Feminist theories: women and crime Flashcards
(33 cards)
Why did feminist theories of crime emerge?
- traditional theories were created, tested, and critiques by male criminologists
- traditionally, theories of female crime have focused on women’s biology, while social and economic inequality + social structure conditions were ignored
What did Jana’s research find between the differences of property crimes vs sexual assualt/abuse sentences?
those who commit property crimes were given longer sentences than those who committed SA and abuse their wives
- we value the economics –> conflict
- we value men –> feminsit
Give a couple examples of the sexist nature of the CJS
- women are criminalized for morality crimes (e.g. skipping school, underage sex, etc)
- women are more likely to be labelled as “sick” (e.g. most women in prison are being medicated)
What theme did traditional feminist approaches that tried explaining gender differences in crime have in common?
focus on the importance of gender role socialization
what is liberal feminism (what’s the focus and their conclusions)?
focus = gender role socialization and the broader context of such socialization
conclusions = the feminine role is not conductive to criminal behaviour, and women who commit crimes are seen as being poorly socialized or as having masculine traits
what is the liberation hypothesis, who are the two main criminologists behind this? is this hypothesis true?
hypothesis = as women’s participation and equality in society increases, so should their criminal behaviour/crime rate
criminologists = Adler and Simon
didn’t happen or at least not to the same extent: because the rate was so low, the increases were greatly exaggerated
what is the focus of power control theory?
focus on the relative power of men and women in families and how that power is related to roles within the capitalists economic system and social control in the family
what does the “cult of domesticity” refer to?
daughters being raised to become stay at home mothers
describe the patriarchal family structure vs the egalitarian family structure?
patriarchal:
- husband > wife
- father is the breadwinner and mom stays at home
- daughters are raised to become stay at home mothers: watched carefully by mom and dad –> less opportunity for criminal behaviour
- sons are being taught to become future breadwinners: watches less by parents –> more opportunity to commit crimes
egalitarian:
- husband and wife are equal
- women work outside of the home
- children are treated equally: raised to have independence; smaller differences in crime rates between brothers and sisters
What are some critiques of the liberation hypothesis?
- the gap has narrowed, but not as much as they predicted
- still has the message of equality –> criminality
- doesn’t take into account how the CJS deals with boys vs girls (e.g. the chivalry hypothesis)
what’s the chivalry hypothesis?
cops let women get away with crime more easily than boys
what is the focus of radical feminism? what are their conclusions?
focuses:
- patriarchy seen as the cause of women’s problems
- the CJS itself contributes to female crime
- laws favour men
conclusions:
- division of labour by sex was the 1st-class structure in society
- women’s subordination and victimization at the hands of men is a precursor to criminalziation
- CJS contributes to female crime and delinquency (e.g. double standards)
- passage and enforcement of laws favour the interest of men (e.g. private troubles)
what does “private troubles” refer to?
- prior to 1983 men could SA their wives and that was a-okay
- police had no business interfering with another man’s life especially when concerning domestic and child abuse
Give two examples of how the CJS has double standards
- prostitution laws used to favour men (i.e. women were prosecuted)
- SA victims are put on trial essentially - giving male perps advantages
What did the study that looked and young female offenders and their treatment in court find?
- when females committed violent offences (non-girl crimes) they got harsher sentences
- if the mother showed up in court wearing a suit, they got harsher sentences (pushed gender norms - doesn’t appear to be at home watching over her girl)
what is the focus of socialist feminism? what are the conclusions?
focus = both patriarchy and capitalism are the cause of women’s criminal behaviours and the kinds of victimization they experience
conclusions:
- men control women both economically and biologically
- women are more likely to be victims due to powerlessness and oppression: double oppression explains lower crime rates –> don’t have opportunity, more likely to be controlled, and more likely to be victims
What are some critiques of feminist approaches?
- highly descriptive: describes how the CJS discriminates; where’s the theory? you’re just describing how things are
- if men are in power, why are they in prison?
- traditional theories focus on middle class white women
- conflict between feminist perspectives
What does the term “malestream theories” refer to?
explaining male criminal behaviour in terms of the American Dream, socioeconomic status, while still using biological theories for women
What is the generalizability problem?
can we take Merton’s, Hirschi’s, etc. theories that were built and designed around men and apply them to women?
what is the gender-ratio problem?
can those male-based theories explain the huge gap between the number of men vs women committing crime?
what is feminist empiricism?
feminist perspective that combines the objectives/observations of feminism with research methods and empiricism
What did the observation of male violence against women lead to?
- played an important role in the development of feminist criminology
- brought attention to engaging with the state (i.e. the state is part of the problem)
- victimization as a precursor to criminalization
- led to “standpoint feminism”
What are the key objectives/focuses of standpoint feminism?
- gives privilege to women’s voices/places women as “knowers”
- the link between victimization and criminalization is central
- pathways research: ways that victimization, poverty, discrimination, family responsibilities, etc contribute to criminalization
Describe the importance of intersectionality in feminist research
- “woman” is not a unitary and homogenous category
- importance of interlocking systems of power
- the intersectional experience is greater than the sum of the parts
- blurs the boundaries between “offender” and “victim”: women should treated as “women in trouble” –> need help, not punishment
