Female Offenders: A Feminist Analysis

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Existing criminal theory suggest that gender is a significant factor in understanding criminality. Compared to male offenders, women have specific needs and tend to offend in different ways and for different reasons. Understanding the needs of women and the nature and cause of their crime is essential to developing an equitable approach to female criminality. Feminist scholars have critiqued the justice system’s approach to gender, with some suggesting that the law is, fundamentally, sexist. As Haney (2000) notes: “Legal interpretations of suffering also failed to acknowledge the distinct quality of women’s pain”; she notes that “[a]ccording to West (1991), men and women experience pleasure and pain differently; men often find pleasure in …show more content…

(p. 649)
The contemporary question of “morality” in cases echoes Lombroso’s views. The significant difference with which female offenders have been treated indicates the legacy of the theorized female criminal and the need for new ways of thinking about female …show more content…

Much female crime is due to poverty and abuse, and Balfour (2006) points out that policy has resulted in this increase: “Administrative criminologists such as James Q. Wilson in the United States argued that street crime was brought on by ‘the shiftless poor who were dangerous and permissive people victimizing decent citizens’ … neo-liberalism introduced massive cuts in spending on social services, health, and education, while neoconservative political strategies bolstered coercive institutions such as the military, police, and prisons” (p. 736). Balfour additionally states that “… these data suggest that the increased imprisonment of women is associated with welfare reforms and with cuts to expenditures for social services, mental health, and Education” (Balfour, 2006, p. 740). Those who believe that they are not able to meet their needs lawfully will often turn to illegal measures of doing so. Because women have traditionally been more directly responsible for the care of children than men, and because many poor women are single parents, cuts to social services programs greatly impact these

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