CCJ4463 Women Crime and Justice Exam 1 The Invisible Woman Chapter 1 The Emergence of Gender in Criminology o o o Criminology is concerned with developing theories on what causes crime Criminal Justice focuses on workers in the criminal legal system and the ways decisions are made about victims and offenders Invisibility of Women and Girls in Crime o Focuses on women and girls as offenders women and girls as victims and women professionals working in the criminal legal system Most women do not fit neatly into one category overlap exists o Historically women and girls as both victims and offenders were usually left out of the studies or if included were typically done so in sexist stereotypic ways o Women and Girls as Offenders o Most criminology theories are concerned with what causes crime and thus focus on factors related to offending primarily male juvenile offending Although gender is the strongest factor indicating a person s likelihood to break the law o When researchers did include girls in their sample it was typically to see how girls fit into boy s equations o Whereas social class access to opportunities to learn crime and area of residence in a city have been used to explain boy s likelihood of turning to crime the causes of girls criminality were rarely examined until more recent years Women were viewed as driven to crime because of biological reasons men were viewed as driven to crime due to economic and sociological forces Feminist theories not only attempt to focus women and girls more centrally they also include how the inequalities between the sexes can differentially affect male and female experiences and behaviors Also focus on how racism classism heterosexism in addition to or in conjunction with sexism are useful for understanding gender differences and discrimination dynamics The prisons and delinquent institutions for women and girls both historically and presently vary drastically from those for boys and men mostly to disadvantage of girls The excuse to not further research this is that women make up a small percentage of offenders The incarceration rate for women is growing much faster than men o o o o Women and Girls as Victims The most common crimes committed against women and girls is sexual abuse intimate partner abuse and stalking which are all some of the most invisible and under reported crimes but also some of the most abusive fear inducing humiliating and often violent and dangerous crimes o One form of victimization to women that is ignored is corporate or organizational victimization Breast implants and cosmetic surgery Women serving as egg donors Not much research was presented on these common practices offered to o Women as Professionals in the Criminal Legal System women and their harmful effects o Three major types of employment opportunities in this system are Work in prisons and jails Policing The law o In all these jobs women face considerable resistance to employment This was based on the attitude that women are unsuitable because working with male offenders requires manly men o Not only are women working in the criminal legal system invisible in these systems and I the research but women working in the criminologist have also been invisible with historical accounts of criminology often ignoring women scholar s contributions to the field o Blurring of Boundaries of Women s Experiences in Crime o Women s victimization experiences may be related to their desire to work in the criminal legal system Historically women that kill their abusive husbands are punished more harshly then males that kill their wives even if the act was in self defense o Sex Versus Gender Sex differences are biological differences including differences in reproductive organs body size muscle development and hormones o Gender differences are those that are ascribed by society and that relate toe expected social roles Largely rooted in inequalities Sexism refers to oppressive attitudes and behaviors directed at either sex that is sexism is discrimination or prejudice based on gender Patriarchy refers to a social legal and political climate that calues male dominance and hierarchy The belief that women s nature is biologically not culturally determined and that laws are from men s standpoint consistent with men s experiences Feminists legal scholars developed feminist jurisprudence to understand the law as an institution of male dominance o Understanding the distinction between sex and gender informs us that most differences between men and women and boys and girls are societally based gender not biologically determined sex o What is Feminism The aim of feminism is not to benefit solely any specific group of women any particular race or class of women It does not privilege women over men It has the power to transform in a meaningful way all or lives Desire to cretate a world without gender and other form sof oppression Three myths about feminism 1 Feminism lacks objectivity The problem is that too often men s experiences are taken as the norm and are generalized to the population 2 Feminist analysis narrowly focuses on women Feminist analysis does not ignore men and masculinity rather men are included in but are not always the center of the analysis 3 There is only one feminist perspective Feminist research is increasingly studies of men sometimes only men to examine the role of masculinity to explain phenomena such as offending Feminist theory overall is a woman centered description and explanation of human experience and the social world Involves activism to help stop women s oppression Five major strains of feminist theory Liberal Feminism argue that women s access to equality in education and employment or the public world in general is blocked by customary and legal constraints The goal is to achieve just practices and bias free beliefs by eliminating sexist and androcentric assumptions o o o o o o o o Marxist Feminism are most concerned with inequalities set up in a capitalist society It was formulated to deal with the conditions of working class women during the heyday of European and US industrialization in the late 19th and 20th centuries It is most concerned with world related inequalities and has advanced understanding of the trivialization of women s work in the home and the boring poorly paid jobs women have predominately occupied Socialist Feminism purports that class alone fails to explain women s subjugation thus both class and patriarchy must be