Steffensmeier, Darrell J.: organization Properties and Sex Segregation in the Underworld

Darrell J. Steffensmeier's “Organization Properties and Sex Segregation in the Underworld” is one of the first criminological theories to hypothesize that organizational properties of offender groups can account for the roles, activities, and offending behaviors of women. A seemingly ubiquitous finding in criminological research on offending is the gender gap in serious crime, combined with what Steffensmeier calls “institutionalized sexism in the underworld.” However, Steffensmeier posits that this is a variable to be explained, and “offer[s] a series of propositions and hypotheses linking female access to crime groups to their structure and methods of operation” (p. 1010).

To do so, Steffensmeier draws from both criminological opportunity theories and sociological theories of labor market stratification. His goals are to explain the following:

While the former goal has received the most attention from scholars in the intervening years since publication, the latter is perhaps equally or more significant in its import.

Steffensmeier's explicit concern is with crime that is organized for joint economic gain, rather than individual crime and/or that which is based on noneconomic motives. He begins by specifying the typical nature of women's offending. First, he notes, it tends to be either individualistic in nature rather than organized, or in peripheral or supportive roles to male partners. Second, female crime groups are characterized as less stable, more obscure, and less serious and lucrative than male crime groups. Moreover, Steffensmeier documents the consistent finding that gender segregation is prevalent in such organized crime groups.

Comparable to sociological explanations of gendered labor market segmentation—which reject human capital accounts for organizational explanations for such patterns—Steffensmeier seeks explanation for sex segregation in the organizational practices of crime groups. Specifically, he argues, “The fact that crime in its more organized and lucrative dimensions is a virtual male phenomenon is in large part attributable to three related factors: homosocial reproduction, sex-typing, and [Page 884]the task environment of the crime” (p. 1012). Homosocial reproduction refers to the tendency within groups for in-group preferences and out-group antipathy to affect decision making, resulting in exclusionary practices. As crime groups tend to be dominated numerically by men, women are denied access altogether or are relegated to less lucrative and more peripheral roles.

Similarly, sex-typing is used to define women as less capable of participating in certain activities within criminal enterprises. For example, as Steffensmeier explains, “male offenders see much criminal work as too hard or too heavy, or too dangerous for women … [and] also see women as not as capable or not as skilled, or not as stable” (p. 1013, emphasis in the original). Likewise, “women are viewed as gossip-prone, emotional, and untrustworthy” (p. 1014). The cumulative effect is that women are blocked from opportunities to build sustained criminal connections. Finally, Steffensmeier argues that the task environment of such crime is one that is shaped by the threat of both criminal justice intervention and the use of violence. As a consequence, “a premium is placed on attributes such as trust and reliability and on physical characteristics such as strength and ‘muscle’” (p. 1014)—all attributes that women are defined as lacking. As a consequence, women are either excluded entirely from such criminal enterprises, or their roles and activities are either limited or sexualized.

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