Feminist theories – Crime and Deviance

Lesson objective	To explore the feminist approach to crime
Lesson outcomes	• Assess its relevance in today’s society • Analyse the perspective • Explain what feminists believe

The file, left, is an excellent resource to use when studying the Feminist approach as it also tied with theory and methods to help in that section. It’s around 27 pages, so yes, it is a big read, but, to get that grade A and above, you need to push yourself with high level reading. 

The basics

Feminists have criticised much sociological theory and research on crime and deviance for the following reasons:

1. It was malestream – gender issues and female offending are largely ignored. 
2. There was little attempt to explain female offending or other forms of female deviance. 
3. ​Female victimisation was ignored. 

Feminist criminology has grown rapidly focusing on the following issues:

1. Female offending and the experience of women in the Criminal Justice System,
2. Victimisation of females including sexual violence.
3. The gender gap in offending,
4. The importance of gender identity in labelling and its impact.