NCJ Number
128502
Journal
Southern African Journal of Criminology Volume: 3 Issue: 1 Dated: (1990) Pages: 11-15
Date Published
1990
Length
5 pages
Annotation
Feminist ideology, rooted in the search for political, economic, and sexual rights for women, views sexual victimization as a result of women's subordinate position in a patriarchal society which is legitimated by a false cultural image of femininity and serves as a continuing means of social control by men over women. The women's movement seeks to expose the existence of the social and cultural processes through which women are victimized and to reveal how these processes emanate from sexual inequality.
Abstract
Since the 1970's, the movement has been successful in bringing the problem of wife battering to public attention. Women's groups have established numerous shelters for battered women, counseled and helped battered women established their independence, and fought against law enforcement and judicial indifference. Similar efforts have been instituted for victims of rape which feminists view as the ultimate crime against women. Sexual harassment in the workplace, which feminists believe is the result of women's economically inferior position, is the third area in which feminists have influenced victimology. While praising the feminist contribution to the development of victimology, the author criticizes the women's movement for alienating women involved in heterosexual relationships within a traditional family unit, portraying women and men in subjective ways which have led to polarization, and offering a simplistic perspectibe on violence toward women. 21 references