2. Early Feminist Perspectives
on Crime…
MARXIST FEMINISM
LIBERAL FEMINISM
Theoretical foundation in
18th and 19th century ideas
of liberty and equality
(Jaggar & Rothenberg,
1984).
Each gender commits crime
consistent with social and
cultural role expectations.
Female crime is a result of
gender socialization.
The more equal the genders
become in society, the more
alike the amount and types
Theoretical foundation in
The Origin of the Family,
Private Property, and the
State by Friedrich Engels
(1884).
Gender conflict due to the
competing economic
interests between men and
women.
Capitalism causes women to
assume subordinate roles in
society and their labor in
the home generates profit
for capitalists.
3. Early Feminist Perspectives
Theoretical foundation
on Crime… rights
influenced by the civil
movement and the women’s
liberation movement of the
1960’s.
Views crime as part of the
biological fact that men are
born to be aggressive and
dominant. Therefore, crime is
an expression of men’s need to
control.
Women are subordinated by men
into a sexual division of labor
which originates in procreation
and child care, and then,
extends to all other areas of
life (Jaggar, 1983).
SOCIALIST FEMINISM
RADICAL FEMINISM
Theoretical foundation in
concepts of Marxist
feminism, as well as, gender
analyses by Friedrich
Engels.
Attempts to merge Marxist
and radical feminism by
looking at connections
between patriarchy and
capitalism which lead men to
crime and women to
subordination.
Women are given less
4. Contemporary Perspectives
on Crime…
Generally, pathways into
Crime is a way in
MASCULINITIES
which males exhibit
their masculinity.
Different
masculinities have
various impacts on
the content of
criminal behavior
(Messerschmidt,
1993).
crime and victimization
GENDERED LIVES
are not gender-neutral.
Instead, pathways into
crime are gender-specific.
females’ pathways into
Crime refleCt women’s
unique friendship groups,
motherhood or parenting
roles, and hardships.
According to Daly (1998),
this concept emphasizes
the significant
differences in the ways
that women experience
society compared with
5. Intersection of Race, Class,
gender & complex social, historical, and
plaCe on Crime…
Gender is a
Key perspectives of Daly andbiological sex
cultural product related to Chesney-Lind
differences and reproductive capacities.
(1988) feminist theory:
Gender and gender relations order social
life and social institutions in fundamental
ways.
Gender relations are based on an
organizing prinCiple of men’s superiority,
along with, men’s soCial and politiCaleconomic dominance over women.
systems of knowledge refleCt men’s views of
the natural and social worlds.
Women should be at the center of
intellectual inquiry – not peripheral,
invisible, or appendages of men.
6. Postmodern Perspectives on
Crime…
Rejects criminological positivism and
absolute truths.
Emphasizes deconstructing
traditional explanations and
categories of crime and offenders
found in positivist science. In other
words, seeks to deconstruct the race,
class, and gender stratification which
developed in the modern Western
world (d’unger, 2005).
Concerned with the constructed
7. Daly, K. (1998). Gender,
References crime, and criminology. In
M. Tonry (Ed.), The handbook of crime and justice
(pp. 85-108). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
Daly, K. & Chesney-Lind, M. (1988). Feminism and
criminology. Justice Quarterly, 5, 497-535.
d’unger, A. V. (2005). Feminist theories of
criminal behavior. In R. A. Wright & J. M. Miller
(Eds.), Encyclopedia of criminology (Vol. 1, pp.
559-565). New York: Routledge.
Jaggar, A. M. (1983). Feminist politics and human
nature. Totowa, NJ: Rowman & Allanheld.
Jaggar, A. M. & Rothenberg, P. (Eds.). (1984).
Feminist frameworks. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Messerschmidt, J. W. (1993). Masculinities and
crime: Critique and reconceptualization of
theory. Totowa, NJ: Rowman & Littlefield.
