The Principles of Feminist Criminology - Essay Example

Feminist Criminology Feminist Criminology There are many types of feminism perspectives and feminists and therefore there are adaptations on feminist criminology. This shows hence that no single form of criminology can exist. Although feminist criminology has its roots in the main feminist theories, the approach commonly known is grounded in the black feminist theory and the critical race feminist theory. Traditionally men and women have been treated differently in different cultures. Women were given lesser and more lenient penalties than their male counterparts because of the perception of their sex. The application of feminism to the field of criminology provides a critical assessment to the most basic regulations, reproduction of power, ordering the society and control. The principles of maintaining rules and behaviour and the interpretation of right and wrong can be taken as basic freedoms and are defended and described by the legal system (Cain 1989, p. 149). Feminist criminology started out of the women’s movement in the 1970s in response to the neglect women experienced in the male dominated criminology. Early female criminology information was founded on the surveys that showed illegal activities thriving. The report found that girls were worse in criminal activities than initially thought. This though pointed out that they were still not as worse as their male counterparts. Men are viewed as non-gendered subjects. Theorists believed that men and women experienced and perceived the world in different ways and hence it was vital for women to have a say in interpreting their behaviours contrary to having their actions decided by beliefs that did not include women experience. Standpoint theorists assert that human activities such as biological, physical, possessions and the materiality shape the way knowledge is formed and delineates the inequalities of patriarchal perceptions. When a crime is viewed as an act of aggression, men are biologically wired for their aggressiveness; therefore the criminal theory is male-centred and so are the criminal practices. Since the society agrees that men are pre-disposed to aggression that often leads to crime, women are socialized as passive actors and are therefore many times victimized. The resulting implications for women are their helplessness and dependence on men (Cain 1989, p. 149). Causes of crime in the feminist criminology illuminate how women became prone to crime as their male counterparts. The emancipation of women in the 1970s that increased the economic opportunities and freedom allowed them to more often engage to criminal activities just like the men. Although women were demanding equality in the legitimate fields that were dominated my men in the society, behind the scenes almost a similar number were struggling to dethrone men in the illegal activities and major crimes in the world such as robbery, massive corruption, murder and white collar crime. As they are climbing the corporate ladder, they are well placed to pursue their dreams even if it means going into white collar crime and get rich quick schemes like money laundering and fraudulent activities. It is feminism that has made female criminology more visible due to the number of female being prosecuted, sentencing and policing though the statistics is still below men in the society. Offences such as robbery and murder are traditionally perceived to be male crimes though it appears that criminology is not gender based but rather hinged on opportunities that befall both sexes. There was somewhat a failure in complete research into feminist criminology and this was largely blamed on the male domination of the discourse that crime has become and that make only take time on male related issues. This also betrayed the rigidity of the male stereotypes that men have been trying to run away from not to be seen as prejudicial and pseudoscience. Cesare in 1903 identified the female physiognomy that was thought to be most likely determining criminal propensity in the society. It was accrediting that criminal women are stronger than men and the consequence was that prison would not affect them at all. He concluded that real female criminals were rare and that they had evolved in a lesser way due to the inactive nature of their lives as compared to men who have to contend everyday with pressing issues in the community. The females, therefore he says, were withheld from breaking the law as they lacked the intelligence and the initiative to commit criminal activities. Feminist criminology is still viewed as small scale as opposed to the crimes in which males are involved. In 2009 in the United States, of every five suspects that were arrested two were females and interestingly, the most common offence for which both sexes were arrested was the same - violence against each other (Cain 1993, p. 82). However, there were differences between the offences for which adult and juvenile females were arrested. Females in the justice system still serve shorter sentences than men both in prison and community services. This could be attributed to the difference in types of offences committed by the two sexes but again it could be attributed to the fact females are considered vulnerable and are thus handed lenient sentences (Cain 1993, p. 79). The United Kingdom Criminal Justice Act 1991 states that ‘the secretary of state shall in each year publish such information as he considers expedient for the purpose of facilitating the performance of those engaged in the administration of justice to avoid discriminating against any persons on the ground of race or sex or any other improper ground” (Ministry of Justice, 2009). There have been calls and subsequently documents and reports that there should be a development of a distinct approach and manner in dealing with men and women within the criminal justice system. Women have been in most cases the victims of crime as per the study that was conducted by British Crime Survey. There was fear of women experiencing theft and intimate violence from men though men were also at risk of violence. Women experience a greater proportion of violence from a person they know well - this includes domestic violence. Men on the other hand were victims of stranger crime. Throughout history, women have been non-entities in the system that was initially designed to rehabilitate men. This shows that women and girls in criminology exist as “other” - only compared to men because they do not have an identity of their own. There was a notion that the number of women in crime was so little that it was negligible. When women began getting involved in the criminal justice system, things changed significantly as they started being noticed and could be prosecuted for crimes (Cain 1983, p.167). Female prisons were designed to handle females in a softer way than the men prisons as they were thought to be soft. But when the realization came to the authorities that criminals are all the same, it was argued that the sentences should be equal and effective to ensure behavioural change. The criminal justice system that for long took women in crime for granted was astounded when the changes started being noticed in huge margins. The number of women in prison has increased six times since 1980s. Consequently, prisons have been overstretched, a fact that made the correction officials to house women prisoners in modelled hospitals, abandoned training schools, and converted motels to house the upsurge of women prisoners. The government though has started opening new units to house new women criminals and with it has come the perception that crime affects both men and women. An interesting research found that the number of women criminals since 1990 has doubled that of new male criminal cases. This is pegged on the idea mentioned above that with freedom and economic footing; women are finally finding the opportunities to engage in criminal activities (Cain 1993, p. 252). The largest source of female offenders in prison is drug offences and the growth of the number of women in prisons can be attributed to the concerted war on drugs in Europe and all over the world. This can therefore be seen as an undeclared war on women. Compared to men whose main crime is violence, not much publicity has been committed to war on violent crimes as has been recently seen with drug trafficking and use. It is also important to note that women are used by men in the drug business, thus putting them more at risk while the males go scot-free or simply know how to manoeuvre their ways around the system. Sigmund Freud’s theory consisted of the idea that women experience “penis envy” and suffer inferiority complex as they compensate for being narcissistic. This theory suggests that women were fundamentally irrational in that they were not concerned with being builders of modernism but with trivial matters. Sigmund even thought that women did not posses enough sense of justice. Female crime was therefore interpreted by Sigmund as longing for a penis. Obviously the feminists strongly reject this theory and view it as undermining feminism. Other theorists who furthered feminist criminologists are Cesare Lombroso who published the female offender which portrayed short, dark-haired women with masculine features as potential criminals. His theory suggests that female criminals can handle pain better than male. W.I. Thomas in 1923 who published the ‘Unadjusted Girl’ that claimed that female criminals commit crimes out of wishes for excitement and in search for new experiences. Many women feel confined and repressed and release their frustration through criminal activity (Thomas 1993, p. 22). Otto Pollak in 1950 authored ‘The Criminality of Women’ which showed female offenders as deceitful, sneaky, unemotional and vengeful. He even argued that they prefer professions such as nurses, teaching, and maids so that they could do undetectable crimes. The theory suggests that these women were suffering from mental conditions such as nymphomania and kleptomania (Cain, 1993, p. 97) Studies supporting feminist criminology show that female crimes have increased by 140% since 1970s and the upward trend is steady. A research tracks these female offenders in FBI part two because they outnumber males by far in this category. This part includes prostitution and runaway crimes. They are also making significant entry into the male dominated crimes such as fraud, forgery, theft, and even in embezzlement. Female were also found to be the likely criminals in homicides and intimate crimes (Marx 1979, p. 89). Female serial killers have also increased to 8% of all serial killers. Female offenders are also found to be slightly older than male offenders that are 30 years of age as compared to 28 years for male. Only 28% of female offenders are juvenile. About two to three million female offenders are arrested each year in the United States. Every year, 11,000 children are killed by their parents and mothers account for 57% of the killers. Mothers kill the children when they are still infants while fathers commit the crime when children are mostly about 8 years old. Females are mostly involved in property crimes and the prostitution, drug offences and nuisance crimes. Therefore there should be no perception that they practice more violent crimes than men. Larceny theft is the most common followed by drug trafficking. Credit card fraud, shoplifting, cheque writing and welfare fraud are some examples of larceny theft (Marx, 1979, p. 254). Teela Sanders (2004) in his study of the sex industry in Birmingham between 2000 and 2001 found out that many women in the streets indulged in drug use besides prostitution. Not many women agreed to be interviewed for fear of being victimized because the police were also on the lookout for them. This showed that as much as they were indulging in an illegal business, the enthusiasm to stop them was not that high except when it came to drug abuse. The demands of life had it that they were so busy to talk to a researcher because they had to earn that money for their families. These prostitutes were very up-to-date with policing news that they knew where to be and at what time. They shared all the encounters they had with the police and this kind of kept them safe and on the other hand gave the police a hard time. In this setting, avoiding the police was the priority because the rate of prosecution for prostitution was on a high since between one to five of eight women were prosecuted on daily basis. When looking at the street workers on one hand they are a nuisance and an eye sore because of the nature of their business but on the other hand, they too are in need of help and love because of the dangers of prostitution and their vulnerability (Masson 1999, p. 77). Thus their sentencing should involve penalties that will actually rehabilitate them than merely teaching them a lesson. Social disorganization theory is criticised by feminists that it only makes parenthetical reference to women. These feminists claim that women did less crime because they were monitored closely by boys and men in the traditional societies. They also claim that they are no qualitative, case-study research on the lives of women in particular. Strain theorists are accused as of double standards. Under this theory, when a man commits a crime, it is in some instances seen as normal (Cain 1973, p. 67). When women commit crime, strain theory sees it as a weakness, thus the double standard. Learning theories like the Sutherland’s differential association theory are criticised by feminists as relying more on male examples while trying to explain women. Control theories such as the Hirschi social bond theory are criticized by feminists for focusing almost exclusively on social class at the expense of gender and race. Feminists therefore tend to focus on gender. References Cain, M. 1973, Society and the Policeman’s Role, Routledge and Keegan, London. Cain, M. 1983, The International State. Academic Press, London. Cain, M. 1989, Growing up Good: Policing the Behaviour of Girls in Europe, Sage Publications, London. Cain, M. 1993, Lawyers Works: Translation and Transgressions, Open University Press, London. Mansson, S. A. & Hedin, U. 1999, “Breaking the Matthew effect: on women Leaving prostitution,” International Journal of Social Welfare, Vol 8, pp. 67–77. Marx, K. & Cain, M. 1979, Marx and Engels on Law, Academic Press, London. Miller, J. 1995, “Gender and power on the streets,” Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, Vol. No. 4, pp. 427–451. Ministry of Justice, 2009, “Statistics on Race and the Criminal Justice System 2007/8,” available from http://www.justice.gov.uk/stats-race-criminal-justice-system-07-08-revised.pdf Thomas, P. 1993, Unadjusted Girl. Academic Press, London. Read More