How is gender linked to deviance?

Answer 1

It depends what you mean by gender. If you mean physical sex, then yes, men are more likely to practice deviance. Men produce more testosterone, and testosterone tends to make people more interested in sex, more likely to sexually experiment, and so on. That may sound sexist, but it is Biology and unfair.

This isn't to say that there aren't sexually deviant women. However, a lot of what is presented as female sexual deviance is really something else. For instance, can something truly be rape if no phallus nor phallus substitute is involved? It may be a non-consensual act (molestation) or underage sex, but not actual rape, and using the term "statutory rape" is an insult to those who were forcibly raped. Sometimes crimes among women are twisted into sex crimes by sexist police officers. There was a story where a woman beat another woman with a sex toy. That would be assault, not "sexual assault" as she was charged with. There is this push for false equivalence of crimes involving men with crimes involving women just to make men feel better about their greater propensity to crime.

Answer 2

Gender can influence perceptions of deviant behavior, as certain actions might be considered more acceptable for one gender than another. Societal norms and expectations around gender can shape definitions of deviance and influence how people are labeled or punished for deviant behavior. Gender can also intersect with other social factors, such as race and class, to impact experiences of deviance.