Topic 10 - Feminist Explanations

• 'Malestream' refers to the idea that criminology has an overwhelming bias towards male offending
• Transgressive criminology refers to going beyond the boundaries of traditional criminology - e.g, the laws and the way they are enforced can harm women.
• Smart & Cain - Transgressive criminology/Postmodern feminism

  • Focus on street crime is a reflection of male concerns
  • Instead sociologists should look at domestic violence, women staying home due to fear of crime, and the way they are treated by the law in issues of rape and harassment.
  • Women are secondary victims - the crime and the legal system
• Marxist feminists criticise postmodern feminists for failing to focus on the wider structural factors within capitalism that oppress women.
• Femicide = the intentional murder of women because they are women
• World Economic Forum (2023) - Radical feminism

  • 6 women killed every hour by men around the world
  • In the Uk a woman is killed by a man every 3 days
• The Femicide Report - Radical Feminism

  • 1425 femicides between 2009-2018
  • 62% of perpetrators were a current or ex spouse
• The Casey Report (2023) - Radical Feminism

  • Result of the Sarah Everard murder by police officer
  • Uncovered a 'toxic culture of misogyny, racism, and homophobia' within Metropolitan police.
  • 2-3 police officers will face trial every week until 2025 for violence against women
• Official statistics

  • 1 in 4 women will experience domestic abuse in their lifetime
  • 1.4 million women annually
• Dobash & Dobash 1980 - Radical Feminists

  • Domestic violence becomes 'routine' and 'normal'
  • Men felt they had the right to 'discipline' their wives for being 'bad' wives
  • Rarely complained about it or sought medical attention
• Dworkin - Radical Feminist

  • Rape, prostitution, and pornography are inevitable in a male dominated culture.
  • Pornography is sex discrimination - created and produced for men, by men.
  • All sex is like rape as women are not given the same social, economic, and legal rights as men so are not free to give consent.
  • Marital rape was legal until 1991
• Dworkin is criticised for suggesting that all men are potential rapists which is biologically deterministic (which feminists spent a long time rejecting.) She is accused of reducing the power and autonomy that women possess and reducing them to powerless victims (something liberal feminists try to combat)
• Heidensohn - Liberal Feminist

  • Women are more conformist due to the control of the patriarchy at home, public, and work.
  • Home - daughters overcontrolled, women expected to do housework
  • Public - virtual curfew, limit behaviour due to labels like 'slut' and 'bitch'
  • Work - harassment, controlled by male superiors
• Heidensohn is criticised as many think the idea that women commit less crime is a myth. Pollack highlights this through the 'chivalry thesis.' Campbell used a SRS to find that women committed the same amount of crime.
• Ansley - Marxist Feminism

  • Women are the 'takers of shit' as they are more likely to be victims of crime and oppression.
  • Family is the cornerstone of oppression - domestic violence is a result of their husband's anger towards his weak position in capitalist society.
  • Women do free domestic labour which is a moral 'crime'
• Ansley is criticised for ignoring the victimisation of men - a study by Parity suggests 40% of all victims of domestic abuse are men. Domestic violence happens in all social classes and societies, not just capitalism.