The Status of Feminist Theories in Criminology

Abstract

Kathleen Daly observes that criminological field expansion in the study of gender—because it emanates both from traditional and feminist theoretical perspectives—has "created a somewhat incoherent theoretical field." This chapter reviews the approaches for theorizing "gender and crime" and then describes more profitable developments within feminist criminology drawing from Daly's conceptual schema of gendered pathways to lawbreaking, gendered crime, and gendered lives . It highlights promising developments in the study of masculinities and crime. Feminist theories—with gender inequality as a guiding question—have been brought to bear on crime and criminal justice, as well as victimization, work and occupations within the criminal justice system and the law. Within feminist criminology, middle range theories most profitably start from the understanding that gender is complex, contingent and highly varied across historical context and social position. Feminist criminology has advanced well beyond the questions of generalizability and the gender-ratio question that guided early works.

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