NCJ Number
85486
Editor(s)
N H Rafter,
E A Stanko
Date Published
1982
Length
386 pages
Annotation
Feminist scholars analyze the treatment of women as victims, criminals, and criminal justice professionals and contend that gender roles powerfully affect women's perceptions of and reception at all stages of the criminal justice system.
Abstract
Two essays on women as crime victims find that female stereotyping affects physicians' reporting of rape cases and prosecutors' assessments of female complainants' charges. An essay on wife battering reveals a cycle in which victims' helplessness and self-blame are reinforced by inadequate responses of the system, perpetuating deeply rooted cultural support for violence against women. Essays also address the extent of female crime and methodologies for measuring it, self-perceptions of drug-addicted prostitutes, and homicides involving women. A study testing theories of male criminality against a sample of female delinquents concludes that, like males, females cannot be treated as if they automatically share common social and psychological characteristics. Chapters dealing with women as defendants and prisoners examine whether gender-based discrimination affects their treatment as they pass through the criminal justice system; sentencing and parole decisions and female patients' medical treatment in jails are discussed. A review of the evolution of the women's prison system found gender second only to seriousness of offense as a factor in correctional treatment. The essays on women as criminal justice practitioners note the small number of women working in criminal justice areas and their concentration at lower bureaucratic levels. Individual chapters contain tabular data and footnotes. For individual essays, see NCJ-85487-99.