The feminist school of criminology is a school of criminology developed in the late 1960s and into the 1970s as a reaction to the perceived general disregard and discrimination of women in the traditional study of crime. Proponents assert that the patriarchal domination of the field of criminology has led to the field being inherently biased and androcentric. This, they argue, leads mainstream criminology to either generalise or ignore criminological inquiry relevant to women in an effort to support the male dominated status quo.
The feminist school was closely associated with the emergence of the Second Wave Feminism and it speaks with multiple viewpoints developed from different feminist writers. The feminist theory emphasises that crime is caused by the hostility in men, but also states that crime is a result of inequalities within society. Politically, there is a range from Marxist and socialist to liberal feminism addressing the "gender ratio" problem (i.e. why women are less likely than men to commit crime) or the generalisability problem (i.e. "adding" women to male knowledge, whereby the findings from research on men are generalised to women).
Read more about Feminist School Of Criminology: Discussion, Biological Explanations of Female Criminality, Victimology, Criticisms
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“Men have defined the parameters of every subject. All feminist arguments, however radical in intent or consequence, are with or against assertions or premises implicit in the male system, which is made credible or authentic by the power of men to name.”
—Andrea Dworkin (b. 1946)
“For those parents from lower-class and minority communities ... [who] have had minimal experience in negotiating dominant, external institutions or have had negative and hostile contact with social service agencies, their initial approaches to the school are often overwhelming and difficult. Not only does the school feel like an alien environment with incomprehensible norms and structures, but the families often do not feel entitled to make demands or force disagreements.”
—Sara Lawrence Lightfoot (20th century)