Patriarchy, Crime, and Justice: Feminist Criminology in an Era of Backlash

• History of Feminist Criminology
    * gender is the strongest predictor of crime likeliness (men are significantly more likely)
    * researchers have almost completely removed women from studies about crime - changed during the second wave of feminism (1960s)
    * initial critiques made by feminist criminologists
      * women and girls were ignored in most mainstream crim
      * when they were reported on, their experiences were stereotyped
      * the large gender gap in crime rates wasn’t explored
      * crimes w female victims received minimal focus (ex: domestic violence, sexual assault, human trafficking)

• starting points:
    * publication of key journal issues and books in the 1970s
    * founding of the Women and Crime Division of the American Society of Criminology in 1982

• 20th century: looking back, looking forward
    * prior to the start of feminist crim:
      * gender violence (sexual assualt, sexual harrassment, wife abuse) was ignored, minimized, and trivialized
      * girl and women criminals were overlooked / excluded in mainstream works AND demonized, masculinized, and sexualized in that literature
    * the naming of the types and dimensions of female victimization had a significant impact on public policy
    * had to deal with the masculinization/emancipation hypothesis of women’s crime
      * argues that women are demanding equal opportunity in the crime world the same way they are demanding equal opportunity in fields of legitimate endeavor
      * ultimately concluded to be incorrect
    * 80s and 90s saw breakthrough research
      * documentation of girls’ participation in gangs
      * role of sexual and physical victimization in girls’ and women’s pathways into women’s crime
      * gender and race create unique pathways for girl and women offenders into crime
      * masculinity and crime need to be both theorized and researched
    * contemporary approaches to gender and crime
      * avoid the problems of reductionism and determinism
      * stress the complexity, tentativeness, and variability with which people negotiate gender identity
      * society and social life are patterned on the basis of gender
      * the gender order is complex and shifting

• feminist criminology and the backlash
    * crime used in politics
      * politicians waging wars on crime that really meant wars on race
      * “moral values”
        * designed to appeal to right-wing christians
        * recriminalization of abortion
        * denial of civil rights to gay and lesbian americans
      * to challenge right-wing initiatives, the field of fem crim must
        * put a greater priority on theorizing patriarchy and crime
        * focus on the ways that the definition of the crime problem and criminal justice practices support patriarchal practices and worldviews

• african american women account for almost half of all incarcerated women

• media demonization and the masculinization of female offenders
    * the second wave of feminism had triggered an array of conservative political, policy, and media responses
      * steady stream of media stories about violent and bad girls
      * masculinization theory: the same forces that propel men into violence will increasingly produce violence in girls and women once they are freed from the constraints of their gender
      * issues with this:
        * girls’ violence was not increasing 
        * it created a self-fulfilling prophecy
        * the criminal justice system was harder on girls because of it

• criminalizing victimization
    * mandatory arrest in domestic assault cases
      * win bc domestic assault was finally becoming criminalized
      * loss because victim advocates had to work with the police and prosecutors, which they distrusted
      * in the mid 80s there was overwhelming evidence that arrest decreased violence against women
        * later proven that arrest was far less effective than originally thought
        * arrests for adult women increased by 30%
        * arrests for adult men fell by 5.8%
        * mutual arrests: arresting both parties in a domestic violence incident if it’s unclear who the primary aggressor is
        * fighting back against domestic violence was now also considered domestic violence
        * men use the system to intimidate and control their wives

• women’s imprisonment and the emergence of vengeful equity
    * women’s imprisonment rates are soaring far more than women’s crime rates
    * began at the same time that the US dropped the idea of rehabilitation
      * exploited the public fear of crime to adopt the manner of mean-spirited crime policies
    * vengeful equity: treating women offenders as though they were men, particularly when the outcome is punitive
      * pregnant women are shackled to the bed while giving labor
      * women’s boot camps
    * institutional subcultures in women’s prisons make it unlikely that women will speak out against abuse
      * encourage correctional officers to cover for each other
      * inadequate protected accorded to women who file complaints
      * public stereotype of women in prison makes it hard for her to support her case in court
      * cos punishing women inmates for offenses that would be ignored in male prisons

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