NCJ Number
186637
Journal
Women and Criminal Justice Volume: 12 Issue: 1 Dated: 2000 Pages: 7-21
Date Published
2000
Length
15 pages
Annotation
This biography describes the childhood, education, early intellectual influences, career, and role in criminology and feminism of Karlene Faith, a Canadian feminist scholar and activist and editorial board member of the journal Women and Criminal Justice.
Abstract
Faith was born in Saskatchewan in 1938, she lived in Montana in the late 1940's, where she often witnessed police brutality in the small Montana town where her family lived near a police station and jail. She worked and studied in the United States, Germany, France, Eritrea, and Mexico. Her interest in criminology resulted from her awareness of human rights violations in government-sanctioned punishment systems and from observations that the main group criminalized and brutalized in every country consists of young male members of political minority groups. She also did participant observation research and interviews at the California I Institution for Women. Several feminist perspectives inform her career as a progressive academic. She was affiliated with the University of California at Santa Cruz during 1968-1981 as undergraduate, graduate student, instructor, coordinator of the prison education program, and mentor's assistant. She regards herself as part of a growing group of scholars, activists, and others who have been reshaping the content and discourses of criminology. She produces extensive scholarly work, engages in human rights activism, and offers love and social support to her friends and family. Gender is now a central component of much criminology work in North America due to the contributions of Faith and other feminist academic activists. Notes and 27 references