The Feminist Perspective Of Criminology Essay - 2349 Words

Feminist perspective in criminology is dedicated to examining crime in a way that acknowledges how women experience crime both as offenders and victims. Because rape is a crime that primarily victimises women, it is important to draw on the feminist perspective when analysing it. In New Zealand legislation, rape is defined by Section 128(2) of the Crimes Act 1961 as: â€Å"Person A rapes person B if person A has sexual connection with person B, effected by the penetration of person B’s genitalia by person A’s penis,— (a) without person B’s consent to the connection; and (b) without believing on reasonable grounds that person B consents to the connection.† but by limiting the legal definition of rape to â€Å"intercourse without consent†, the violent nature of sexual assault is being ignored in favour of seeing it simply as illegal sex. By defining rape this way we are not acknowledging the fact that rape is used as a tool to dominate and control the victim and that prevents us from addressing the issue of rape in an appropriate way (Cook Jones, 2007). In New Zealand we have a rape culture that comprises much more than just the physical act of rape. In order to address rape culture we must look beyond rape as a crime and examine our attitudes towards rape, towards victims of rape and towards women in general. Buchwald, Fletcher and Roth (2005) define rape culture as â€Å"a complex set of beliefs that encourages male sexual aggression and supports violence against women† (p. vii). It isShow MoreRelatedFeminism And Criminology871 Words   |  4 Pagesuncover the impact of feminist approaches within criminology. It will demonstrate how these theoretical perspectives have changed our opinion on women as victims, as well as criminals themselves. By exploration of taboo subjects such as the danger of prostitution looking into how it can prove problematic for feminism. In addition to the labelling of domestic violence, whilst uncovering a variety of key theorists and perspectives. Feminism is crucial to the study of criminology as it takes away traditionalRead MoreFuture of Criminology1590 Words   |  7 PagesThe future of Criminology etc. Criminology is, as John Lea (1998) points out, not so much a discipline as a field, its distinctiveness is not its knowledge base but the form of its focus: theories of crime, criminal law and the relation between the two - in this it is a sub-category of the sociology of deviance. It can, and never should be, conceived of as a separate discipline, its categories and processes are social constructs, they have no separate ontological reality. It cannot, thereforeRead MoreDescribe the Basis of Feminist Criminology1013 Words   |  5 PagesThe Basis Of Feminist Criminology Feminist criminology was created out of the realization that criminology from its beginnings focused on the male criminal and the unlawful acts they committed. When in the fact it could be argued female crime was studied as far back as 1800s, female criminal activity, its causes and the effects in which it placed on public opinion were often disregarded. Over the past 20 years, there has been a significantly different approach in how females are being dealt withRead MoreFeminism : A Feminist Perspective1168 Words   |  5 Pageseye-opening articles, groundbreaking books, and activism has influenced my intellectual journal through feminist theory. 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Traditional criminology considered female delinquency to be considered unusual and improper for women, since it was not according to the role they had to playRead MoreRace, Class And Gender1032 Words   |  5 Pageswith the ‘critical criminology’ (Hudson, 2002). This serves as a ‘control’ for our later discussion when we discuss race, class and gender. Secondly, we will look at three different aspects of prison; the control of prisoners, treatment of prisoners and services provided by the criminal justice system and how race, class and gender intertwine with these three notions. The control of prisoners refers to how the prison as an institution itself restricts prisoners. We will use feminist concerns to lookRead MoreCrime And Social Control Theory Essay1712 Words   |  7 Pagesthrough social and environmental life factors while labeling theory provides the basis that criminal activity continues due to the societal response to certain behavior (Hagan, 2016). Labeling theory, also referred to as the societal reaction perspective, is the idea that â€Å"individuals are deviant mainly because they have been labeled as deviant by social control agencies and others† (Hagan, 2016, p. 182); This theory focuses heavily on how society reacts to certain activity and how they label individualsRead MoreSocial Reaction Theory And Feminist Theory Of Crimes1476 Words   |  6 Pages Social Reaction Theory and Feminist Theory of Crimes are the subject theories I am going to review, examine, and explain. I will be discussing the evolution of social reaction and labeling theory, which is mainly concerned with how individuals’ personal identities are highly influenced by the way that society has a tendency to classify them as offenders. I will also be reviewing the various forms of feminist theories, which began as reactions to the lack of reasonable theorizing about why femalesRead MoreImplications of Feminist Criminology for Criminal Just ice523 Words   |  2 PagesImplications of Feminist Criminology for Criminal Justice All feminist theorists share a common focus on gender inequality; however feminism can be described as a set of perspectives rather than a single viewpoint (Strider, N.d.). Therefore, challenging gender biasness in the criminal justice system from the feminist perspective can take many forms given the fact that there a lot of sources of gender inequality in the system. For example, the early theories of criminal behavior largely ignored genderRead MoreCriminology : A Social And Political Movement3263 Words   |  14 PagesFeminist criminology is a social and political movement. It is a theoretical approach which did not rise up until the 19th century and continues to develop within modern criminology. During the 18th century Marxism and functionalism was first introduced within criminology which was the most dominant perspective and a positivist approach to crime. Throughout the 18th century criminological thought was gender biased as most theorists were males studying male crime, t herefore creating masculinity criminology