Schram, Introduction to Criminology 3e
SAGE Publishing, 2021
Lecture Notes
Chapter 12: Feminist Theories of Crime
Learning Objectives
12.1 Summarize the key points associated with the history of feminism in the United States.
12.2 Identify the key features of the various feminist perspectives on gender.
12.4 Identify the main tenets of the liberation thesis.
12.6 Describe key features of feminist perspectives on understanding criminal behavior.
12.7 Describe some of the key policies based on feminist theories of crime.
Chapter Outline
I. Introduction
i. This chapter begins with a brief history of feminism in the United States.
To provide a better understanding of feminist theories of crime, it is
essential to stress that there is no one feminist perspective.
II. A Brief History of Feminism in the United States
i. First wave of feminism: It started in the mid-1800s when women
demanded the right to vote.
ii. The Declaration of Sentiments and its criticism: It stressed the need for
iii. Second wave of feminism: It developed in the 1960s when other
marginalized groups were also challenging the status quo.
Schram, Introduction to Criminology 3e
SAGE Publishing, 2021
iv. Third wave of feminism: It evolved around the late 1980s and into the
1990s; an extension of as well as a response to the shortcomings of the
second wave.
A. Key Terms
i. Sex difference: It typically refers to biological characteristics, such as
reproductive organs and hormones.
ii. Gender difference: It usually refer to social definitions of what it means to
be a “woman” or a “man.”
iii. Chivalry: It pertains to behaviors and attitudes toward certain individuals
II. Feminist Perspectives on Gender
A. The Traditional or Conservative Perspective
i. Traditional or Conservative Perspective: It causes of gender inequality
are due to biological sex differences, and social behavior is based on the
biological sex differences; does not offer any strategies for social change
since men’s and women’s behaviors reflect evolutionary adaptations of sex
differences.
ii. Social behavior: Based on biological sex differences.
iii. Criticism: Does not offer any strategies for social change.
B. Liberal Feminism
i. Liberal Feminism: One of the areas of feminist theories of crime that
emphasize the assumption that differences between males and females in
offending are due to the lack of female opportunities in education,
C. Radical Feminism
i. Radical Feminism: It evolved from the women’s liberation movement of
the 1960s. This perspective emphasizes the importance of personal
feelings, experiences, and relationships. Gender is a system of male
dominance, and women’s biology is the main cause of patriarchy.
ii. Inequality: Men’s need to control women’s sexuality.
iii. Two types of radical feminism: Libertarian and cultural.
Schram, Introduction to Criminology 3e
SAGE Publishing, 2021
iv. Criticism: They need to reconcile the split between themselves in an effort
to avoid polarization, particularly in the area of sexuality.
D. Marxist and Socialist Feminism
i. Marxist feminism: A perspective of crime that emphasizes men’s
ownership and control of the means of economic production; similar to
critical or radical feminism but distinguished by its reliance on the concept
of economic structure.
ii. Inequality: Hierarchical relations of control.
iii. Focus: Work related inequalities and trivialization of women’s work
iv. Socialist feminism: Feminist theories that moved away from economic
E. Postmodern Feminism
i. Postmodern Feminism: A perspective that says women as a group cannot
be understood, even by other women, because every person’s experience is
unique; therefore, there is no need to measure or research such experiences.
F. Additional Feminist Perspective
i. Ecofeminism: It was developed around the 1980s to examine relations
between environmental issues and women’s issues.
ii. Global and postcolonial feminism: It emerged in the mid-1970s. This is an
international women’s movement founded in the commonalities of
women’s lives, such as low economic status.
iii. Focus of global and postcolonial feminism:
a. First World nations: Interested in issues revolving around sexuality
III. Traditional Theories of Female Crime
i. The Madonna image personifies women as faithful and submissive wives,
as well as nurturing mothers. The whore image portrays women as
temptresses who prey on a man’s sexuality and self-control.
Schram, Introduction to Criminology 3e
SAGE Publishing, 2021
ii. The concept of femininity is made up of various traits such as gentleness,
sensitivity, nurturance, and passivity.
iii. Four virtues of true womanhood: Piety, purity, submissiveness, and
domesticity.
iv. Characteristics that mark a woman bad:
a. She was indecisive and lacked “moral fortitude.”
A. Cesare Lombroso: Physical Attributes of Female Offender
i. Emphasis on physiological and psychological determinants of female
criminality.
ii. Most women committing homicide had cranial depressions and prominent
cheekbones.
iii. Two classes of occasional offenders:
a. Includes the milder types of born criminals.
B. William I. Thomas: The Biology of Female Offending
i. Females: Passive and motionless; Males: Active and dynamic.
ii. Four desires of humans: The desire for new experience; the desire for
C. Sigmund Freud: Female Inferiority
i. Two key concepts: The structure of the personality; The psychosexual
stages of development of the child.
ii. Basis for inferiority: Women’s sex organs.
iii. Women are exhibitionistic, narcissistic, and attempt to compensate for
D. Otto Pollak: Hidden Female Criminality
i. The criminality of women reflects their biological nature in a given
Schram, Introduction to Criminology 3e
SAGE Publishing, 2021
iii. Criticism: Focused only on women’s sexuality or stereotypical traits to
explain criminality. Did not examine economic, political or social factors.
E. Feminist Critiques of Previous Studies of Women and Crime
i. Science: Reflects social values and concerns of dominant social groups.
ii. Contextualizing female criminality within broader framework: Moral,
political, economic, and sexual spheres.
iii. Inclusion of women: Does not necessarily use feminist framework.
a. Add women and stir: When one uses an existing
theoretical perspective based on males and “adds” women.
b. Sex roles: Research using the sex role approach has been
IV. The Liberation Thesis
i. Liberation thesis is also referred to as the emancipation hypothesis;
attempts to link the women’s liberation movement with female crime rates.
ii. Explanations for changing female crime rates:
a. The increased opportunities for women to participate in the labor
force and, thus, increased opportunities to commit certain types of
crime.
b. The changing self-concept and identity of women and girls due to
the consciousness-raising aspects of the movement.
iii. As the position of women becomes similar to that of men, this will result in
women obtaining not only legitimate opportunities in the labor force but
illegitimate opportunities as well.
iv. Assumptions of women’s liberation theory:
a. Liberation movement can be linked to an increase in female crime.
v. Criticism: Manipulation of data to support the theory.
V. Power-Control Theory
i. Power-Control Theory: Integrated theory of crime that assumes that, in
households where the mother and father have relatively similar levels of
Schram, Introduction to Criminology 3e
SAGE Publishing, 2021
ii. Risk-taking behavior: Related to delinquency.
iii. Individuals from various social classes experience power relations
differently.
iv. Social reproduction of gender relations: It refers to those activities,
institutions, and relationships that are involved in maintaining and
reinforcing gender roles.
VI. Feminist Perspectives on Understanding Crime and Criminal Behavior
i. Three features distinguishing feminist research:
a. The empirical and theoretical bases emanate from women’s
experiences.
A. Objectivity and Subjectivity
i. Objectivity: It refers to being “neutral,” “value free,” or “unbiased.”
ii. Practitioners are primarily from privileged backgrounds. Thus, androcentric
and sexist biases are implicit in the standards implemented for conducting
scientific research.
iii. Biases can occur at different point in research.
B. Qualitative “Versus” Quantitative Analyses
i. Qualitative: Nonnumerical—Those scholars advocating qualitative
methods maintain that women’s understandings, emotions, and actions
must be explored in those women’s own terms.
ii. Quantitative: Numerical—Translate individuals’ experiences into
predefined categories designated by the researchers.
C. Feminist Criminology
i. Feminist criminology evolved, primarily from liberal feminists, with the
realization and objection that gender was essentially ignored and excluded
from criminological theory.
ii. Feminist criminologists need to address three major challenges:
a. Continue to search for the scientific basis of theories of men’s and
iii. Amanda Burgess-Proctor argued that for contemporary third-wave feminist
criminologists, it is essential to build on the foundation laid by previous
feminist criminologists. Specifically, she maintained that feminist
Schram, Introduction to Criminology 3e
SAGE Publishing, 2021
criminology needs to embrace all sources of oppression without prioritizing
D. Critiques of Feminist Theories
i. Current topic among feminist scholars: Intersection of race, class, and
gender.
ii. A number of feminist scholars maintain that examining difference, rather
than equality, is a major emphasis of current feminist studies.
iii. Key conceptual factors that distinguish multiracial feminism from other
feminist perspectives:
a. Multiracial feminism claims that gender relations do not exist in a
vacuum; rather, men and women are also characterized by their
iv. Mary Gilfus’ observation: Criminalization is connected to women’s
subordinate position in society where victimization by violence coupled
with economic marginality related to race, class, and gender all too often
blur the boundaries between victims and offenders.
v. Explanation of women’s agency: The more traditional approach overlooks
VII. Policies Based on Feminist Theories of Crime
i. The personal is the political refers to the notion that the “private sphere”
is as structured by power relations involving gender, sexuality, race, class,
and age as the “public sphere.”
SAGE Publishing, 2021
ii. Praxis refers not just to consciousness raising but also to the establishment
of alternative arrangements that will provide models for change, which then
change consciousness.
iii. Legal response to rape has undergone substantial changes.
iv. Goals of legislative reforms:
a. Increasing the reporting of rape and enhancing the prosecution and
conviction in rape cases.
v. Major types of legislative reforms: Redefinition of the offense, evidentiary
reforms, statutory offenses, and penal structure.
vi. Gender-specific programming: Programs targeted to juvenile girls; gives
females an increased sense of community that has been associated with
developing and integrating a health identity.
vii. Observation made by intake officials: Intake officials recognized an
appreciation of how gender, class, and race influence the lives of female
juveniles.
viii. Effects of gender responsive programming: When examining the effects of