Feminist Criminology
Gender justice, does this word ever strike you as intriguing? People all over
the world are protesting from centuries for equal rights. Equal rights for black
and white, equal rights for rich and poor and equal rights for men and women.
The idea of feminism is growing everywhere around the world. Feminists are on
the street demanding for equal rights, equal pay at work and uplifting women as
a gender.
Also, influential leaders like Michelle Obama, Emma Watson, Jameela Jamil,
Beyonce and many more are giving people insight on women empowerment. But this
is all about what ideology a feminist portrays or what feminism is. So, now the
question is, what does feminism has to do with criminology? Or how the two are
even related?
We all know that criminology is a study of crime and deviant behavior. Feminist
criminology is just an intersectional way of analyzing the criminal world
through a different window, through a window filtered by gender. When we look at
the branch of criminology, the traditional centre of question that arises there
is why an individual commits a crime in the first place? The reasons for the act
which he committed may include greed, anger, jealousy, revenge or pride.
It can even be impulse, out of rage or fear that led to a crime. From many years
the researchers in the field of criminology have conducted a study which states
that most of these criminals that are sentenced are generally men. The
incarceration rates between men and women are poles apart. The analysis of
prison statistics in India shows that out of 433k prisoners in jail, 414k
prisoners are men that makes up to 95.73% and only 18k are women representing a
mere 4.27% in the charts.
Now, that is certainly not a sign of discrimination. Yes, there can be a
difference of characteristics between men and women. Yes, men can be more
aggressive than women in general, the one's who tend to break the rules more
often. However, a serious point of diversion occurs when men and women are
arrested for the same crime but women significantly have a very less chance to
be dealt with the same way a men is. In a gist the above line states that there
are different punishments for different genders for the same crime.
When a women is convicted the society often believes that it might've been
because "she was mentally unfit" due to which she committed a crime, they are
saying that "she is not bad but mad". Whereas in case of men most of the
statements arise are that "he must've done that out of rage". That's where the
views are diverging.
On the other hand contemporary criminology looks at the environment in which
crimes were committed. This is way different from the traditional one that
simply examines an individual's behavior. Contemporary criminology have branched
off itself to a new concept of feminist criminology; this school of criminology
accentuates on how social roles differ in a society. The roles of men and women
disunite in a society, which leads us to a completely different path when
inserting this factor in criminology.
Some Feminist criminologists believe that men and women should be treated
differently when assessing a particular crime. Most of the feminist
criminologist believe that in the stances of domestic abuse, stalking, coercive
control and rape women are generally the victims. Other question's that why are
women less likely to commit a crime in comparison to men.
The bottom line is yes, gender is an issue when looking at crime patterns.
Therefore, for which feminist criminology is a progressive branch of legal
studies and there is certainly no denying to the fact that feminist criminology
is a rising topic for future fields. However, it should not be taken as a
difference created by law amongst different genders.
It should be viewed as a study creating a comprehensive branch to deal with
criminal issues more specifically. After all we all strive for equality and I as
a female wish to emphasize on a note that at the end of the day we don't want
more than anyone else, we just want the same as everyone else.
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