The Basis Of Feminist Criminology

Imagine growing up in a community where you are more than likely to have lost friends and families to violence. Imagine living in a place where you are scared to walk to school or walk alone. This is what it is like for many people in poverty-stricken neighborhoods, especially black dominated neighborhoods. In such neighborhoods exist black-on-black crime and people have become too familiar with violence amongst each other. In analyzing black on black crime, it is important to try to understand what black on black crime is, what may be the causes of this type of crime, and solutions that can be implemented to eradicating this type of crime from society.

This article talks about feminist theory. It not only addresses the difference in male and female violence, but also how there really isn’t an explanation for the rises in female juvenile violence, and how that many of these explanations going around, in society, are driven by an anti-feminist philosophy. Feminist theory is the extension of feminism. It focuses on evaluating the means of gender inequality. Some things explored in feminism include objectification, stereotyping, and discrimination.

Many people may assure that gender inequality does not exist in America in 2015. Unlike some decades ago, nowadays women can vote, have access to education and job opportunities and even be part of the government. All that reasons may turn sexism into a non-clearly-visible phenomenon, unrecognized by a large proportion of society. However, none of those inaccurate, simplistic and superficial arguments imply that gender inequality does not exist. On the contrary, there is no doubt that we live in a society in which women are victims of sexism.

Feminist criminology has been around since the late 1960's and started out centered on speculations brought upon traditional theories of crime. Most traditional theories didn't necessarily ignore women in the criminal justice system yet they generalized crime and what causes a person to turn to crime so that women who commit crimes are overlooked by the generalization. Not only are the numbers skewed when you look at gender in criminal justice offenders but there is also a certain bias in the criminal justice systems workers. In the movie Vera Drake there is a clear example of this when the investigator and the officer come into the movie. While watching you can easily assume that the female officer is treated and thought of much differently

Gender should not depend on how people get treated differently from the opposite gender. If someone commits a crime regardless of their gender, they both should have to face the consequences regarding the crime they committed. A male should not be treated different than a female after committing a crime just because he is male and visa versa. Gender discrepancies play a role in everything in our world today. Whether it be in crime, sports, school, or even careers, males are typically punished much harder than females, and also get the most credit when it comes to sports, school, and their careers compared to females who excel in the exact same thing males do, even if the females are better than the males in any of those fields.

The documentary called The Hunting Grounds, had multiple concepts that relate to sociology. Using a sociological perspective, it was very prevalent to see the ways college campuses use patriarchy and gender stratification to keep women who have been sexually assaulted on campus from disclosing information or even getting help about these issues. Through the discrimination against women at these gender institutions the women formed a Feminist movement to bring awareness and help to the victims on campuses all around the world and to stop the assaults from reoccurring. The Hunting Grounds is a documentary that reveals the untold stories of women on college campuses and how these women have fought to have their voice heard about sexual assault on campuses.

According to the Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network, another person endures sexual assault every 98 seconds. This information may have been shocking ten years ago, but for many, this news is a basic fact of life. Sexual assault cases have continued to become more and more common as time goes on. What is causing this surge in unwanted physical contact? The cause of sexual assault is one hundred percent of the time, the assaulter’s fault. Sexual assault is never caused by a “rape culture” or the clothing that one chooses to wear. Sexual assault is caused by the attacker, never the victim. Sexual assault is an issue very prevalent in our society today and is starting to get recognized because of the bravery of these victims. Cases like the Larry Nassar case, the Harvey Weinstein case, and the Brock Turner case are just some examples of sexual assault that our society is fighting today.

Universally, domestic violence is referred to abusive behavior that is used by the intimate partner to control or power over the other intimate power. This can be in the forms of psychological, sexual, economic or emotional threats or actions that will influence your partner (Kindschi,2013).Domestic violence studies provides that psychopathology, which happens when in violent environment in child development can make the argument of domestic violence progress of being a generational legacy (Kindschi,2013).I chose to write about the Feminist Theory to explain why people commit domestic violence. It believes that the root causes of domestic violence is the outcome of living in a society that condones aggressive behavior by men, while women

Feminist theory shows the ways of a gender structured life . This culture is also displayed in Crime and Punishment by Sonya and Dunya. Feminist criticism is a type of literary criticism that was well known in the 1970’s. Women would begin taking apart the classics and analyzing how the author portrayed women. The women in Crime and Punishment , especially Sonya and Dunya have a stronger state of mind and are able to handle the pressures and struggles of life better than the men in the novel.

Victims could suffer psychologically due to being in a life threatening event that may have caused serious injuries. Author of “Hate Crimes, Oppression, and Legal Theory,” David A. Reidy, stated that violent hate crimes can cause significant psychological harm to an individual or individuals due to the assaults that were received. Sao Lue Vang was severely injured internally and externally, which now requires for him to use a wheelchair to move around. The consequence of having to use a wheelchair instead of his feet to move around would absolutely affect him psychologically. Not only would this affect the victim but the people around the victims as well. As Vang’s daughter, Mai Vang, stated, “He won’t be able to cook for us, and he won’t be able to help us with anything like before because of what Kevin Elberg did to my father (Suab Hmong Broadcasting)…” To not be able to do the things one was able to do before, can be a burden and that feeling of being a burden could affect one’s psychological thinking

Women of color are the most targeted, prosecuted, and imprisoned women in the country and rapidly increasing their population within the prison systems. According to Nicholas Freudenberg, 11 out of every 1000 women will end up incarcerated in their lifetime, the average age being 35, while only five of them are white, 15 are Latinas, and 36 are black. These two groups alone make up 70 percent of women in prison, an astonishing rate compared to the low percentage comprise of within the entire female population in the country (1895). Most of their offenses are non-violent, but drug related, and often these women come from oppressive and violent backgrounds, where many of their struggles occurred directly within the home and from their own family.

The article highlights the arguments for and against the theory which maintains that female criminality is a gender pathway influenced by factors such as mental health issues, poverty, trauma and victimization of women. Over the last 30 years (1980-2009) the gender gap in arrests has narrowed and the changing pattern of arrests that lead to narrowed gender gap is not concurrent across the categories of criminal activities. Aggravated assault has accounted for a narrowed gender gap over the past 30 years due to a rise in female arrests which has more than doubled. The reason being said that it is not merely an increase in female offenders that have lead to this but an overall decrease in male arrests. However the crime rates may vary

The authors this week all proposed the fundamental issue with current theories as the ignoring of the female gender and how current theories assume motives for crime to be equal across genders. Simpson (1989) and Chesney-Lind (2006) take the biggest stance on how not only gender influences criminal perspectives but race as well. This is an extremely important notion. Colored women do not experience the chivalry that white women are often afforded under the system. While the current belief is that women in general are subjected to less harsher punishments than men, this is simply not the case. Black women are incarcerated at nearly the same rate as white men. This is significantly less than their counterparts, but with their continued damnation by the media their rates of incarceration could see a dramatic increase as self-fulfilling prophecy takes hold. Another important factor that has caused women to often receive lenient sentences is the notion of the nuclear family. It is important to note that women are often giver probation or pre-trail release when they have a family because they are expected to take care of them. The idea that women have to care for their families is a societal and cultural construct that has labeled women as the expected caregiver. Even with all of the progress feminists have made since the 1960s, women are still expected to be the

To begin the essay, it is best to look at the general concept of women policing according to an article called Policing Women/Top Cops/Triumph of Spirit, the history and current status of women in law enforcement is a topic of interest for women who wish to enter the profession (Rienerth, 2001). It through this article, that women were first used in the criminal justice system in the 1800s to deal with female prisoners as they were matrons in jails and prisons (Rienerth, 2001). Early female police officers often came from the ranks of social work and were located in separate department, had separate outfits, pay scales and duties from the male officers (Rienerth, 2001). Often times because of the female officers’ social work experience it was

A few reasons a person may not report a rape includes: denial, fear of the legal system, fear of retaliation, guilt and blame, personal matters and victim-offender relationship. Due to denial, victims do not report rape because they may not be sure if it was rape. In order for a victim to come to the decision of reporting rape he or she needs to realize it was rape. Some victims do not realize it was rape due to the issue of less violence (Burgess et al., pg.376). The victims who report their rapes are the ones who acknowledge it was rape and the rape that occurred was more violent (Burgess et al., pg.376). In other words, the rapes that included more violence included acts such as being held down, slapped around and seriously injured while on the other hand less violent rapes may include verbal abuse so victims may not acknowledge this is still rape even if they were not seriously injured (Burgess et al., pg.376).