Feminist theories: women and crime

Question 1

Why did feminist theories of crime emerge?

Answer 1

• 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

Question 2

What did Jana’s research find between the differences of property crimes vs sexual assualt/abuse sentences?

Answer 2

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

Question 3

Give a couple examples of the sexist nature of the CJS

Answer 3

1. women are criminalized for morality crimes (e.g. skipping school, underage sex, etc)
2. women are more likely to be labelled as “sick” (e.g. most women in prison are being medicated)

Question 4

What theme did traditional feminist approaches that tried explaining gender differences in crime have in common?

Answer 4

focus on the importance of gender role socialization

Question 5

what is liberal feminism (what’s the focus and their conclusions)?

Answer 5

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

Question 6

what is the liberation hypothesis, who are the two main criminologists behind this? is this hypothesis true?

Answer 6

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

Question 7

what is the focus of power control theory?

Answer 7

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

Question 8

what does the “cult of domesticity” refer to?

Answer 8

daughters being raised to become stay at home mothers

Question 9

describe the patriarchal family structure vs the egalitarian family structure?

Answer 9

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

Question 10

What are some critiques of the liberation hypothesis?

Answer 10

• 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)

Question 11

what’s the chivalry hypothesis?

Answer 11

cops let women get away with crime more easily than boys

Question 12

what is the focus of radical feminism? what are their conclusions?

Answer 12

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)

Question 13

what does “private troubles” refer to?

Answer 13

• 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

Question 14

Give two examples of how the CJS has double standards

Answer 14

1. prostitution laws used to favour men (i.e. women were prosecuted)
2. SA victims are put on trial essentially - giving male perps advantages

Question 15

What did the study that looked and young female offenders and their treatment in court find?

Answer 15

• 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)

Question 16

what is the focus of socialist feminism? what are the conclusions?

Answer 16

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

Question 17

What are some critiques of feminist approaches?

Answer 17

• 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

Question 18

What does the term “malestream theories” refer to?

Answer 18

explaining male criminal behaviour in terms of the American Dream, socioeconomic status, while still using biological theories for women

Question 19

What is the generalizability problem?

Answer 19

can we take Merton’s, Hirschi’s, etc. theories that were built and designed around men and apply them to women?

Question 20

what is the gender-ratio problem?

Answer 20

can those male-based theories explain the huge gap between the number of men vs women committing crime?

Question 21

what is feminist empiricism?

Answer 21

feminist perspective that combines the objectives/observations of feminism with research methods and empiricism

Question 22

What did the observation of male violence against women lead to?

Answer 22

• 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”

Question 23

What are the key objectives/focuses of standpoint feminism?

Answer 23

• 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

Question 24

Describe the importance of intersectionality in feminist research

Answer 24

• “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

Question 25

What are the objectives/observations of postmodern feminism?

Answer 25

• critiques feminist empiricism and standpoint feminism
• rejects claims to “truth”
• emphasizes the importance of discourse
• aims to reveal how discourses and their consequences come to dominate in society
• interrogate the language used to understand women’s involvement in crime
• influenced by Foucault

Question 26

what is a discourse?

Answer 26

historically specific systems of meaning which form the identities of subjects and objects

Question 27

give an example of how postmodernism interrogates the language used to understand women’s involvement in crime

Answer 27

criminal woman vs criminalized woman
- criminal woman –> what’s wrong with her?
- criminalized woman –> looks at the context of how she got where she is now; suggests/makes clear that she could be like any other woman, but being criminalized is one part of who she is

Question 28

Describe a welfare state

Answer 28

• by virtue of being a citizen in this country, the government has a responsibility to take care of you
• all citizens have the right to the basic standards of living

Question 29

what is neo-liberalism and its implications for CJ?

Answer 29

neo-liberalism:
- a political rationality founded on the values of individualism, freedom of choice, market dominance, and minimal state involvement in the economy

implications for CJ:
- crime control strategy that rejects rehabilitation and correction
- “risk management”
- responsibilization model of crime: people are responsible for their own behaviours

Question 30

what is neo-conservatism and its implications for CJ?

Answer 30

neo-conservatism:
- social welfare net is failing
- concern for tradition, order, hierarchy, and authority

implications for CJ = get tough on crime

Question 31

Describe how Karla Homolka posed a big problem for feminist criminologists

Answer 31

• highly sensationalized by media
• can she be both a battered wife and a competitive narcissist?
• rare event

Question 32

Describe how the murder of Reena Virk influenced the construction of women criminals

Answer 32

• nasty girl problem was highly sensationalized
• brought up the problem of girl violence

Question 33

What was the feminist response to Homolka and the murder of Reena Virk?

Answer 33

must meet the challenge of containing and countering dominant understandings about women and crime