Abstract: Can men use criminality as a means to assert their masculinity and thereby elevate their social standing? We report five studies that provide insight into that question. The first two studies focused on measuring how performing masculine or non-masculine behavior affected the social standing of the actor (i.e. their amount of social capital). The following two studies assessed the respondents’ estimation of how masculine committing 40 different crimes were perceived to be. In the final study, we built on the encouraging results of the first four and thus used the crime masculinity measures in context of how committing such a crime would affect the imagined criminal's amount of social capital. The respondents were asked to assess how the crime affected the change in social standing in three ways: to them personally, the actor's peers, and to society at large. The results suggest that performing crimes in line with masculine norms are rewarded with higher social standing, whereas crimes counter to those norms leads to lower social standing, independent of personal subscription to those norms. Additionally, subscription to masculine norms moderated the extent to which respondents themselves would reward the criminal behavior, such that those who subscribed to masculine norms more tended to ascribe more social capital to more masculine crimes.
Table 7: Means and standard deviations
of the MCI-40 masculinity assessments
Crime
|
M
|
SD
|
|
1
|
Fist fighting
|
6.97
|
2.12
|
2
|
Vigilantism
|
6.97
|
2.06
|
3
|
Street racing
|
6.95
|
1.75
|
4
|
Mob enforcer
|
6.87
|
2.15
|
5
|
Street fighting
|
6.67
|
2.44
|
6
|
Carrying a knife
|
6.21
|
2.04
|
7
|
Robbery
|
6.18
|
2.36
|
8
|
Assault
|
6.15
|
2.59
|
9
|
Armed robbery
|
5.97
|
2.51
|
10
|
Being a pimp
|
5.97
|
2.41
|
11
|
Carrying a gun without a permit
|
5.95
|
1.97
|
12
|
Car theft
|
5.92
|
2.21
|
13
|
Gun crime
|
5.90
|
2.11
|
14
|
Trespassing
|
5.82
|
1.80
|
15
|
Running an illegal gambling den
|
5.74
|
2.34
|
16
|
Fraud/Using a fake ID
|
5.59
|
2.05
|
17
|
Helmet law
|
5.47
|
2.36
|
18
|
Speeding
|
5.46
|
1.79
|
19
|
Reckless road rage
|
5.44
|
2.28
|
20
|
Incitement to riot
|
5.26
|
2.19
|
21
|
Burglary
|
5.13
|
2.47
|
22
|
Driving with suspended license
|
5.13
|
1.99
|
23
|
Public drinking
|
5.08
|
1.87
|
24
|
Drug dealing
|
5.00
|
2.21
|
25
|
Graffiti/Vandalism
|
5.00
|
2.36
|
26
|
Terrorist
|
4.82
|
2.43
|
27
|
Throwing rocks at cars
|
4.46
|
2.53
|
28
|
Insider trading
|
4.41
|
2.01
|
29
|
Drunk driving
|
4.38
|
3.16
|
30
|
Refusing to cooperate
|
4.21
|
2.34
|
31
|
Handling stolen goods
|
4.38
|
1.90
|
32
|
Embezzlement
|
4.31
|
2.17
|
33
|
Jewel thief
|
4.10
|
2.14
|
34
|
Shoplifting
|
4.05
|
2.14
|
35
|
Credit card fraud
|
4.03
|
2.01
|
36
|
Prank calling 911
|
3.95
|
2.31
|
37
|
Domestic abuse
|
3.85
|
2.67
|
38
|
Desertion *
|
2.95
|
2.49
|
39
|
Inability to pay child support *
|
2.92
|
2.07
|
40
|
Prostitution *
|
2.72
|
1.99
|
* = Crimes expected to be
rated especially low
MCI = Masculine Crimes Inventory
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