11. Feminist Criminology
Summary and Review
Dr. Rochelle Stevenson; Dr. Jennifer Kusz; Dr. Tara Lyons; and Dr. Sheri Fabian
✅ Summary
- Common features of all feminisms include the following claims: that discrimination is experienced by women because of their sex and/or gender, that patriarchy is at the centre of women’s inequality, and that major changes are required to various social structures and institutions to establish gender equality. The common root of all feminisms is the drive towards equity and justice.
- The different feminisms include: liberal, radical, Marxist, socialist, post-modern, and intersectional feminism.
- Traditionally, theories of crime and deviance were either openly misogynistic, gender blind, or took an ‘add women and stir’ approach.
- The key issues that brought feminist criminology to the surface include domestic violence or violence against women, and the differential and unequal treatment of women as offenders within the criminal justice system.
- Indigenous women are overrepresented in female offending and female incarceration statistics.
- Incarcerated women have disproportionate histories of physical and psychological trauma.
- Gender equality is situated within colonialism, racism, and capitalism.
- Critiques of feminist criminology include its exclusive focus on cisgender women and its tendency to focus on the experiences of White women, while ignoring or minimising the experiences of racialised, transgender or other marginalised women.
🖊️ Key Terms
atavistic: reverting back to a more primitive time, and criminologically was used to refer to Cesare Lombroso’s theory that criminals were more primitive than law-abiding citizens and that they exhibited certain marks or stigmata, such as the shape of their forehead, brows, ears and even tattoos, and the ways of writing and speaking.
criminogenic needs: criminogenic needs may be defined as those offender need areas in which treatment gain will reduce the likelihood of recidivism. These needs are described as dynamic as they can be altered. Examples include substance abuse and antisocial thinking patterns.
criminogenic risk factors: these factors increase the likelihood and allow us to predict future criminal behaviour. Examples include antisocial personality, a history of antisocial behaviour, a history of substance abuse, and dysfunctional family life.
intersectionality: the interconnected nature of social categorisations such as race, class, gender, age and the multiplicative effect on victimisation. Developed by Kimberlé Crenshaw in 1989.
intimate partner homicide (also known as femicide): the killing of a current or former legal spouse, common-law partner, dating partner, or other intimate partner.
victim-blaming: when a victim of crime is held responsible, in whole or in part, for their own victimisation.
🧠 Chapter Review
Crossword
Fill in the term in the right-hand column and it will display in the crossword puzzle. Be sure to include spaces where appropriate.
Discussion Questions
- We find young people in particular often feel uncomfortable identifying as feminists. What is your definition of feminism and why do you think people may reject the label?
- Consider the offence of theft. How would each of the six feminist perspectives explain the role and impact of gender?
- How can we use feminist criminology to understand the #MeToo movement – both the offenders and the victims?
- While Crenshaw talks about intersectionality within education (Kimberlé Crenshaw: What is Intersectionality?), how can we think about the same ideas within the criminal justice system?
- Thinking about intersectionality, what are some ways Black, Indigenous, and women of colour may be harmed by policy changes such as mandatory domestic violence charging, or the criminalisation of sex work?
- As noted in the case study of MMIWG, in 1996, the RCAP asked “Why in a society where justice is supposed to be blind are the inmates of our prisons selected so overwhelmingly from a single ethnic group [Indigenous peoples]?” (Hamilton & Sinclair, 1996). Today we know that Indigenous peoples continue to be over-represented throughout the criminal justice system at alarming rates, and these rates are now even more pronounced for Indigenous women. How can the information about feminism and feminist criminology presented in this chapter help explain these findings?
