NCJ Number
192007
Date Published
2001
Length
211 pages
Annotation
This book discusses the theoretical presumptions embedded in criminology and victimology with respect to gender, addresses the fear of crime and sexual violence as two substantive areas in which these presumptions have been particularly evident, and examines issues of policy in relation to policing and the law as well as the way in which gendered assumptions influence criminal justice policy and practice.
Abstract
The first chapter is an overview that explores the key assumptions that underpin both criminology and victimology and the impact these key assumptions have had on conceptualizations of men and women as victims and offenders. The chapter also outlines the diversity of feminist thought and its potential and actual impact on criminology and victimology and their domain assumptions. The second chapter provides a similar theoretical overview of criminology and victimology from the perspective of the male. Chapter 3 discusses how criminology and victimology have based their discussions of the fear and risk of victimization in a gender perspective. This chapter argues that debate in the policy field has often marginalized women's fears and ignored the fear of victimization experienced by men. Thus, the conceptual debate should capture both men's and women's experiences of fear and perceptions of risk of victimization. Chapter 4 explores the dynamics of the fear of sexual victimization, as it focuses on gender issues in rape, child abuse, and domestic violence. The discussion of the issues in chapters 3 and 4 further develops and critiques the theoretical questions raised in the first two chapters. Chapters 5 and 6 focus on the nature of the criminal justice system and its response to both crime victims and offenders. Chapter 5 considers police work, and chapter 6 addresses debates associated with the law. The conclusion reviews the central themes of the book. A 275-item bibliography and a subject index