An Analysis of Feminist Perspectives on Crime Causation with Examples

This essay critically examines the usefulness of feminist perspectives in understanding crime causation, drawing on criminological literature to support its arguments. It begins by outlining the historical context of feminism and its relevance to gender justice and criminal law, emphasizing the importance of gender in understanding offender psychology. The discussion delves into the societal construction of gender and sex, highlighting how these concepts influence the criminal justice system and impact perceptions of female offenders. The essay explores the evolution of feminist theories, from early considerations of women's roles in crime to contemporary analyses of gendered experiences within the criminal justice framework. It examines how feminist perspectives address issues of race, ethnicity, and sexuality, advocating for a neutral treatment of women in the criminal justice system. The essay also discusses key concepts such as "women of discourse" and the impact of patriarchal structures on women's experiences with crime, ultimately arguing for a nuanced understanding of gendered crime and the societal forces that shape it.

Running head: ESSAY
Essay
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Q: How useful are feminist perspectives for understanding crime causation? Use examples
from criminological literature to support your argument.
Introduction
Feminism is an ideology that is believed to have been prevalent for a very long time in
the course of gender justice. It started in the year 1848 and it has been perceive to be against the
wave of slavery and unjust treatment to women. The aim is to find out how feminist concept has
tried to find its way through the course of justice and how criminal law has been impacted by
feminist theories. General has always played a very important role in understanding the
psychology and role play of offenders who have caused crime (Modleski 2015 p. 61). Gender
cannot be isolated from criminal theories and their role for the criminal justice system gives
heavy emphasis on the role of theories pertaining to gender. Therefore this writing shall focus on
issues that are strictly related to the offence created by one important segment of the society that
is women and how those of senders and wrongdoers can be studied by putting them on the
brackets of feminist theory (Crenshaw 2018 p. 73).
Discussion
To begin with it seems like an of topic as to the relation that has to be established
between women and crying and therefore to begin with it is very essential to understand the
reason why feminism has been given the status within the society so that criminal system can be
evaluated identifying the psychology of women. Gender is something that humans are born with
whereas sex is what the society t gives us (Allen 2018 p. 86). There is a reason as to why Gender
and sex both play a very important role in understanding our criminal justice system and also in

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examining the purpose of these two terms in the society. The trait of understanding a masculine
personality pertains to man and it is believed that women who commit crime also have a
masculine side to themselves there by totally abolishing the thought that a feminine character can
commit crime. Be in the society or in the present the segregation has been based on the
characteristic differentiation of being masculine or being feminine. it has always believed that a
man who give South feminine wives will not be coming crime where as on the same stoke
women who committed crime with thoughts to have a masculine traits to themselves and it is
also believed that these female offenders be more like men and less like women (Price and
Shildrick 2017 p. 421).
The 20th as well as the 21st century 180 change in the way men and women were
perceived and how feminist could be he and ideology that can be given to both men and women
and that the concept of feminism has an incredible role to play both in society as well as in
politics (Matsuda 2017 p. 55). The social change that started to gather relevance around that time
was seen in gendered roles. Which time it started to be seen that many issues related to gender
justice started to crop up and that people started to also it quit criminal justice and gender justice
so that some parallel could be drawn as to why the role played by women should be given
Emphasis and importance (Bartlett 2018 p. 321). The 21st century broke the floodgates to the
recognition of rights of women and how women should be treated equally like men and they stay
there should be recognized in the society. The reason behind this Outlook because it is believed
that sex and gender play a very important role within the criminal justice framework and also in
the life of women. In the early days of research when the relation between crime and Society was
been established it was seen that women were absolutely not considered and they were not acted
in while understanding the relation between society and criminal justice (Rice 2016 p. 302). The

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role of feminist theories also gives enough importance to race as well as atomicity and the
sexuality of these people. It is the role of the society to understand why a crime was committed
why particularly a woman commented that crime and how the society should look at the woman
differently and what should be the treatment of the society in understanding the reason why the
crimes committed by a woman. There are important discussions that should be considered while
evaluating the role of women in the society and white crime should not be gender specific and
that a neutral treatment of women along with men should be awarded by the society (Bacchi and
Eveline 2015 p. 368).
Scholars are of the opinion now that the society is still reeling from patriarchal hangover
and that long abuse of male domination over women has resulted in a society that has not taken
into account the wrongs committed against women and how they have been secluded from equal
rights and treatment. Society has always been male-dominated and therefore there was a
significant need for rise of feminism so that the issues of rape, assaults to women and the
prejudice against sex workers could be done away with (Policasstro 2015 p. 4).
Historically women have been categorized into good women and bad women. Good
women were the ones who did not commit any crime and they were also applying to the societal
mandates whereas the bad women were the one who committed crime and masculine in nature
and had traits of male stereotype. Crime has been defined as an individual act and that it has no
relevance to society and the women who were choosing to commit any crime acting on their own
free will and that society did not play any role in trying to make them turn hostile. it is always
win a question as to why girls and women have an important role to play in the society and why
society is marketing women to be a cause for any kind of human activity in the society. There
was growing discomfort and abuse in the relations of women and it was seen that it was

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becoming a complex and allergy to draw between the personalities that were being offered by
women and how they were also getting streamlined to act entreat themselves in a different way
in the society. In the earlier days there was an universalistic approach that claimed that all girls
act in a certain way but which time that changed into a unitary method of Thinking which started
to identify only the women who could be capable of committing that crime and it was from a
stand (Elliot 2016 p. 312). The theory started when it started to look like women had their
opinions and their viewpoints and this could be traced from their experiences that they have had
in the past and that women were treated as an offenders as well as victims. Most of the crimes
committed against women who were of importance to be studied later on but also the fact that
women were committing more crime was being considered by Scholars as well as academicians.
Women started with segregated and they were treated differently and the concern was taken out
by State Government as well as some NGOs. It was always believed that crime had a male
perspective to it and theories of masculinity could always be equated with crime. another theory
that was of importance in understanding and constructing a behavior pattern of women was
'women of discourse' which we in which the sexual, criminal, legal and social discourses were
discussed and this believed advances where we made in understanding the psychology of human
and how it is affecting the society.
In the late 1990s, there was seen to be a different change in the way it was being
possessive about the role of men and women and how sex and gender be used to identify the role
of women in the society. This shift severely infected the feminist work of the scholars looking at
different ways to study criminology. Sex and gender have been given two different terms in the
understanding of their radius within the social as well as a natural framework of existence. These
two different terms used not to have a dualistic approach in understanding the differences but to

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make sure that the role of gender was given Emphasis that is how the society perceives a
particular person. It is very important to understand that sex is how a person is seen biologically
and gender is what the society gives to him and how the society treats him. Therefore it was very
essential to give the role of gender because the societal construct was important to be taken into
account in understanding problems related to inequality and sex differences. Therefore not only
limiting sex and generate to biological concept it was important to see how society was also
looking at them and treating them in different ways to understand the role they were playing in
the evolution of crime (Hodgson 2017 p. 61).
Along with language differences and euphemisms, it is pertinent to give significance to
both culture and understanding of sexual differences. By studying the way women and girls very
differently increasing as well as in criminal courts new theory started to emerge to understand
how women were treated to have an agency of men over them and that it was also believed that
they could not conduct themselves independently and that they have to be taken charge of by
men. Body was a song which started to be associated with understanding sex and gender both as
socially and naturally created ideologies. Culture and body with treated to be residing in the
mind of a human being and therefore Scholars try to break this dual process of looking at the
human brain which was getting to be divided into culture and body and therefore new terms like
subjectivity and corporeality were discussed on the same plane. The problem has always been in
understanding the complexity and also the diversity in terms of individual is taken as always
occupational conditions and that the feminist concept has always been regarding the distinct is
signature that is associated in a society (Chappel 2015 p. 120). The form where we see in society
has been deeply impacted by the way feminist have been viewed. Therefore how gender and sex
can be constructed can also be found through justice delivery system as well as on how crime

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and offending are looked at. The name should be to not go into generalization as to the number
of men and women who commit a crime and look at the crime objectively and from the view of
how a woman could have acted differently have the society not forced not forced her to commit
that crime. Biology has always been at the receiving end of these generalizations and therefore
physical and sexual violence have been perceived to be coming out of that significant change in
the way of women is termed to be a victim. The terms woman of discourse as well as real women
were two terms to understand the way to theoretically understand women in the social
perspective.
Conclusion
Determine gendered crime means the context of gender that is associated with the crime
and how society only gift set a color of gender because it is related to a woman carrying out and
offensive act. There are both feminist as well as non feminist ways of looking at the situation and
the feminist version of looking at crime is regarding the way a woman takes up on herself to
redeem herself from abuse and aims to survive on criminal parts to seek justice. These gendered
criminal activities and gendered life is related to the concept of men and women looking at
society differently and expressing themselves in a non uniform manner. There for applying this
kind of theory in the long run and in a General perspective of society is to look at both
delinquency and non delinquency.

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Reference
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