Feminism And Criminology

Running Head: FEMINISM AND CRIMINOLOGY 1

Feminism and Criminology

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FEMINISM AND CRIMINOLOGY 2

Feminism and Criminology

Introduction

From the 1960s and even early 1970s, there has been an emergence of the feminist

criminology with much research and even practice being done in the same field. The emergence

for the feminist criminology field could be attributed towards a second wave about feminism

movement which helped in projection of various issues that have been affecting women with

regards to all the crime within our public domain (Pickering & Alder, 2000). These issues about

women together with crime has mainly been discussed or viewed from a male perspective for

quite some time. However, the feminist perspectives being used within criminology field have

brought about a greater impact upon the overall understanding of women to be the perpetrators

or even the victims for this very same crime. It is also apparent that the relationship between the

essences of feminism together with that of criminology has been embedded with a lot of

exploration methods, or even disciplines together with policy making procedures. Many scholars

within this criminology field such as Simpson (1989) have also been able to question the

assumption of gender-blindness within the same field of criminology so as to create the much

needed space to voice the experiences by women. This paper seeks to clarify the various

arguments that feminism has put across within the criminology field so as to offer the holistic

approach with regards towards women being the victims and even perpetrators for crime.

Feminist Perspective Contributions to Criminology, Research and Practice

It is apparent that there is a discourse that is incisive for the contributions that have been

made by the feminist perspectives towards the criminology field. In this excerpt, the

contributions shall be evaluated critically so as to illustrate how the perspectives have been able

FEMINISM AND CRIMINOLOGY 3

to enhance an understanding towards women being crime perpetrators. For some time, Sara

(2000) says that the feminist perspectives have challenged any of existing theories, or concepts,

or assumptions and even methods within the criminology field. For instance, Simpson (1989)

gives a criminology critique and observes in his text that women often account for the smallest

percentage of the offenders and this has resulted into the general focus being given to the issue

about women together with crime.

Moreover, this issue about women with crime has always been viewed as stereotypes

which are associated to their psychological or even biological nature. Simpson (1989) argues that

the women get discriminated against based on sex, thus sexism influences often determine the

sentencing given, or even their incarceration together with the punishment given to them in

general. Pickering and Alder (2000) blames the bench of judges, the police and even the

personnel within the justice systems mandated with criminology for these stereotype since they

always believe that the women may be mad in any instance that they would be going in the

opposite to biological nature to commit such crimes.

While making a reference to some of the sentiments aired by Simpson (1989), it is

apparent that the various feminist theories or even perspectives about crime have always tried to

overlook difference issues. Spelman makes an argument that many feminists concentrate upon

the stereotypical outlooks has been placed on almost all the female offenders. According to

Adler (1995), it is easier to associate the second wave about feminism from the 1970s towards

the general dramatic upsurge for the women indulging within criminal activities in the society.

Adler goes on to make an argument that women fought to have an equal opportunity just as the

male counterparts, but at the same time, they forced their own way into various crime scenes in

the likes of robbery, or murder and even the other general crimes. Sara (2000) adds that women

FEMINISM AND CRIMINOLOGY 4

have been climbing the ladder of cooperate business and such a changing nature has been able to

invoke the women’s wide involvement within criminal activities.

The studies that were conducted by Adler (1995) involved all walks of women between

the ages of 18 and up to 30 years and the findings from this studies helped to establish that the

participants became less delinquent as they were liberated from the responses they gave to

various questions posed. For instance, there was a discovery that women who gave a response

for them to be much more involved in working rather than for them to be staying at home and

carry out the domestic chores were the least delinquent. The women prisoners helped to further

reveal that the large percentage in these category of women indeed comes from the uneducated

or even the impoverished backgrounds within the society at large.

Whenever they were asked for their motives when carrying out such offenses, the women

didn’t appear as liberated as one would expect. Again, Kristen (2009) says that women have

been subjected to punishments that seem to be less severe when compared to that meted upon the

male counterparts with the same crime being committed matter of fact. Furthermore, the

feminists who operate within the criminology field have been able to make use for defenses like

that of post-natal depression being the reason as to why such stereotypes for their offending

thrive upon. The biological reasons in some instances have been given citation to be the

causative agent for most of the cases linked to the female criminality leading to the negligence

being observed in the society behind the general female offending as it is regarded to by

Gelsthorpe (1990).

Over a number of years, the women have typical been the victims of various crimes. The

feminist writers within the criminology field have always been quicker at pointing out that the

FEMINISM AND CRIMINOLOGY 5

feeble nature of women in terms of psychological setup or even biological nature for this women

makes them likely to become victims for such crimes when compared to the male counterparts in

the society. It has been obvious of the notion that women are often likely to be the ones that

succumb to these crimes such which includes things such as domestic violence or even assaults

together with. Again, the writers within this criminology field have been able to argue that the

systems of criminal justice often have negligence towards the essence of victimization for

women. They say that the rising figures of women being subjected to crime have simply been

ignored and this has yielded to the idea of female exploitation. Alder (1995) says that the women

of past generations have been suffering in silence but over a certain period of time, the women

have been able to gain the much needed momentum and the result is that the crimes meted

against women are being reported.

The Rise to Prominence by Gendered Critiques of Criminology and Criminal Justice

Many feminist scholars in the society have been able to make an arguments in line which

shows science to be reflective of social values together with the concerns about the dominant

groups of the society. Subsequently, the various research that has been conducted within these

social sciences often tend to ignore the women or even issues that concern these women in the

society while creating the differences observed between men and women, or even the boys and

girls in the same society. Many of the studies have always aligned this with reference to it as

being just “natural, essential, and also biological.”

The various studies about women together with the essence of crime in many instances

have been proven to be either invisible or even being marginalized for that matter as Bryan and

Scafe (1985) says. The various critiques in terms of gender and criminology have been able to

FEMINISM AND CRIMINOLOGY 6

note that these women have faced ignorance in the various studies about crime or even deviance.

It has been apparent that the general work quality which has been carried out seems to be

questionable at its best. The gendered critiques on the criminology and the justice systems has

always focused or stressed on the idea of contextualizing the female criminality into the broader

framework of the society at large, be it in terms of morals, the political situation, the economics,

and even the sexual spheres. Such criticism has been the main attribute for its rise to prominence

in the recent times.

The gendered critiques towards criminology together with the systems of criminal justice

can be regarded to have risen to prominence judging by the fact of how they have been focusing

on women marginalization within many studies. The critiques have also been focusing mostly

upon the contention that depicts the studies being limited or even giving data about women that

is generally distorted in a fashion.

Heidensohn (1995) attempts to make a construction of the feminist theory for the

criminology field using the methodologies of empiricism or even the standpoint idea and says

that the criticism for these theories has been based on the universal claims together with the

essentialist assumptions being made by them. These has made the criticism to be more prominent

as new feminist theories for this field of criminology have been defined in detail, judging by the

opinion that results from such criticisms while focusing on the ideas which are considered

carefully as they relate to the relevant knowledge.

Many of the early writings about feminism within the field of criminology indeed

assumed empiricist methods as Rice (1990) affirms in his study and thus raised a lot of concerns

where women have always been completely neglected from the research by various scientists.

FEMINISM AND CRIMINOLOGY 7

Such studies often result in having necessarily skewed findings that were totally distorted on the

basis of science. The feminist criminologists have been able to generally point out this blatant

sexism being depicted by this studies at double standards while arguing out that all the women

and even men have to receive a similar scientific treatment in any study being carried out. Alder

(1995) goes ahead to even label such a thought method as being ‘feminist empiricism' matter of

fact.

The criticism for the feminist empiricists has been able to become prominent since the

same criticism has always endeavoured to try and develop the scientific understanding for

women as they have continuously been regarded as the subjects that still miss in the field of

criminology, or the failure by many justice systems to even document the lives of the women,

both as the main offenders or even as the victims. This has been on the basis of raising various

objections towards the main empirical claims that have been made by the studies about women,

referring to the claims to be only based upon meagre evidence or sprinkling with prejudice.

For instance, Bryan and Scafe (1985) suggest that the shortcoming of principle by the

feminist empiricism has been that it indeed has the tendency of leaving the rest being unanalysed

or even unchallenged without any reference. The assumption has been that the criminology

happens to be somehow competent or even impartial when not dealing in the women sphere and

thus this gendered nature about the existing criminal law together with its system of criminal

justice has always remained to be unexamined. The other feminist criminology and its general

viewpoint about men was the function about power. The standpoint feminist solution towards the

ignorance shown by criminology for the experiences by women was to try and turn into the

direction of women themselves so as to seek for criminal experience accounts from them in

person.

FEMINISM AND CRIMINOLOGY 8

As observed by Alder (1995), the questions posed by standpoint feminism do not have

any provision for getting any clear answers whatsoever and criticisms about the feminism in

criminology on any of the justice systems have been regarded to be the most eloquently in all

manner of sorts, hence they have become more and more prominent for that matter in the world

feminists circles.

It is apparent that criminology has largely remained to be bifurcated around the

men/women axis within the society and onto which universal theories have generally regarded

the crime to be applicable to men and not women. Rice (1990)) says that the feminist works in

the various studies have been able to handle the notion through the use of criticism, hence

challenging the observation of crimes by men alone while seeking to give an exploration to the

ones attributed to women. The feminist criminologist’s critiques seek to bring a highlight to the

manifestation of various inadequacies for the field of criminology and its sheer ignorance

towards women together with crime in general, leading to a bigger distortion.

Bryan and Scafe (1985) even allude to the fact that the various feminist criminologists

within our own society have been using analytics about power that show how various strategies

for oppression have gained much fame around women. The critiques have been able to oppose

such ideological representations for the femininity within the field of criminology while

proposing the much needed concrete procedures for controlling these social relations. Such

developments within the criminological theories while showing concerns to the issues about

gender have brought about the idea for equity in matters of crime thereby making the criticism

towards the criminology or the criminal justice systems to become more prominent.

FEMINISM AND CRIMINOLOGY 9

Has Criminology Become Gender Blinded

Many researchers have been struggling to ascertain the essence of criminology being

“gender-blind” or it is simply “gender neutral”. This is so because most of the studies carried out

about the field of criminology have been focusing primarily upon the male offenders. Rice

(1990) indeed argues that the criminology has been deemed to be incapable of even speaking in

terms that are in the sense of gender neutral at all. The reason for such assumptions may be

regarded as history being only prepared to be able to offer the universal explanations for crime

achieved simply by studying male offenders alone. Various feminists like Heidensohn (1995)

believe that the field of criminology has always been dominated for a long time by the ‘academic

men’ who tend to study ‘criminal men’ only.

Rice (1990) talks about various studies that have been carried out about the field of

criminology and women. He says that various writers such as “Cesare Lombroso” take the

responsibility to have written many works about criminal behavior and even published around

six editions for the notorious book called “The Criminal Man”. By doing so, he included various

criminality aspects ranging from the age, the race, the mental capability of offenders, the climate

they dwell in together with their overall condition such as being epileptically insane. Of all these

times, Naffine (1996) affirms that of all this publications that he did make, he only mentioned

once about women in the writings. Matter of fact, it comes in the writings as a regard to the

prostitution phenomenon as a deviant behaviour that manifests in women, but he could not be

able to detect any signs of the criminal diversity that happens within the body of a women.

Therefore, a presumptions can be made in the sense that such a contribution only exists on the

basis of randomized selection where women take part within crime.

FEMINISM AND CRIMINOLOGY 10

Again, Rice (1990) affirms that many writers have been considering the aspect for

women and crime while going beyond the formal biological explanations such as the anti-social

behaviour being linked to the general human instincts that are uncontrollable at some times. Such

a notion fronts the theme of being gender blind since it openly disregards the sexual differences

that are existent within the offending behaviour. Some of the writers also show contradictions as

they claim that women are often seen to be caring or even nurturing while in other instances,

they seem to be very cunning or more deceitful as Alder (1995) depicts in his study. He further

describes such studies to have grave effects upon the very discipline about criminology together

with its own sociological theories.

Alder (1995) in his study makes an argument that although the women may not have

been ignored completely, the general understanding for the female criminality still has much to

be done in terms of research so as to give more on female offending. However, there has been a

misuse of statistics as women's movement has been regarded to increase the status and

opportunity for these women thereby resulting into an increase in crime by the very same

women. Such a fate should be criticized for its misuse about statistics where it cited a large

increase of crime but in actual, it is only small number of cases that have been on the rise.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the description given above make it very clear that the field of criminology

has indeed been traversing the tradition with notions about the female criminality and the

tradition has made it to be studied on an extent that is somehow lesser when compared to that of

their male counterparts in terms of criminality. Again, the fewer studies there are about female

criminality do not even focus upon women as they appear to be glazed over. There is an

FEMINISM AND CRIMINOLOGY 11

assumption within the studies carried out in the field indicating that that crime by male

counterparts is always kept closer to the hearts of the writers.

FEMINISM AND CRIMINOLOGY 12

References

Alder, C. (1995). International Feminist Perspectives in Criminology. New York: Open

University Press.

Bryan, B. Dadzie, S. & Scafe, S. (1989). The Heart of the Race. London: Virago.

Gelsthorpe, L. (1990). Feminist Perspectives in Criminology. New York: Open University Press.

Heidensohn, F. (1995). ‘Feminist Perspectives and Their Impact on Criminology and Criminal

Justice in Britain' in Rafter, N. Hahn and Heidensohn, F. (eds) International Feminist

Perspectives in Criminology: Engendering a Discipline. Buckingham: Open University

Press.

Kristen, R. (2009). Attitudes and Attributions Associated With Female and Male Partner

Violence. Journal of Applied Social Psychology. Volume 39 p. 481-512.

Naffine, N. (1996). Feminism and Criminology. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.

Pickering, S. & Alder, C. (2000). Challenging reforms for feminists and the criminal justice

system. Sydney: Butterworth publishers.

Rice, M. (1990). ‘Challenging orthodoxies in feminist theory: a black feminist critique' in

Gelsthorpe, Loraine and Morris, Allison (eds) Feminist Perspectives in Criminology.

Milton Keynes: Open University Press.

Sara, M. (2000). The Price of Alcohol, Wife Abuse, and Husband Abuse. Southern Economic

Journal, Volume 67, pages 279-303.

Simpson, S. S. (1989). Feminist Theory, Crime, and Justice. Journal of Criminology, Volume 27,

Issue 4, Pages 605–632.

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