Crime, Gender, and Sexuality:

Provo
Ellie Bolander

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Ellie Bolander
Soc 112
Jarvis
11/29/13

There is no argument to say that todays society is not full of conflict.

Everywhere we turn we see poverty, racism, gender inequality, crime, and more.
Many people are oblivious to the obvious struggles around them and dont observe
the different situations and struggles that go on in every society, though it
surrounds them daily. I was able to experience firsthand the conflict that is
observable in Provo, Utah and captured it in photographs. The three social conflicts
that I observed were crime, gender, and sexuality. Crime might not be an obvious
problem in Provo, but the amount of crime that is committed is significantly more
than one might expect. The data on crime in Provo was surprising, if not a little bit
jarring. With gender, I hoped to find the differences in different majors at BYU. Why
are there so many women in elementary education and not in engineering? Why are
there so many men in business and not in nursing? I went into different classrooms
and colleges on campus to narrow down an answer. Lastly, I chose sexuality
because there seems to be a certain stigma in Latter-day Saint culture that views
homosexuality, bisexuality, etc. as taboo. In recent years this stigma has loosened
significantly, but there is still some strain when talked about under certain
circumstances. I had the opportunity to observe those circumstances and also
observe it in an environment that was more liberal in its discussion on sexuality.

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I.

Crime
Provo is typically looked at as a safe Mormon town with not much going on.

One might assume to not be afraid going out after dark and might trust strangers
more quickly and confidently than if in another area. Unfortunately, this picturesque
stereotype of a quiet, innocuous town is not completely true. Though Provos crime
rates are significantly lower than the U.S. national average, with the U.S. average
being 260 instances of crime per 100,000 population and Provo being at 167
(Crime rate in Provo 2011), crime is no foreign act. According to the website
Neighborhood Scout, the Provo crime rate is considerably higher above the national
average when compared to all other communities nationwide ("Provo crime rates"
2013). The most popular crime in Provo is theft, if measuring crimes by how much
higher they are above the national average and by the crime per square mile. The
property crime rate has, however, been slowly declining over the last 13 years. In
addition, the violent crime rate has been fluctuating recently, staying significantly
lower than the property rate but not declining or rising in any observable pattern.
Provo has a small town feel, which is misleading seeing as it has a population
exceeding 115,000 and there being so much more crime than most people would
think. Of course, being a BYU student and living on campus, Provo might feel as safe
as any town could be so crime would seem unexpected and uncharacteristic to
those who meet the aforementioned criteria.
On BYU campus, however, the most popular crime is trespassing. Because of
BYUs strict code of honor and primarily LDS student body, crime rates are

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extremely low compared to the surrounding area and to other universities.
Jaywalking is also a popular crime. Theft is the next most common crime, though it
isnt very common compared to the other crimes and compared to the crimes in the
surrounding Provo.

A popular craze on BYU campus is

bicycle theft. According to Alex Hoefts
article on The Digital Universe, three to four
bikes are stolen a day at BYU (Hoeft 2012).
Thats more than 1200 bikes in a year that
go missing. Most are never recovered. Hoeft
cites Lt. Arnold Lemmon of the BYU Police
Department by saying that bike theft is
becoming more and more common because
the campus is getting greener, meaning
more bikes are being used by students, and
that because of economic struggle people
are stealing bikes for profit. He went as far
to say that bike thefts occurred to help
support drug habits, and mentioned that
drugs drive a significant amount of theft in
the U.S.

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In John Macionis text Social Problems, crime is defined as the violation of
a criminal law enacted by the federal, state, or local government (Macionis 2013).
In the beginning of his chapter on crime, Macionis poses three questions, one of
which I find an interesting point of view on crime: Are you safe from crime?
Throughout the chapter, data is shown that says crime has declined in the United
States in recent years. These numbers may be off, however, because up to three
times the number of committed crimes are not actually reported. And so three times
the 10 million reported crimes each year go on unreported, bearing the question,
even if crime is declining, how much is going on behind the scenes? How much data
is missing from the statistics on crime? Unfortunately there is very little information
to uncover the reality on crime, and crime is already real and dangerous enough to
pose a threat to society, so seeing more of it and shedding more light on it might
make things worse. Maybe keeping crimes unreported helps keep a status quo and
keep the public calmer.
II.

Gender
Through our ancient and modern workforce and educational society there has

always been gender inequality. Men have dominated in high-power roles and
professions while women were pushed into submissive and sometimes demeaning
places in society, leaving little room for growth in education and in the work place.
Today things are slowly changing, but I would like to look at why gender inequality is
still a prominent issue in modern society. In this issue of gender I looked at different
classrooms around BYU campus and asked, why are these sexes in this particular
major, and why are these not? I specifically sought out an elementary education
class in the McKay School of Education and then looked at the Marriott School of

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Business.

On the left is an elementary education class. You see the majority of women
and one man in the back. There were two other men seated on the other side of the
class, also accompanied by a majority of women. One of the girls I talked to after
the class was out said that she was majoring in elementary education so that she
could teach and then when she had kids she would stop working and be a full-time
mom. This is mostly the case with women today, is that they leave the workforce to
raise a family. I did not get a chance to interview the men in the class but still
wonder what their plans were with their elementary education major.
At the School of Business, the picture I took was of the atrium. During my
time there I saw one woman, who happened to be walking her boyfriend to his
business class, but the rest of the time there were only men. I noticed when I

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peeked into a business class that there were no women. I know of other business
classes that have women in them and I know of some women who are business
majors, but the ratio seemed even smaller than compared to the ratio of men to
women in elementary education.
So why is it more acceptable for a man to go into a feminine career, like
elementary school teaching, but it isnt as common or accepted for a woman to go
into a masculine career like business? One study done by BYU, Princeton, and
Portland State professors titled Gender Inequality in Deliberative Participation
observed women in conversational settings with different gender ratios and saw
that when highly outnumbered by men, women were less likely to comment or join
the conversation. It is believed that this is because of psychologically developed
social cues from women being repressed in the past (Karpowitz et al. 2012). A
common stereotype from the past was that women were fragile or submissive
and would not fare well in a professional setting, since men were to be the strong
powerful figures of society. In todays shifting society, women are slowly working
their way up. As mentioned in Macionis chapter Work and the Workplace, the
glass ceiling is a phrase that represents women being unable to move upward in the
workplace, usually due to discrimination and prejudice (Macionis 2013). It is still
very difficult for women to make a place for themselves in the workplace because
there is still a social stigma out there that the professional business world is a mans
world and women are just not well-equipped or powerful enough to make it in that
world. This is a ridiculous belief, seeing that women make just as much progress
and do just as much work professionally as men do, and their gender does not hold
them back or keep them from doing great work.

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Also mentioned in Macionis text under the Gender Inequality chapter are
the three reasons why women make less money than men. The first and most
obvious reason that people often overlook is that men and women often have very
different jobs. Typically women take on jobs that are flexible or that they can easily
leave to raise a family, as mentioned earlier with the elementary education major.
Women often go into careers such as teaching or nursing, while men take on the
more laborious jobs such as business or engineering since it is socially their
responsibility to support a family. Since women are held socially responsible to raise
children they often make less since their jobs are left behind.
Women also face gender discrimination. There are still repercussions now,
even after all those years of inequality, which women face in society and in the
workplace and education (Macionis 2013). It is still fascinating seeing the different
ratios of men to women in different majors and the social stigmas associated with
the majors: that men are more feminine or even viewed as weak if they pursue
a career such as nursing or elementary school teaching; or that women are seen as
weak if placed in a masculine educational setting.
III.

Sexuality
With Provo seen as a majority LDS city, many people would assume the

population consists of white, conservative heterosexuals who want nothing to do

with any liberal beliefs or lifestyles. But, believe it or not, there is a relatively large
LGBTQ population in Provo. They even throw a parade and festival every year,
which seems to surprisingly draw a lot of support from the community.
One group in Provo, which happens to be directly affiliated with BYU, is USGA or
Understand Same-Gender Attraction. It is a support group for homosexuals and

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their friends and family, as well as BYU students. It is a way for people in the
community who struggle with same-gender attraction to meet together in support
of each other, as well as discuss Mormon beliefs and draw strength from religion.

Macionis mentions in his text under the chapter Sexuality that the United
States societal culture tolerated little in the way of expressing sexuality before the
sexual revolution in the 1960s (Macionis 2013). Even after the sexual revolution,
society put a stigma on sexuality that viewed any expression of it as immoral and
wrong. Only recently has sexuality really come into the spotlight with the gay rights
movement and gay marriage. It seems that America society is opening up to
sexuality much more than ever before.

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In a conservative area like Provo, Utah, it was fascinating to see members of
different faiths, races, genders, and sexualities to come together and openly discuss
sane-gender attraction in an environment where it felt safe to ask questions and
give feedback at any point. It shows just how much the sexual revolution has
expanded since the 1960s. Society is no longer rejecting sexuality, at least on a
nationwide scale, and more discussion is available for parents, children, siblings,
and friends.
In conclusion, the problems that affect our society may not be harmful, but
they are prominent. Crime still plagues our streets, even in the security of a
relatively wealthy, conservative city. The crime we face may never completely go
away. Though the statistics on crime may change and the popularity of certain
crimes will rise or fall, there will always be crime in Provo. Gender inequality will
always happen, so long as there are still men as well as women around. Especially
in a predominantly LDS community where marriage and family are socially accepted
as the most vital role, especially that of the role of motherhood for women, the
popular feminine majors will most likely stay feminine, and the masculine majors
will stay masculine. Sexuality is just a biological and social problem that will come
with as many different people that come to Provo. All individuals are different in the
ways they express themselves, and sexuality is one of the newest ways that people
are now able to use to express themselves without too much social backlash. Being
in the community and seeing firsthand these social problems was an insightful
adventure that brought new knowledge and opened my eyes up to the problems
that are very real. Our society is dynamic in some ways and stagnant in others, but
no matter what there is always change happening somewhere and there are always
social problems to be observed.

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Works Cited

Crime rate in Provo, Utah. (2011). Retrieved from http://www.citydata.com/crime/crime-ProvoUtah.html

Hoeft, Alex (2012, June 26). Byus crime rate sets it apart from other
universities. The digital universe.
Retrieved from
http://universe.byu.edu/2012/06/26/comms-308-final-article/
Karpowitz, Christopher F., Tal Mendelberg, & Lee Shaker. 2012. Gender inequality in
deliberative participation. American political science review, doi:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0003055412000329
Macionis, John. 2013. Crime, violence, and criminal justice. Social problems (5th ed.).
Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.
Provo crime rates and statistics. (2013). Retrieved from
http://www.neighborhoodscout.com/ut/provo/crime/