Feminist criminology

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Feminist Criminology is the generic term for several research directions that crime and criminalization of feminist point of view of social science study. Depending on the feminist school, there are the liberal, the radical, the Marxist and the socialist approach. The term “feminist criminology” is in common use, even if it has recently given way to the more general approach of gender . The Society for Interdisciplinary Scientific Criminology (GiwK) has set up a “Gender Perspectives in Criminology Section”, which is headed by Martina Althoff.

history

It began with his British works in which since the end of the 1960s bias of the traditional " malestream " -Kriminologie was criticized and in which for the first time the experience of women as offenders and prisoners , as victims and as actors in the justice system have been described. In a second phase, post-modern approaches in feminism led to a partial reorientation from the beginning of the 1980s , whereby the previous results were subjected to a reflection. In addition to empirical studies of the criminality of women, studies were carried out on the construction of the image of women in criminal , criminological, medical etc. discourse, which now also explicitly included women of color or lesbianism.

Gerlinda Smaus is considered a pioneer of feminist criminology in German-speaking countries . Another important representative in Germany is Monika Frommel , who nonetheless also expressed herself critically.

Basic statements

Feminist criminology is a further development and, at the same time, a critique of critical criminology , which indeed addresses the social construction of crime on the basis of asymmetrical power relations, but neglected the gender aspect. The research practice of feminist criminology focuses in particular on the "women-degrading construction of legal categories" such as abortion , pornography , prostitution , sexual harassment or rape . This also includes the alternative management of criminal conflicts in women's shelters and self-help groups . Finally, “Problems of institutionalized patriarchalism in the criminal justice system” are analyzed at a higher level of abstraction.

The common starting point of all directions in feminist criminology is the statement that women have been neglected, or at least far too little, considered by conventional criminological research. One of the basic assumptions of feminist criminology is that both the ability to commit crimes and society's reaction to criminal behavior are influenced by the sex of the perpetrator. Therefore, delinquency can only be adequately analyzed taking into account the gender order. Other conditions for inequality - such as social class or age - are taken into account in this research approach alongside gender.

Domestic violence against women is also an important field of research .

criticism

Günther Kaiser accused feminist criminology of being “shaped by stereotypical ideas about 'women'”. Although seen as a whole it represents an enrichment for criminology, the emphasis and the narrowing of the analysis on the gender difference is a "narrowed, ... reduced view of the social power differences". The sex of the perpetrator has "overwhelmingly little or no effect on proceedings and findings of the criminal justice system". Karl-Ludwig Kunz also doubts that "gender really provides the key to understanding crime."

Monika Frommel denies an essential basic assumption of early feminist criminology, according to which criminal law is fundamentally a rule-stabilizing element. In addition, the patriarchy is a form of rule "which we are tending to leave". The blanket party name for women as "victims", which often stood at the beginning of feminist criminology, is therefore a "leftist myth" and today "no longer convincing". These early approaches from the 1970s should therefore be viewed as outdated. But the unequal concern of the sexes by the law does not make it unjust. Systematic discrimination against the underprivileged through the law is problematic. Frommel sums up: "Attributed crime is a negative good and produces, reinforces (or seals) typically male decline processes", while no plausible reason has been described for the gender-specific behavioral differences that lead to a predominance of male offenders over women.

literature

  • Martina Althoff, Sibylle Kappel (ed.): Gender relations and criminology . ( Criminological Journal . Supplement 5). Juventa-Verlag, Weinheim 1999, ISBN 3-7799-0904-9 .
  • Gabi Löschper, Gerlinda Smaus (ed.): The patriarchy and criminology . (Criminological Journal. Supplement 7). Juventa-Verlag, Weinheim 1999, ISBN 3-7799-0987-1 .
  • Lydia Seus : "Something went wrong in the process of emancipation". Deviation and gender . In: Roland Anhorn, Frank Bettinger (eds.): Critical criminology and social work: impulses for professional self-image and critical-reflexive action competence . Juventa Verlag, Weinheim, Munich 2002, ISBN 3-7799-0731-3 , especially II. Feminist Perspectives in Criminology (p. 88 ff.), P. 87–110 ( kritischesozialarbeit.de [PDF; 121 kB ]).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Claire M. Renzetti: Criminal Behavior, Theories of . In: Encyclopedia of Violence, Peace and Conflict . 2nd ed. Elsevier. 2008 (accessed from Credo Reference on January 25, 2013).
  2. ^ Günther Kaiser: Kriminologie. A textbook . 3. Edition. Müller, Heidelberg 1996, ISBN 3-8114-6096-X § 32 Rn. 23 ( limited preview in Google Book Search) and Meredith M Rountree: Criminology, Overview In: Encyclopedia of Violence, Peace and Conflict . 2nd ed. Elsevier. 2008 (accessed from Credo Reference on January 25, 2013).
  3. ↑ Sandra Walklate: Gendering the criminal . In: Understanding Criminology: Current Theoretical Debates  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.questia.com   . 2nd ed. Philadelphia: Open University Press, 2003, pp. 73–94, 75–80 [75] (accessed via Questia on January 25, 2013) distinguishes between liberal, radical, socialist and postmodern feminism and the corresponding Effects on Criminology.
  4. ^ Karl-Ludwig Kunz: Criminology. 6th edition. Bern 2011: "Crime and Social Gender".
  5. ^ Society for Interdisciplinary Scientific Criminology: Section Gender Perspectives in Criminology . Website. Retrieved January 29, 2013.
  6. ↑ Kathleen Daly, Lisa Maher (eds.): Crossroads and Intersections - Building from Feminist Critique . In: Criminology at the Crossroads: Feminist Readings in Crime and Justice . Oxford University Press, New York 1998, pp. 1-18, 2 (accessed from Questia January 29, 2013).
  7. ↑ Kathleen Daly, Lisa Maher (eds.): Crossroads and Intersections - Building from Feminist Critique . In: Criminology at the Crossroads: Feminist Readings in Crime and Justice . Oxford University Press, New York 1998, pp. 1-18, 3f. (Retrieved from Questia on January 29, 2013).
  8. ↑ Monika Frommel : feminist criminology . In: Karlhans Liebl (Ed.): Criminology in the 21st Century, Studies on Internal Security: Volume 10 . VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden 2007, ISBN 978-3-531-15355-1 , p. 107–123 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  9. ↑ Monika Frommel: (criminal) law - violence - gender - is there a tendency towards more egalitarian law? (PDF; 174.4 kB) p. 8ff. , accessed on November 16, 2011 (manuscript of a lecture from March 20, 2000 at the FernUniversität - Gesamtthochschule in Hagen).
  10. ↑ See Karl-Ludwig Kunz: Kriminologie. 6th, completely revised edition. Bern 2011, p. 174.
  11. ^ Karl-Ludwig Kunz: Criminology. 6th edition. Bern 2011, p. 176.
  12. ^ Karl-Ludwig Kunz: Criminology. 6th edition. Bern 2011, p. 176.
  13. ↑ Sandra Walklate: Gendering the criminal . In: Understanding Criminology: Current Theoretical Debates  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.questia.com   . 2nd ed. Philadelphia: Open University Press, 2003, pp. 73-94, 74 (accessed through Questia January 25, 2013).
  14. ^ Günther Kaiser: Kriminologie. A textbook . 3. Edition. Müller, Heidelberg 1996, ISBN 3-8114-6096-X § 32 Rn. 23 ( limited preview in Google Book search)
  15. ^ Günther Kaiser: Kriminologie. A textbook . 3. Edition. Müller, Heidelberg 1996, ISBN 3-8114-6096-X § 32 Rn. 25 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  16. ^ Karl-Ludwig Kunz: Criminology. 6th, completely revised edition. Bern 2011, p. 176.
  17. ↑ Monika Frommel : Feminist Criminology . In: Karlhans Liebl (Ed.): Criminology in the 21st Century, Studies on Internal Security: Volume 10 . VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden 2007, ISBN 978-3-531-15355-1 , p. 107–123, 111, 113, 118 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  18. ↑ Monika Frommel: (criminal) law - violence - gender - is there a tendency towards more egalitarian law? (PDF; 174.4 kB) pp. 8–13 , accessed on January 25, 2013 (manuscript of a lecture from March 20, 2000 at the FernUniversität - Gesamtthochschule in Hagen).