Criminology and Penology
Schools
Chicago School · Classical School
Conflict Criminology
Environmental Criminology
Feminist School · Frankfurt School
Integrative Criminology
Italian School · Left Realism
Marxist Criminology
Neo-Classical School
Positivist School
Postmodernist School
Right Realism
See also Sociology
See also Wikibooks:Social Deviance

The Feminist School of criminology developed in the late 1960s and into the 1970s as a reaction against the gender distortions and stereotyping within traditional criminology. It was closely associated with the emergence of the Second Wave of feminism and it speaks with multiple viewpoints developed from different feminist writers. Politically, there is a range from Marxist and Socialist to Liberal feminism addressing the "gender ratio" problem (i.e. why women are less likely than men to commit crime) or the generalisability problem (i.e. "adding" women to male knowledge, whereby the findings from research on men are generalised to women). Image File history File links Scale_of_justice. ... Criminology is the study of crime as a social phenomenon, including the causes and consequences of crime, criminal behavior, as well as the development of, and impact of laws. ... Penology (from the Latin poena, punishment) comprises penitentiary science: that concerned with the processes devised and adopted for the punishment, repression, and prevention of crime, and the treatment of prisoners. ... In sociology, the Chicago School refers to the first major attempt to study the urban environment by combined efforts of theory and ethnographic fieldwork in Chicago. ... The Classical School in criminology is usually a reference to the eighteenth century work during the Enlightenment by the utilitarian and social contract philosophers Jeremy Bentham and Cesare Beccaria. ... Conflict criminology Largely based on the writings of Karl Marx, conflict criminology claims that crime is inevitable in capitalist societies, as invariably certain groups will become marganalised and unequal. ... Environmental criminology focuses on criminal patterns within particular built environments and analyzes the impacts of these external variables on people’s cognitive behaviour. ... Max Horkheimer (front left), Theodor Adorno (front right), and Jürgen Habermas in the background, right, in 1965 at Heidelberg The Frankfurt School is a school of neo-Marxist social theory (which is more akin to anarchism than communism), social research, and philosophy. ... Cesare Lombroso (1835-1909) and two of his Italian disciples, Enrico Ferri (1856–1929) and Raffaele Garofalo (1851–1934), founded what became known as the Italian school of criminology. ... Marxist criminology is one of the schools of criminology. ... In criminology, the Neo-Classical School continues the traditions of the Classical School within the framework of Right Realism. ... In criminology, Right Realism (also known as New Right Realism, Neo-Classicism or Neo-Conservatism) is the ideological polar opposite of Left Realism. ... Social interactions of people and their consequences are the subject of sociology studies. ... Criminology is the study of crime as a social phenomenon, including the causes and consequences of crime, criminal behavior, as well as the development of, and impact of laws. ... In a variety of different contexts, gender refers to the masculinity or femininity of words, persons, characteristics, or non-human organisms. ... Stereotypes are considered to be a group concept, held by one social group about another. ... Marxist feminism is a sub-type of feminist theory which focuses on the dismantling of capitalism as a way to liberate women and states that capitalism, which gives rise to economic inequality, dependence, political confusion and ultimately unhealthy social relations between men and women, is the root of womens... Socialist feminism is a branch of feminism that focuses upon both the public and private spheres of a womans life and argues that liberation can only be achieved by working to end both the economic and cultural sources of womens oppression. ... Liberal feminism is a form of feminism that argues that equality for women can be achieved through legal means and social reform, and that men as a group need not be challenged. ...

Discussion

Criminology is the study of crime and criminal justice, and it covers a multitude of topics, but the principal theories of criminality have been developed from male subjects, have been validated on male subjects, and focus on male victimisation. While there may be nothing wrong with this, the theories have then been generalised to include all criminals, defendants and prisoners, i.e. the facts about crime tend to be based on the sex of the offender and not the crime itself. This 'sexism' in criminology also influences the sentencing, punishment, and imprisonment of women who are not expected to be criminals and, if they are, they may be described as 'mad not bad'. The attribution of madness to women flows from the construct that women who conform are pure, obedient daughters, wives and mothers who benefit society and men. If they dare to go against their natural biological traits of 'passivity' and a 'weakness of compliance', they must be mentally ill: a classic androcentric view. Feminism operates within the existing social structures to examine the social, political, and economic experience of women and to devise strategies for achieving greater equality in women's roles. This involves considering how women came to occupy subservient roles, the nature of male privilege, and the means whereby the discourses that constitute the power of patriarchy can be redirected to transform society. In law, a sentence forms the final act of a judge-ruled process, and also the symbolic principal act connected to his function. ... sexual abuse is the practice of imposing something unpleasant on a wrongdoer as a response to something unwanted that the wrongdoer has done. ... A prison is a place in which people are confined and deprived of a range of liberties. ... Feminism is a diverse collection of social theories, political movements, and moral philosophies, largely motivated by or concerning the experiences of women, especially in terms of their social, political, and economic situation. ... ‘’Male privilege’’ is a term used to describe the rights granted to the male population in society on the basis of their biological sex. ... Patriarchy (from Greek: patria meaning father and arché meaning rule) is the anthropological term used to define the sociological condition where male members of a society tend to predominate in positions of power; with the more powerful the position, the more likely it is that a male will hold that...

As it is, gender role expectations continue to define acceptable behaviours and attitudes for females and males; deviation from these expectations may result in a variety of societal sanctions ranging from verbal abuse to violence to incarceration. These roles are a powerful form of social control maintained through informal and formal mechanisms. Heidensohn (1992, 2000) suggests a male-biased control theory:

• "a woman's place is in the home": a woman has fewer opportunities for criminal activity because the routine of domesticity keeps her in the home. In any event, women are more afraid to go out of the home after dark because they fear aggressive male behaviour.
• at work, men have a supervisory or managerial role (often characterised by women as harassment) which makes it more difficult for women to commit major crimes.

Further, males, the dominant group and the standard of normality, have maintained inequality through control of the definition of deviance and of the institutions of social control. Women have been defined as different from men and, hence, inferior; that stigma has acted to deny them their full civil rights and access to societal resources (Naffine: 1996). Civil rights or positive rights are those legal rights retained by citizens and protected by the government. ...

Gender ratio

Research methods are "technique(s) for ... gathering data" and are either quantitative or qualitative. It has been argued that methodology has been gendered (Oakley 1997; 1998), with quantitative methods traditionally being associated with words such as positivism, scientific, objectivity, statistics and masculinity, while qualitative methods have generally been associated with interpretivism, non-scientific, subjectivity and femininity. These associations have led some feminist researchers to criticise or even reject the quantitative approach, arguing that it is in direct conflict with the aims of feminist research. It has been argued that qualitative methods are more appropriate for feminist research by allowing subjective knowledge, and a more equal relationship between the researcher and the researched (Westmarland: 2001). As official records, the statistics generated by crime reporting show that fewer women commit crimes but there has been little research to explain this difference. One explanation for this omission might be that because women commit fewer crimes, they are less of a problem so an examination of their criminality is either inherently less interesting or less relevant to developing an understanding of how to control the men. But the explanation is more likely concerned with male stereotypes. Stereotypes are considered to be a group concept, held by one social group about another. ...

The history of male stereotypes

Critique has been the essential tool for the production of feminist, not simply anti-sexist, theory. Victorian America viewed women in accordance with inflexible ideals of femininity, and the male-dominated criminal courts were inhibited by notions of chivalry when required to apply justice to women whom cultural norms had determined to be "pure, passive and dependent", and whom, leading experts claimed, seldom committed crimes. Later, Otto Pollak (1950) claimed that men are socialised to treat women in a fatherly and protective manner. Female offenders were like their mothers and wives, and the male judiciary could not imagine them behaving in a criminal way. Women were therefore protected: their criminal activity was less likely to be detected, reported, prosecuted, or sentenced harshly. Chivalry had only positive effects on women who were essentially more deceitful than men, and were the instigators rather than the perpetrators of crime. Where did this greater capacity for deceit come from? From the 'passive' role which, according to Pollack, they have to assume during sexual intercourse. Less flatteringly, The Criminality of Women also claimed that women prefer professions like maids, nurses, teachers, and homemakers so that they can engage in undetectable crime. He also thought women were especially subject to certain mental diseases like kleptomania and nymphomania. See also order of chivalry Woman under the Safeguard of Knighthood, allegorical Scene. ... Justice - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ... In psychology, socialization is the process by which children and others adopt the behavior patterns of the culture that surrounds them. ... Kleptomania (word of Greek origin) is an inability to resist impulses of stealing. ... Hypersexuality describes human sexual behavior at levels high enough to be considered clinically significant. ...

The most investigated "difference" between the sexes was biological. Cesare Lombroso (1903) identified the female physiognomy thought most likely to determine criminal propensity. This was the new science of "criminal anthropology" matching the general fascination with Darwinism and physical anthropology, where scientists sought pathological and atavistic causes for criminal behaviour. While he credited criminal women as being stronger than men, the consequence was that prison would hardly affect them at all. Sigmund Freud theorised that all women experience penis envy and seek to compensate an inferiority complex by being exhibitionistic and narcissistic, focussing on irrational and trivial matters instead of being interested in building a just civilisation. William I. Thomas (1907) published Sex and Society in which he argued that men and women possessed essentially different personality traits. Men were more criminal because of their biologically determined active natures. Women were more passive and less criminally capable. In The Unadjusted Girl (1923) he argued that as women have a greater capacity to love than men they suffer more when they do not receive social approval and affection. The "unadjusted girls" are those who use their sexuality in a socially unacceptable way to get what they want from life. The female criminal forgoes the conventional rewards of domesticity by refusing to accept prevailing modes of sexuality and seeks excitement, wealth, and luxury: a pursuit that may conflict with the interests of the social group as it also exercises the freedom to pursue similar goals. Cesare Lombroso Cesare Lombroso (Verona, November 6, 1835 - Turin, October 19, 1909) was a historical figure in modern criminology, and the founder of the Italian Positivist School of criminology. ... Physiognomy (Gk. ... This article is about Darwinism as a philosophical concept; see evolution for the page on biological evolution; modern evolutionary synthesis for neo-Darwinism; and also evolution (disambiguation). ... Physical anthropology, often called biological anthropology, studies the mechanisms of biological evolution, genetic inheritance, human adaptability and variation, primatology, primate morphology, and the fossil record of human evolution. ... Pathology (from Greek pathos, feeling, pain, suffering; and logos, study of; see also -ology) is the study of the processes underlying disease and other forms of illness, harmful abnormality, or dysfunction. ... Atavism in Physical Science During the interval between the acceptance of Darwinian evolution theory and the rise of modern understanding of genetics, atavism was used to account for the reappearance in an individual of a trait after several generations of absence. ... Sigmund Freud Sigmund Freud [] (May 6, 1856–September 23, 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of the psychoanalytic school of psychology, based on his theory that human development is best understood in terms of changing objects of sexual desire; that the unconscious often represses wishes (generally of a... This article contains information that has not been verified and thus might not be reliable. ... In the fields of psychology and psychoanalysis, an inferiority complex is a feeling that one is inferior to others in some way. ... Exhibitionism is the psychological need of a human being to exhibit naked parts of the body to other people — that is, parts of the body that would otherwise be covered by clothes according to the standards of the individuals cultural surroundings. ... Narcissism is the pattern of traits and behaviors which involve infatuation and obsession with ones self to the exclusion of others and the egotistic and ruthless pursuit of ones gratification, dominance and ambition. ... William Isaac Thomas (b. ...

More modern theories

Strain Theories are criticised by feminists as betraying a double standard. When male offenders commit a crime under certain conditions of opportunity blockage, their commission of crime is somehow seen as a "normal" or functional response. When women commit crime, Strain Theory views it as some sort of "weakness". Naffine (1987) probably represents the best example of this critique, but there are other critiques, such as the characterisation of females as "helpmates" or facilitators of crime in the Strain Theories of Cohen, and Cloward and Ohlin. In criminology, the Strain Theories state that social structures within society may encourage citizens to commit crime. ...

The research methodology in Social Learning Theories, such as Edwin Sutherland's Differential Association Theory, is criticised for relying on male examples, using case studies of males only, and being a male-dominated perspective that glamorises the male criminal, or at least the sociable, gregarious, active, and athletic characteristics of the male criminal. Similarly, Social Control Theories, such as Hirschi's Social Bond Theory, focuses almost exclusively on social class at the expense of gender and race. In criminology, Ronald Akers and Robert Burgess (1966) developed Social Learning Theory to explain deviancy by combining variables which encouraged delinquency (e. ... From The American System of Criminal Justice by George F. Cole and Christopher E. Smith, Tenth Edition, Page 14: Crimes cimitted in the course of business were first described by crimonologist Edwin Sutherland in 1939, when he developed the concept of white-collar crime. ... Differental association - A theory developed by Edwin Sutherland that holds that through interaction with others, individuals learn the values, attitudes, techniques, and motives for criminal behavior. ... asss This page is a candidate for speedy deletion. ... Social class refers to the hierarchical distinctions between individuals or groups in societies or cultures. ...

Feminists therefore concluded that the failure of criminology to research the issue of female criminality fairly either reflected a male-dominated discourse in which men primarily research male issues, or betrayed the rigidity of male stereotypes which allowed men to justify their prejudices with pseudoscience.

Female theories about female offending

Adler (1975) proposed that the emancipation of women during the 1970s increased economic opportunities for women and allowed women to be as crime-prone as men. While "women have demanded equal opportunity in the fields of legitimate endeavours, a similar number of determined women have forced their way into the world of major crime such as white-collar crime, murder, and robbery" (Adler, 1975: 3). She suggested that as women are climbing up the corporate business ladder, they are making use of their 'vocational liberation' to pursue careers in white-collar crime. But feminism has made female crime more visible through increased reporting, policing and the sentencing of female offenders and, even then, the statistical base is small in comparison to men. Carlen (1985) argues that Adler's 'new female criminal' is cast as the 'biological female' who is essentially masculine. The 'new female' criminal turns out to be the 'old maladjusted masculinist female' of traditional criminology, rejecting her proper feminine role such as institutionalising rather than incarcerating women who commit 'male' offences such as robbery, i.e. Adler's 'sisters in crime' appears to work within the frameworks of traditional criminology rather than a feminist one. For an examination of gender in crimes of violence, see Alder). White-collar crimes (a term coined by Edwin Sutherland in 1939) or business crimes are those crimes specifically performed by white collar employees. ...

A debate in the recent criminology literature has focused on the handling of female offenders as they are processed through the criminal justice system. There are two competing perspectives. The chivalry or paternalism hypothesis which echoes the perception of female inmates as victims, argues that women are treated more leniently than men at various stages of the male-dominated justice process as a function of the male desire to protect the weaker (Crew: 1991; Erez, 1992). The "evil women" hypothesis which parallels the female inmate as subhuman perspective, holds that women often receive harsher treatment than men in the criminal justice system and suggests that this different treatment results from the notion that criminal women have violated not only legal boundaries but also gender role expectations (Chesney-Lind, 1984; Erez, 1992). Simon (1975) predicted that the criminal justice system would start treating men and women offenders equally. There is mixed empirical evidence for this emancipation or liberation thesis, and some would say that absolutely no empirical evidence exists for it and the notion is discredited (Chesney-Lind & Pasko 2004). Sex differentials in sentencing are subject to a variety of interpretations, and not all feminists want the criminal justice system to treat women equally. It seems that women are not committing the "big take" offences like stock fraud and other white-collar crimes, or bank robberies. Instead, they are admitted to the justice system charged with committing different crimes. Wundersitz (1988) and Crew (1991) consider the chivalry and paternalism factors in the process. Image of traditional cultural paternalism: Father Junipero Serra in a modern portrayal at Mission San Juan Capistrano, California Paternalism refers usually to an attitude or a policy stemming from the hierarchic pattern of a family based on patriarchy, that is, there is a figurehead (the father, pater in Latin) that...

Farrington and Morris (1983) found some empirical evidence that women did receive less severe punishments, but female offenders are far more likely to be first-time offenders, and to have committed a less serious form of the relevant offence; they stole smaller or fewer items, used less violence, and so on. Prior history of offending, and seriousness of offence, are fundamental factors in determining severity of sentence, for any offender. Once these variables are entered into the equation, it is possible to conclude that female offenders are not being treated any differently from males in equivalent circumstances. However, the evidence does suggest that married women with a caring role are more likely to be treated leniently. This may be because they are expected to remain in the home to continue their dependent "maternal" function. Unmarried women or those in unconventional relationships tended to receive more harsh treatment, confirming a sentencing model based a cultural need to reinforce gender roles within a framework of heterosexual marriage or family life. Kruttschnitt (1982) who investigated the link between economic independence, informal social control, and heavier sentences for women. In a study of convictions in a Californian population in the 1970s Kruttschnitt found that sentence may differ with the extent to which a woman is economically dependent upon someone else for her day-to-day existence: the more dependent she is, the less severe her disposition. Thus, the degree to which a female offender can be shown to be under informal social control may produce a lighter formal sentence. The examples and perspective in this article may not represent a worldwide view. ...

Chapman (1980) studied the connection between labour force participation, and revealed an increase in female criminal activity during times of economic hardship. The smallest increases in arrests coincided with periods of the greatest increase in economic activity with the most common offence being that of shop lifting. These findings would seem to support a theory of a relationship between employment and crime rather than that offered by the 'women's liberation thesis'. When times are good, the offending woman appears to stabilise rather than escalate. An absence rather than availability of employment opportunities (liberation thesis) would seem a more plausible explanation for increases in female crime. Naffine (1987: 99) believes the criminal woman's motive appears more rational and straight forward than manifesting her gender-role concerns or seeking to compete with the criminal male.

Studies of patriarchy tend to look at everything from female membership in male-dominated professions to the "rape culture" with promotes female victimisation. The study of patriarchy has also allowed feminists to uncover hidden forms of violence against women. For example, feminist critiques of pedagogy (how teachers teach) have become quite common, as education, particularly criminal justice education, becomes the domain for discovering examples of male-dominated thinking and examples of the marginalisation thesis (women being reminded that they are only women).

References

• Abbott, P. & Wallace, C. (1990) An Introduction to Sociology: Feminist perspectives (Part 9).
• Adler, Freda. (1975). Sisters in Crime.
• Alder, Christine. Explaining Violence: Socioeconomics and Masculinity. [1]
• Carlen, Pat. (1985). Criminal Women
• Carlen, Pat. (1988). Women, Crime and Poverty. Milton Keynes: Open University Press.
• Chapman, Jane Roberts. (1980), Economic Realities and the Female Offender. Lexington, Mass: Lexington Books.
• Chesney-Lind, M. (1984). "Women and Crime: A review of the recent literature on the female offender". (Report No. 295). Honolulu: University of Hawaii, Youth Development and Research Center.
• Chesney-Lind, Meda & Pasko, Lisa. (2004). The Female Offender: Girls, Women, and Crime. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
• Crew, B.K. (1991). "Sex differences in patriarchy: Chivalry or patriarchy?" Justice Quarterly, 8 (1), 59-83.
• Farrington, D. P. & Morris, A. (1983). "Sex, sentencing and reconviction". British Journal of Criminology. Vol. 23, pp229-48.
• Heidensohn, Frances. (1992) Women in Control? The Role of Women in Law Enforcement. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Heidensohn, Frances. (2000) Sexual Politics and Social Control. Milton Keynes: Open University Press.
• Kruttschnitt, C. (1982). "Women, crime, and dependency: an application of the theory of law". Criminology. Vol. 19, pp495-513.
• Lloyd, A. (1995) Doubly Deviant, Doubly Damned: Society's treatment of violent women.
• Lombroso, Cesare. (1980) The Female Offender. Littleton, Colorado: Fred Rothman.
• Naffine, N. (1987). Female Crime: The Construction of Women in Criminology. Boston: Allen and Unwin.
• Naffine, N. (1996). Feminism and Criminology. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
• Oakley, Ann (1997). "The gendering of methodology: An experiment in knowing". Seminar to Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study in the Social Sciences, Uppsala, Sweden, 10th April.
• Oakley, Ann (1998). "Science, gender, and women's liberation: An argument against postmodernism". Women's Studies International Forum, 21(2), 133-146.
• Pollak, Otto. (1950). The Criminality of Women. (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
• Simon, Rita. (1975). Women and Crime. Lexington, Mass.: Lexington Books.
• Thomas, William I. (1923). The Unadjusted Girl. With Cases and Standpoint for Behavioral Analysis. Boston: Little, Brown, and Co., 1923. (reprinted (1967). N.Y.: Evanston; London: Harper & Row).
• Westmarland, Nicole. (2001). "The Quantitative/Qualitative Debate and Feminist Research: A Subjective View of Objectivity" Forum: Qualitative Social Research. Volume 2, No. 1 – February. [2]
• Wundersitz, J., Naffine, N. & Gale, F. (1988). "Chivalry, Justice or Paternalism? The Female Offender in the Juvenile Justice System". Australian and New Zealand Journal of Sociology, Vol. 24, p359.