Liberal feminist criminology is a perspective within the field that aims to understand gender-based inequalities within the criminal justice system and society, recognizing gender as a social, historical, and cultural construct. Liberal feminist criminologists critically examine the criminal justice system, questioning its narratives and motives for "failing" certain individuals and groups, particularly women, who lack access to legitimate means of achieving societal goals. This perspective emerged in the 1960s and 1970s, coinciding with increasing crime rates among women as they gained more economic opportunities and social independence from men. In the 1950s, there were seven male offenders for each female offender, but now, the ratio stands …show more content…
Conversations stemming from liberal feminist criminology often empower marginalized voices from diverse ethnic, racial, and minority backgrounds, fostering a more inclusive dialogue and understanding of different perspectives regarding the justice system and crime. It serves as a pathway for advocating institutional changes toward achieving gender equality, though policy solutions may be challenging to implement without radical social and political reforms. Critiques include concerns that radical feminist criminology may portray women solely as victims and men as perpetrators, overlooking other forms of oppression within the criminal justice system. Cultural Criminology focuses on the cultural aspects of crime, deviance, and social control, drawing on subcultural research, labeling theories, and phenomenology. These concepts shape the stereotypes of crime and the symbols and representations associated with them. Since culture encompasses collective meanings and identities, it influences individuals' actions and practices, as seen in urban areas where street art, graffiti, and neglected public spaces may foster resistance to social
Imagine Kirsty and Marc, a young couple who resort to robbing a house in a desperate attempt to make money. They are caught, charged with the same crime and given the same sentence, except for one thing: the male dominant world we live in does not stop at the courtroom door. Marc is sent to a medium security prison one hour from his family with every opportunity to earn his way into a minimum-security facility. He spends his days learning to cook in the kitchenette and has access to basic necessities like aftershave or hairspray. Meanwhile, Kirsty walks into her frigid six-by-ten foot cell with bars for a door, a toilet in plain view and not a trace of sunlight. She is twelve hours from home with no hope of changing location since there is nowhere else to go. The stories of rapes, beatings and riots told by her new neighbours are endless. Kirsty realizes that the only way for her to survive this place is to oppose nature and forget what it is to feel. This is discrimination against women as they are penalized more severely than men for committing less crime. How can women strive for equality when they cannot attain justice in the justice system itself? The controversy over the gender bias goes beyond the "too-few-to-count" syndrome as Sally Armstrong calls it, it is a question of women's constitutional right to be treated equally.
Cultural criminology is a relatively new perspective and approach to understanding crime and deviance. Cultural criminology first began to develop in the 1990s and rapidly progressed in to a new field of criminology that is both influential and informative. The core concept of cultural criminology is built upon by using traditional approaches from different disciplines such as sociological studies, cultural studies, symbolic interactionism and many other disciplines, theories and methods. (Oxford bibliography Keith Hayward) Although it would seem that cultural criminology is nothing more than an interdisciplinary field, using only the studies and theories of some of the disciplines mentioned above - it actually does offer a new line of thought and individuality that other fields of criminology in the past did not. This is because instead of viewing crime objectively, it instead looks at crime subjectively by analysing the idiosyncrasies of the modern sociocultural environment. It offers an explanation of crime and deviance as a constructed result from either political, social or cultural actors and groups who commit crime, because of a shared sense of meaning, emotions, symbols, styles and even fashion within different subcultures. (Oxford bibliography Keith Hayward) Cultural Criminologists hope to explain and examine how the meaning of certain aspects of a subculture can play an active role in society and the construction of crime, not only by explaining why crime is committed, but also how crime is controlled. This essay will explain what cultural criminology is by using The 1989 Hillsborough disaster as an example in illustrating some of the research findings by cultural criminologists. There have been many different topic area...
...ere taken in the initial discussions of getting tough on crime in the late 1960s and early 1970s: the conservative side which argued that “poverty was caused not by structural factors related to race and class but rather by culture – particularly black culture” and the liberal side which argued that “social reforms such as the War on Poverty and civil rights legislation would get at the root causes of criminal behavior and stressed the social conditions that predictably generate crime” (Alexander, 2012, p. 45). The liberals were definitely onto something. The process by which we address crime must account for the intersectionality of our country relative to crime. We must respond by shaping our legal framework around a system that is not racially biased, that takes care of the poor and that accounts for gender differences that largely separate males and females.
When the criminal justice system was established, one of the goals was to create neutrality and fairness between the sexes. However, during those times, women were not known for behaving in such manners. If a woman did in fact take part in any criminal activities, those crimes would have been blames on an individual that could of not fought for themselves. Even though people might believe that there is no such thing as ‘stereotyping’ in the criminal justice system, it is quite obvious that women are constantly being looked down upon because of their sex. In general, women tend to be treated like fragile objects that could break at any moment; the truth is that women can behave like men. Society stereotypes women; and, the criminal justice system is no different. When it comes to the stereotyping of women in the criminal justice system, society presents women who are indeed capable of committing such crimes as victims because by doing do they can achieve a lesser sentence or if necessary a longer sentence that will protect them from any harm.
Throughout history, certain crimes have been separated into different categories base on their prevalence. For every crime, the offense and charge is different. In addition, not every crime is committed by the same gender. Crimes such as larceny, fraud, forgery, and prostitution (Chesney-Lind, 1986) tend to be committed more often by women; whereas, assault, murder, trafficking, etc tend to be committed by men. When it comes to the stereotyping of women in the criminal justice system one could say that women present themselves as victims to reach a lesser sentence or that by presenting themselves as victims they will have a longer sentence that will protect them.
Since 1970, there has been an increasing and alarming rise 138 percent of violent crimes committed by women. Still, while the equivalent percentage compared to male violence is small 15 percent to 85 percent the fact that the numbers have elevated so drastically points to something changing in society.
This essay will crucially consider whether there is inequalities within the criminal justice system between mothers and fathers, this will analyses a lot of statistics about males and females within prison with ratios of mothers in prison and that is compared to fathers, also compare between the crime and relations to the crime to show a clear cut understanding if there is or isn’t inequalities. The essay will discuss criminological theories linking in to how crime is seen in society the differences of each gender having committed the same crime the theories that will be used is, feminist theory which will focus on how mothers end up in prison and also how they are treated differently to fathers within the criminal justice system. The second theory will be the strain theory this will be about how strain and pressure can build up to a criminal act being carried out by females and the aftermath of being convicted, this will relate to how children become a victim between parents being incarcerated and the focus on the strain that goes through a mother compared to a father. Other approaches that link within the feminist and strain theory is oppression, social control and male domination, which will relate to how the construction of non-controllable actions would lead the pathway to prison for mothers and fathers and how these factors play a huge role.
...in experiences of subordination between races can lead the reader into believing race is at the bottom of a hierarchy, suggesting all forms of oppression are not equal after all. Still, some would argue a feminist criminology altogether is irrelevant because a focus on women breaking the law for different reasons than men relates to biological positivism (Carlen, 1990b). Noting the differences between men and women could potentially lead to a reductionist view, the idea of women are less on a scale to men. However, without identifying the differences between men and women, and highlighting the impact race has over other social inequalities, a feminist criminology could not succeed in the contemporary era. Otherwise a White male mainstream criminology will continue to prevail, with women being judged against a law constructed by men for the deviant behaviour of men.
Women in the criminal justice system was an idea that was virtually unheard of before almost 200 years ago. During this time, society established that men were to be the breadwinners, and that women were to take care of the children and the home. When women expressed the desire to get out into the workforce, there was some backlash resulting from the notion. However, when they showed interest in getting involved with the police department, most men immediately took offense. They used methods such as legislation and covert discrimination to try and dissuade women from policing and keep them in their traditional roles as wives and mothers. Despite their efforts, women have grown to become vital members in the criminal justice system today. Proving their male counterparts wrong, women held on to the concept that they could be valuable in other ways and become hard-working police officers who protect and serve their communities on the frontlines.
For years the equality of women and men have been the central focus of discussion. Criminology has solely aimed their studies on men who commit crimes rather than women. The reason being is that more males commit crimes than females. Studies also show that men also commit more serious offenses than females as to why females get overlooked. Women as criminals even today do not get as much notoriety unless it’s a major crime being committed. Researchers considered female criminals as unnatural female behavior and that females are more nurturing, docile, and caring. The Women’s Movement was a fight for equal opportunity for men and women. The start of educational and occupational opportunities became a staple of women in the field of criminology.
Traditionally, there has been little research on or interest in the impact of female crime in modern society. In addition, juvenile crime rates are on the rise, which combine for a void of research or information on female juvenile offenders. In general, crime rates for women offenders have risen since the 1990's. Increasing numbers of young women are also offending at higher rates. In a 1996 U.S. Department of Justice Report, the number of arrests of young women had doubled between 1989 and 1993. Twenty percent of all juvenile arrests were committed by girls, an increase of 87 percent. However, according to The National Study of Delinquency Prevention in Schools, males are far more likely to admit to criminal involvement than are females. For example, 12 percent of males and 4 percent of females reported carrying a hidden weapon other than a pocketknife in the past year (Wilson, p.150). There are several theories for this rise in crime proposed by modern feminists, including that the introduction of women into traditional male roles prompted women to commit increasingly dangerous and violent crimes. However, this paper will rely on Meda Chesney-Lind's theories from The Female Offender.
The Feminist Theory argues that due to the high rates of female poverty, and women raising children on their own, they are more likely to turn to less violent crimes for money (Macionis. 2015). The 'Secondary' of the 'Secondary' of the 'Secondary' of the 'Secondary' of the 'Secondary' of the 'S For example, in 2013 women made up 41% of fraud arrests, 48% of embezzlement, and 68% of prostitutes (Macionis). 2015). The 'Secondary' of the 'Secondary' of the 'Secondary' of the 'Secondary' of the 'Secondary' of the 'S Unfortunately, the response to crimes committed by women is not much better. When it comes to policing for certain crimes, women are arrested in higher numbers.
Feminist criminology is the study of crime in terms of gender for example why men commit more crime than women, why women do more petty crimes, like shop lifting, than violent crime, sexism in the court system, and female victimization. Feminist criminology contains many branches. Liberal, radical, Marxist, and socialist feminism are widely recognized, although other "strands" exist such as postmodernism and ecofeminism. Most feminist criminology involves critiques about how women offenders have been ignored, distorted, or stereotyped within traditional criminology, but there is no shortage of separate theories and modifications of existing theories.
On the self-awareness questionnaire, I scored a total of 14. With that being said, I have a lot of great skills with my self-awareness. I am able to know when I am about to become angry and upset. I always tell myself when I feel that I’m in a good or bad mood, and I know what causes my emotions to change. There is need for improvement in this area because I’m unsure if I pay a lot of attention to how I feel. However, I do know when I start to become a little defensive.
In conclusion, a woman in crime is very interesting topic because it is very intense when thinking about females who have committed a crime. It gives an insight on a woman’s thoughts and feelings on why the crimes were committed in the first place. The reason I say this topic is intense because as I was reading books and articles and watching documentaries, I came across some very interesting facts and stories on why women do these types of things. There are many facts for what causes women to commit a crime and what happens to them once they are incarcerated. In some cases when women are incarcerated they want to transform their lives around for the better, and sometimes they don’t. Many people judge women and believe that they are the most precious people on earth because they’re so feminine, but honestly women can be found guilty as well.