Feminist Theory Of Crime

Previous to the emergence of feminist theories in the 1960’s and 70’s the criminal justice system and studies surrounding it were developed under the assumption that males were the predominate perpetrators and victims of crime- particularly in cases regarding interpersonal violence. Whilst this was and still is true, the number of women being involved in interpersonal crimes is increasing, causing a new wave of interest as to what circumstances a woman finds herself involved in a criminal situation; hence the emergence of feminist theory. Whilst this theory does not aim to dismiss the majority (males) in this form of crime, it acts to elevate the minority (females) so as they can be recognised by the criminal justice system and have their cases
The feminist criminological theory aims to understand minorities in race, gender socioeconomic status and many more and their intersection with one another and their relation to crime. In relation to interpersonal violence and gender, females are greatly underrepresented in studies- particularly regarding those who commit offences. As mentioned above this places a pressure on the legal system that does not know how to properly respond to these women. Feminist theories aim to bridge the gap between males and females in the criminal justice system and provide gender appropriate crime responses for all. Furthermore, breakthroughs discovered in feminist criminology regarding female crime and victimisation may assist in explaining male crime to some extent. Since feminist theory looks at all female crime and victimisation- including crimes involving males- reasons as to why males become victims of female assault and why they assault females are
Whilst males are more likely to commit violent crimes females are more likely to be involved in theft or fraud. However, female crime is on the rise with an increase of 125 assaults committed per 100’000 to 186 assaults committed per 100’000 between 1997 and 2010 (Aic.gov.au, 2012). Furthermore, violent assault is the most common first offence for females under the age of 17 and its prevalence has grown by 68% since 1998 (abc news, 2015) and overall, the number of female offenders rose by 36% between 1999 and 2010 (Holmes, 2010, pp.3). Some research attributes this increase in crime to a result of increase social control, policy and policing over young women (Steffensmeier, D., Schwartz, J., Zhong, H. and Ackerman, J., 2005) whilst other believe that female participation in youth culture activities such as gangs and cyber- culture that promote women’s violence is to blame. Furthermore, a transition from sexualising to condemning women’s crime has taken place in the last 30 years (Carrington and Pereira 2009; Sharpe 2012) perhaps accounting for a rise in female arrests. The levels to which each of these different factors- and others- combine and intersect to completely account for the rise in violent crimes committed by females are unknown. However, it is important to continue feminist research in this field to assure that the minority gender in this area stays as such. It can then be said that