1. Crime and Masculinities: A Theoretical Review
Ian Mahoney
Centre for Social Policy
Intro to my study
The broad aim of my research is to examine the lived experience of the impact of unemployment, both long and short term, upon the formation and maintenance of criminal identities. Men are disproportionately represented in crime statistics, and according to research by the likes of Collinson and Hearn, and Jock Young, are also considerably more reliant upon employment to help form their sense of purpose and identity. In line with this I decided it was important to gain a theoretical understanding of the key literature and ideas surrounding masculinity theories, particularly in relation to crime.

2. The Rise of Contemporary Masculinity studies
“Masculinity refers to those aspects of mens behaviour that fluctuate over time.” (Brittan, 2001:53).
Initially in response to second wave feminism
Aim was to address the growing fears of ‘a crisis of masculinity’
When beginning to research the area one of my supervisors was shocked that I was looking at, as he put it a huge ‘tautological red herring’ citing Raewyn Connell (on the slide) formerly known as Bob Connell as a prime example. Shortly afterwards I understood exactly what he was getting at!
As women’s rights became an increasingly prominent issue throughout the twentieth century, and in particular after World War II, feminism became increasingly critical of the existing male dominated, patriarchal structuring of society which consistently ignored the gender based oppression ingrained in much of society. In response to the second wave feminism of the 1960s and 1970s and the perceived ‘crisis of masculinity’ which was deemed to be arising as a result of these challenges, contemporary masculinity studies arose.
At the forefront of these studies were the likes of Connell and James Messerschmidt whose works both helped to structure much of the early debates surrounding masculinity studies as shall be seen.

3. Hegemonic, Subordinate and Complicit Masculinities (1)
Hegemonic masculinity:
Often seen as the benchmark against which other forms of masculinity are judged.
Can take one of many forms depending upon the situation and dominant culture at that time (e.g. in the patriarchal home, business competition or a night out).
Includes patriarchy of which there are apparently three key structures: gender, race and class (Messerschmidt, 1993)
Much of Connell’s early work was focused around the idea that masculinities take one of 3 forms; hegemonic (including patriarchal), Subordinate and Complicit.
Hegemonic masculinity is the dominant form of masculinity which is seen to be ‘exalted above all others within a culture’. According to Connell it is seen as the benchmark against which all other masculinities are judged and through which they are forced into a subordinate position.
Initially it was argued that hegemony can only occur singularly, however Connell’s ideas have evolved with his acceptance that masculinities are largely contextually dependent.
At any given time, one form of masculinity can be defined as the configuration of gender practice which embodies the currently accepted answer to the problem of the legitimacy of patriarchy…” (Connell, 2005:77) This highlights the contextual dependency
Hegemony also incorporates the idea of patriarchy. Messerschmidt has argued that there are three structures of patriarchy: gender, race and class. Patriarchy is seen to be key to the maintenance of a traditional hegemonic masculine identity in the home with a male breadwinner providing for the family and the wife/partner carrying out the vast majority of chores around the home.
In an ever evolving society however, this is simply no longer practical, particularly given the increase in the number of female earners within households; an increasing trend with the rise of service and knowledge led industries compared with the former industrially based economies which dominated many working-class regions and economies.

4. The problems with hegemony
Is there really only one hegemonic masculinity?
Variations depending upon location and dominant culture.
Ignorance of class by Connell
Connell glosses over class to favour his idea that men have most things in common regardless of social status (Hall, 2002:38-40).
Most crime is committed by year old working-class males.
Why only three structures of patriarchy?
Messerschmidt ignores other key social structures including sexuality, age and disability (Hood Williams, 2001)
There are numerous problems which have been encountered when examining the idea of hegemonic masculinity. Firstly Connell himself keeps changing his stance; having initially argued that there is a singular hegemonic masculinity, this has changed and evolved to argue that there is a hegemonic position with each culture indicating that the concept is contextually dependent For instance high flying business masculinities in which businessmen constantly battle for corporate control, compared with arm-wrestling competitions and feats of strength which tend to occur in lower-class communities. Furthermore he ignores the different cultures in different parts of the world; whilst in the West it is a white, middle class, democratic, Christian culture which dominates society, throughout the world different religions, historical traditions and modes of governance dictate many of the social and cultural norms. Therefore it is impossible to accept Connell’s hegemony at face value.
Furthermore Connell completely ignores the idea of class in favour of the notion that men have enough in common that class serves no real purpose in masculinity studies. This is in spite of the fact that, with regard to crime, most is committed by year old working-class males, and that different classes have access to different levels of cultural, social and economic capital which they rely on to form their sense of identity and therefore masculinity.
One of the biggest problems with Messerschmidt’s work, in contrast, is not his ignorance of class, but rather his insistence that class, race and gender are the three structures which are central to the formation of a masculine sense of identity. Hood-Williams has highlighted this fact, along with a number of other key structures which are clearly central to the formation of one’s identity and therefore sense of masculinity, notably sexuality, age and disability. Indeed it is, more often than not, young men who participate in the majority of binge drinking competitions and acts of violence rather than the elderly!

5. Hegemonic, Subordinate and Complicit Masculinities (2)
As the culturally dominant masculinity constantly reasserts itself, it oppresses and marginalises others.
Those who do not conform are frequently subject to physical, psychological and symbolic violence
E.g. Homosexual and Black masculinities
Complicit
Very few men conform to the normative definitions of masculinity.
As a result they must constantly negotiate their position in order to avoid marginalisation.
Connell’s other key forms of masculinity are those of subordinate masculinities, namely those which are marginalised and oppressed as a result of the culturally dominant masculinity’s attempt to retain its hegemonic position.
Homosexual and black masculinities are two frequently cited examples of this; in the case of both they have, historically, been marginalised and subject to physical, psychological and symbolic violences, not just in local instances but on national and international scales; indeed even the bible cited Africans as being descendants of the outcast ‘Ham’; son of Noah, which was initially used as justification for the enslavement of Africans before and during the slave trade as they were seen as inferior to the white man.
To his credit Connell has accepted the fact that very few men actually fully conform to a masculine position. This is increasingly true given the constant changes in society, and even more so in post-industrial society as households rely on increased co-operation and multiple earners rather than a single breadwinner. As a result men have to constantly renegotiate their position depending on relationship and employment status not to mention when they have familial responsibilities.
A very important element which should be noted is that hegemonic masculinity is spoken about in the singular, whilst subordinate and complicit masculinities are normally pluralised.

6. Psychoanalytical Approaches
Masculinities cannot be examined fully without taking into account an individuals life story (Jefferson, 2002).
Mike Tyson was a key case study
Never expected to live to 40 and thus lived for the now rather than planning for the future.
In the late 1990s and 2000s a new wave of masculinity studies came to the forefront. At times referred to as ‘third wave’ studies, the re-emergence of psychoanalytical approaches to studies of identity, and specifically masculinity studies saw the realisation that it is impossible to examine an individual’s sense of masculinity without first taking into account their life story.
Jefferson spent a great deal of time studying Mike Tyson and the paths in which Tyson’s life had gone. A combination of Jefferson’s work and the docu-film produced by Toback in 2008 help to highlight the impact of key flashpoints in Tyson's life, such as the point where he learnt to fight, they impact of the rape case, his rapid rise to fame at a young age and the loss of passion for boxing, something seen to be central to the identity of ‘Iron Mike’. He himself sums this up best when, during the documentary, he stated that he never expected to live to 40 and as such lived for the short term rather than planning for the long term.

7. Other forms of masculinity
Masculine Women
Gendered pursuits?
Can many of the activities
attributed as being ‘manly’
truly be seen as such?
Context is key.
And what of the others? All of this work on masculinity misses a number of key factors. Halberstam provides an excellent example of this using her own experiences as a ‘masculine woman’ in which she explains the ways in which she has constructed her identity as a masculine woman. This can be easily built on by looking at the pursuits open to women and the increasing participation within those pursuits. For instance the binge drinking culture and competitions are not limited to men and neither are physical and aggressive sports such as lacrosse and rugby. This clearly highlights the fact that masculinity cannot be applied as an overarching concept to explain why actions are taken by individuals but must instead be viewed in the context within which they occur.

8. Masculinities and the Post-Industrial West
“Typically it seems that men’s gender identities are constructed, compared and evaluated by self and others according to a while variety of criteria indicating ‘personal’ success in the workplace.” (Collinson and Hearn 2001:146).
Collinson and Hearn state that “For many men, employment provides the interrelated economic resources and symbolic benefits of wages/salaries, skills and experience, career progress and positions of power authority and high discretion.” (2001:146)
As can be seen from the forthcoming slides, the massive decline in industrial production throughout the western world has had a profound affect upon the lives of the individuals living within communities so heavily reliant upon industrial labour. Studies by Wallace in the Isle of Sheppey, Charlesworth in Rotherham and Winlow in Sunderland all clearly document the impact of the decline of industrial production and labour within these areas and the effect that it has had upon the individuals who live and work in such communities.

9. “large numbers of youths are now growing up without any expectation of the stable employment around which familiar models of working class masculinity were organized. Instead they face intermittent employment and economic marginality in the long term, and often deprivation in the short term.” (Connell 2005:93)
Whilst now 6 years old, Connell’s statement about the impact of the decline in industry, and as a result models of working-class masculinity, still rings true, now more than ever given the latest statistics showing that there are over 974, year olds not in education or employment. This supports the assertions made by Hall and Winlow 2005, 2008) that this has resulted in a fundamental change in the outlook of young people upon their community compared with the older members of a community (Ibid), thereby helping to explain the animosity between the old and the young such as is discussed at length by both Charlesworth (2000) and Wallace (1987) in their own ethnographic works.

10. Men have fewer resources available to them in times of hardship than women (Young, 1999).
Young women in deprived areas can find a number of different roles including child rearing and work in the service sectors.
Men are frequently locked into structural unemployment due to not possessing the necessary transferable skill sets to adapt to service and knowledge led economies.
Unable to support a family, young men are unable to offer even stability in marriage
Young further supports my earlier point that men do not have the same cultural resources available to them in times of hardship as women. As already noted, men, especially those from the working-classes, have been, traditionally, disproportionately reliant upon work for their sense of identity as it showcases their skills and abilities as well as providing for their family. In losing their jobs, many lose their key sense of self and find it difficult to adapt to an increasingly service and knowledge based economy, whereas women are often seen to be able to adapt more readily to the changing economy, and also have further options including childbirth to fall back upon.
All of this combines to paint a particularly bleak picture for men, especially young men, from a working-class background and their search for new means to express themselves without the capital which they have been traditionally so reliant upon.

11. Masculinities and Crime
“It remains a sad yet well known fact that crimes of violence are still a significant, if not growing, problem in many contemporary societies and that the vast majority of violent acts across the world, past and present, are committed by men.” (Edwards, 2006:44).
There is a great deal of evidence to indicate that men commit violent acts in order to assert themselves at the top of the pile and to gain associated benefits. Winlow’s example of Donnie; one of the men from his study helps to highlight this. Indeed Donnie used his physical presence and reputation to benefit from free drinks and low paid bouncing jobs for years. Furthermore Carrington, MacIntosh and Scott’s work in Australia helps to highlight the ways in which the settled populations in mining towns often feel threatened by the loutish behaviour of the better paid transitory workers and this again frequently results in confrontation and violence.

12. Why do some men turn to crime?
Cultural, Economic and Social capital are key.
When traditional methods of reinforcing masculinity (e.g. employment, or sporting achievement) are unavailable men look to other sources.
“like gender, crime is a social phenomenon and that “criminal behaviour may indeed serve as a resource for constructing a particular type of masculinity” (Messerschmidt, 1993:27).
Applying Bordieu’s concepts of ‘habitus’ and ‘capital’, one of the key issues faced by unemployed working-class men becomes clear very quickly; they frequently do not have the economic capital to sustain themselves and their family for a prolonged period having lost their job, nor do they have many of the contacts available to many of the middle classes through which to quickly gain a new job without any major impact upon their ability to provide for their family.
In other instances however it can be argued that it is completely the opposite; The partially accurate Ridley Scott depiction of Frank Lucas in American Gangster is one such example, as is the life story of Malcolm X. In both cases it is their contacts which allow them to employ their family as their subordinates in varying sized criminal enterprises.

13. “to understand crimes by men, we must comprehend how class, race, and gender relations are each constituted by a variety of social structures and therefore structured action.” (Messerschmidt 1993:62).
Masculinities are often seen to be forged in binary opposition to each other.
Macleod (1995) Ain’t no makin’ it found that the predominantly white ‘Hallway Hangers’ constructed their sense of identity in direct opposition to the black ‘Brothers’ of the same housing projects. They saw ‘The Brothers’ as weak and inferior due to adopting mainstream cultural ideas that prevailed at school and aiming for conventional success whilst the Hallway Hangers chose to rebel against the system, drinking, taking drugs and fighting and actively avoiding participation in a system in which they felt they were being set up to fail.

14. Key problems
“The social category ‘men’ is not a discriminator between criminal and non-criminal behaviour, and in a literature which collapses men and masculinity, if ‘men’ is not the discriminator why should masculinity be so?”.
(Hood Williams, 2001:43)
Binary oppositions are too general.
In line with Hood-Williams’ statement, there are a number of issues which highlight the tenuousness of link between masculine identity and crime. Firstly, there is the fact that crime is, on the whole, committed by the minority rather than the majority. Whilst there are of course crime hotspots within many communities, the fact still remains that the criminal fraternity does not outnumber law abiding citizens. Furthermore
Furthermore, despite the statements regarding binary oppositions on the previous slide, it is not possible to study the creation a sense of masculine identity just through examining binary oppositions. This is largely due to the fact that in order to do so, countless sweeping generalisations must be made. Indeed there is no one ‘black’ or ‘white’ cultural identity but many encompassed by each term. Furthermore rather than speaking of working-class identities, the fragmented experience and nature of the working-classes means that those employed in a low ranking service industry will have a substantially different experience of what it is to be working-class compared with a miner or a dockworker. As a result, whilst binary oppositions are likely to play a role in the construction of masculine identities, any literature which focuses heavily upon such an idea should be treated with caution.

15. “the basic assumption here, that crime is explicable as an expression of masculinity, is implausible. For it to have any general application we would have to suppose that the crimes of a career burglar, or those of Frederick West or Frank Beck or Ronald Biggs or Darius Guppy or Jonathon Aitken are explicable in terms of the needs of men to reproduce masculinity or were occasioned by moments when they feel their masculinity is threatened.” (Hood-Williams, 2001:44)
Lastly, the secretive nature of many crimes and acts of violence indicate that these actions are not being performed to publicly reinforce an individuals sense of masculinity. For instance serial killers noted above work in secrecy with another agenda, whilst many men interviewed who have been involved in domestic abuse frequently talk of the shame of their actions rather than the ways in which it helps them to reaffirm their sense of self worth and identity.

16. Summary
Context is key.
Decline in industry has had a disproportionate effect upon working-class senses of masculinity.
Crime and masculinity are not intrinsically linked.
Binary definitions are too general and fail account for variations within structures of patriarchy and masculinity.
Not all men commit crimes to reinforce their sense of identity.
Therefore it is essential that any arguments surrounding masculinity studies are applied in the correct context. The evolution of Connell’s ideas from a singular hegemonic masculinity to a number of contextually informed hegemonic masculinities is a clear example of this.
Traditional senses of, particularly working-class masculinity are constantly being eroded. This is especially true not only of the decline in industry, but also because of the changes in society with increasing demands for equality both in and out of the home.
Crime and masculinity are not intrinsically linked; as stated by Hood-Williams, ‘men’ is not a discriminator and thus masculinity cannot be used as such either.
Binary definitions should be accepted with a great deal of caution at best; they are too general and fail to take into account the many different senses of identity employed and informed by the different working-classes and different ethnic groups.
Not all men commit crimes to reinforce their sense of identity; serial killers carry out their attacks in secret and many involved in domestic abuse feel shame afterwards rather than a sense of power.
Thank you for taking the time to listen.

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