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Television License Evasion and the Criminalization of Female Poverty

NCJ Number
172666
Journal
Howard Journal of Criminal Justice Volume: 36 Issue: 2 Dated: (May 1997) Pages: 170-186
Author(s)
C Pantazis; D Gordon
Date Published
1997
Length
17 pages
Annotation
Because important gaps in criminology exist regarding the extent and nature of female criminality and a neglected area of academic interest involves offenses related to television license evasion, this study focused on the growth during the 1980s and 1990s in the disproportionate number of women entering England's criminal justice system for possessing a television without a license.
Abstract
By 1994, 57 percent of all female criminal convictions involved television license evasion. More women were convicted for television license evasion than for any other crime. The fine was the most common sentence employed by magistrate courts. While the fine was recovered in nearly all cases, some individuals defaulted by not paying the fine within the period of time specified by the court. At this stage, the court sentenced some offenders to an imprisonment term that depended on the amount of fine still outstanding. In the vast majority of cases, fine defaulters tended to be white. Several factors contributed to the trend of increasing female involvement in television license evasion, including growth in poverty during the 1980s and 1990s, women's domestic routines, and an increase in the number of female-headed households. Various solutions aimed at easing the license fee burden on poor households are discussed. 35 references, 9 notes, 3 tables, and 4 figures