused to PC Chapman. Joseph Makinson declared those, apart from Hannah Wright, were equally guilty. However, despite this verdict the five males were sentenced to six months imprisonment with hard labour and the two remaining females were only sentenced to three months imprisonment with hard labour . These cases tell us that ideas about females being malleable, easily lead astray and of a gentler nature led to them getting more lenient sentences. Notions that men were tougher and more capable of crime led to them gaining tougher sentences for committing similar crimes. D'Cruze highlights this when it is noted that 'perceptions of female vulnerability may have meant girls were less likely to be prosecuted than juvenile males' . In the nineteenth century, the idea of 'moral rescue' was popular. People believed that women who committed crimes could be easily reformed if they repented and then could be 'rescued'. This explains why in some cases, such as murder, women were often given prison time instead of being executed. The case of Margaret Whithers, although not a juvenile case, shows how the idea of moral rescue affected punishments. On 25 February 1856 Margaret Whithers was murdered in her home by her two cousins Mary West and Agnes Burnes, who were sisters. They were caught as they stole butter from Margaret and in an attempt to get rid of the butter they melted it and it was visible down the side of their house. Mary West gave evidence against her sister and Agnes Burnes was sentenced to death. However her sentence was reduced to penal servitude for life because she was in a 'state of deep repentance' . This case shows us that women who repented and were able to be morally rescued were often given more lenient sentences. The case of Constance Kent once again shows us how different theories such as her being insane were used as people couldn't accept that a normal sixteen year old girl could commit a brutal murder. After she made her confession in 1865, 'a lot of sympathy was evinced toward Constance and she was reprieved from execution and sentenced to twenty years in prison' . Although she denied that she was insane at the time of the murder, many newspapers speculated that she was insane. The Liverpool Mercury stated in April 1865 that 'two medical men acquainted with her temperance gave it as their opinion at the time that in a fit of mental aberration she might have committed to the offence with which she stood charged' . The idea of 'moral rescue' is evident here as it was believed that Miss Kent could be reformed in prison, so she was imprisoned for twenty years instead of being executed. This tells us, that even after she confessed to the murder, the public and press still couldn't digest that a sixteen year old girl could murder her three year old step brother, they choose to believe that she was insane or helped rather than believe that she done it herself and was in her right mind at the time of the murder. In conclusion many different ideas about masculinity and femininity shaped responses towards juvenile offenders. Ideas that females were vulnerable, of a gentle nature, malleable and easily influenced and led astray led to magistrates believing that females could be easily reformed and thus giving them more lenient sentences. It was believed that women had a 'weaker' mind and therefore could be easily enticed into committing murders, however on the other hand this also led to the belief that they could be easily reformed. This explains why they were often given more lenient sentences as a less severe punishment would help them think about what they did, repent and then reform. Victorian ideas about females and how they should act made it hard for the press and public to believe that females could commit crimes and this is evident in the case of Constance Kent. Ideas that men were tougher than women, that men aspired to be violent, that they learned violence from fathers who engaged in domestic violence and that men had to fight to gain status ultimately led male juvenile offenders receiving tougher sentences. Girls convicted of crime were often given other forms of punishment such as working in a home as a domestic servant and boys never received this opportunity. This is also seen when both girls and boys were convicted of the same crime, girls were given shorter sentences than the boys were, even when they were all deemed equally guilty.