Rethinking Gender, Crime, and Justice: Feminist Readings

Esteemed criminologists Claire M. Renzetti, Lynne Goodstein, and Susan L. Miller's volume of original essays covers a broad range of topics of interest to those who study women, crime, and criminal justice. Contributors include leading scholars of crime and justice such as Ronet Bachman, Joanne Belknap, Jeanne Flavin, James Messerschmidt, Jody Miller, and Merry Morash. This collection is designed to deepen students' understanding about the essential role that gender plays in the commission of--and societal responses to--criminal behavior. Rethinking Gender, Crime, and Justice demonstrates how our notions of gender, race, and class influence both how society defines crime as well as how offenders commit crimes and are "treated" for their actions. The book includes a rich variety of national and global perspectives. It reviews the most up-to-date knowledge on gender and crime, women as offenders and victims, and the impact of gender on policing, corrections administration, and the courts. The essays in this collection are engagingly and accessibly written. They challenge students to question their assumptions about criminality, victimization, and how such situations are--and should be--approached. Rethinking Gender, Crime, and Justice covers issues that are frequently left out of traditional criminology texts. Coverage includes: * What distinguishes feminist criminology from mainstream criminology. * Why an understanding of gender is critical to understanding criminal offending, victimization, and criminal justice responses. * How female victimization can lead tocriminality. * Whether girls' violence is becoming more like boys'. * How women and girls are globally enslaved through the sex industry. * How women prisoners are treated inequitably. * What happens to the families of women in prison. * What challenges women police officers, correctional officers, attorneys, and judges have faced and how they are overcoming them. * Discussion questions follow every essay, encouraging students to think critically about each reading and go beyond it to learn more about the topics addressed.