Feminist Theories

1. What are the contributions of the theory/ perspective to the criminological literature?
Before feminist theories, none of the traditional theories paid attention to women’s crimes. This theory brought to criminologists the questions about female criminality. Criminologists paid attention especially to major questions about female criminality; (1) explanation of female crime, (2)explanation of gender gap, and the explanation of the changes in the gender time over time, (3) the role that gender play in the generation of male/female crime, (4) and the effects that race and ethnicity in combination with gender differences have on crime.
The first theories about female criminality were written by Freda Adler and Rita James Simon. These liberal theories more than bringingtheoretical contributions to criminology; they are recognized for paying attention to the marked differences in crime rates between men and women. They brought gender differences and women’s criminality into question to other researchers.
Radical feminism was characterized by basing the explanation of women’s criminality on the oppression of the women, including their victimization. This victimizationwas caused by the patriarchy system, this term explains a social organization in which men dominate women. Meda Chesney-Lind in her study observes that girls are vulnerable to physical and sexual abuse, and that they can do little against their male abusers. As a consequence these girls seek refuge on the streets, where they must commit crime to survive.
The term gendering traditionaltheories was used to explain how traditional theories were used to also explain gender differences in crime. Heimer and De Coster, explain that violent definitions are related to violent behaviors. They argue that gender differences in the ways that violent definitions are learned, men are more often taught to be competitive, independent, rational, and strong. While females are more often taught tocare for others, be passive emotionally expressive and weak. Also they argue that indirect control (close emotional bond to the parents) is more important for girls since they are socialized to care about others, and direct control (direct supervision on the children’s discipline), on the other hand is more important to boys.
James W. Messerschmidt’s study, tries to explain the differences incrime between genders. He sees crime as a resource for doing gender. The explanation says that crime is used as a device for accomplishing masculinity, and that the threats to masculine status increase the likelihood of crime. I believe that the most important contribution to the field is within the relation and emphasis he places among gender, social class, and ethnicity, particularly on theexplanation for each social class and the likelihood for different type of crimes among youths.
The integrated theory of Steffensmeier and Allan, is considered the most ambitious attempt to fully account for the relationship between gender and crime. An important aspect of their study is related to the context of offending. They argue that the more serious the offense, the greater the contextualdifferences by gender. This explains the case of spousal murders, abuse, the use of guns, burglaries, used of drugs and others.
2. How is the theoretical perspective relater to other viewpoints that we have discussed?
Feminist theory has been related to many other theories to explain the gender gap in crime rates. Some biological factors are used to explain these differences among males andfemales. First, testosterone levels could be a factor for the explanation of the gender gap. Since it is believed that testosterone increases the level of violence among men. Menstruation and hormonal changes, on the other hand, could account for the some type of crimes committed by women. Furthermore, physical strength, it is consider to account for the much lower rates of violence and other...