Definition
Masculinity-and-crime scholarship treats men's overrepresentation in offending statistics not as a biological fact but as the product of how masculinity is socially organised and performed. Crime becomes one resource among many — alongside work, sport, and sexuality — through which men construct themselves as men in particular settings.
The framework draws on R. W. Connell's typology of hegemonic, complicit, subordinate, and marginalised masculinities and on James Messerschmidt's argument that crime is a situational accomplishment of gender. Where legitimate routes to a recognisable masculinity are blocked, illegitimate ones — fighting, theft, sexual aggression, dangerous risk-taking — become available substitutes.
Why it matters
How it works
The analyst asks what kind of man the offender is trying to be when the offence occurs. A boardroom fraud, a pub fight, and a sexual assault are different acts that may share a common project: producing a recognisable masculine self in front of an audience. The repertoire available depends on the offender's class location, racialised position, and life-stage, which is why white-collar fraud and street violence map onto different demographics while expressing comparable gender work.
The approach has tightened the empirical study of gender and crime by demanding that explanations specify mechanisms rather than appeal to traits. Critics argue that "doing gender" can become unfalsifiable if every male act is read as a masculinity performance, and feminist criminologists insist on keeping victimisation in frame alongside offending so the analysis does not romanticise the offender.