FEMINIST
CRIMINOLOG
IST THEORY
FEMINIST SCHOOL
OF CRIMINOLOGY
• The feminist school of criminology
holds the view that crime cannot be
considered without looking at
gender
• The feminist outlook on
criminology also states that
societal perspectives on gender
roles hugely contribute to crime
FEMINIST SCHOOL OF
CRIMINOLOGY
CONTINUED
• Feminist criminologists would argue that
the patriarchy (the system which governs
most of Western world, led mainly by
men)’s views on masculinity push men to
deviance and crime to prove their
masculinity to the rest of society.
• They would argue that gangs
participating in violence such as football
hooligans for example are a perfect
personification of this view
FEMINIST SCHOOL OF
CRIMINOLOGY CONTINUED
• Feminist criminologists also recognise that
not all crime is to directly prove manhood.
• They argue that crimes such as domestic
abuse, sexual assault and even targeted
muggings/robberies of women can be
attributed to a need to exert power over
women, while not the same form of
masculinity portrayed as before, the crimes
have partially overlapping motivations
EVIDENCE IN FAVOUR OF
FEMINIST CRIMINAL OUTLOOK
• Evidence shows men and women get into
prison for different reasons.
• For example, in 2015 70% of all tried
defendants for the offence of TV licence
evasion were women
• 48% of women surveyed in the Surveying
Prisoner Crime Reduction survey had
committed offences to support someone
else’s drug habit, compared to just 22% of
men
EVIDENCE IN FAVOUR
OF FEMINIST
CRIMINAL OUTLOOK
CONTINUED
• 31% of women in prison had spent
time in care, compared to 24% of
men.
• Women tend to be single parents
more than men, however women are
imprisoned for their first offence
more than men (22% of women in
prison were in on their first offence,
only 12% for men).
EVIDENCE IN FAVOUR
OF FEMINIST
CRIMINAL OUTLOOK
CONTINUED
• 53% of imprisoned women reported
having experienced emotional,
physical or sexual abuse as a child
compared to 27% of men.
• 57% of imprisoned women also
reported that they had been a victim
of domestic violence.
• The evidence clearly shows the path
into prison for women is different than
that of men, thus the path out of
prison can’t be the same.
EVIDENCE AGAINST FEMINIST
OUTLOOK ON CRIME
• Marxist theorists would argue against the
feminist outlook on crime. While some may
recognise the role of masculinity against
crime, many of the phenomena ‘explained’ by
feminist theory of crime can be attributed to
the failures of capitalism. See
aforementioned TV license example.
EVIDENCE AGAINST FEMINIST
OUTLOOK ON CRIME CONTINUED
• Many criminologists who take a hugely nature
based approach may argue that the reason for
differing crime statistics in men and women
boils down to them being inherently different.
They would argue that men are biologically
wired to be more risk taking than women and
thus more likely to lead lives of crime
compared to women. Other discrepancies
would also be explained by the inherent
difference between men and women according
to these theorists.
EVIDENCE
AGAINST FEMINIST
OUTLOOK ON
CRIME CONTINUED
• Most of the issues ‘explained’ by feminist
criminological theories can be explained
by different theories. While it is
important to recognise that men and
women do have different roles in society,
especially with regards to crime there is a
huge overlap between different theories
in this subject. Women committing crime
as an act of defiance to the patriarchy
can be explained by strain theories,
men’s risk taking tendency can be
explained by nature theorists and the TV
license crimes for example can be
explained by the classical theory
CONCLUSION
• Feminist criminologist theory raises
some very interesting view points and
does make some valid points such as
men and women’s different societal
roles leading them to have different
roles when it comes to criminality, but a
solely gender based perspective on
crime fails to consider many of the
nuances in such a complex topic.
• Furthermore, by examining the role of
gender in crime as opposed to examining
the conditions which create these
different roles in crime the bigger picture
of criminality cannot be explored.
