Understanding Gender, Crime, and Justice
1st Edition
Published on 7. September 2005
Book
Paperback/Softback
328 pages
978-0-7619-2630-6 (ISBN)
Description
Why are there pronounced gender differences in rates of criminal victimization? Does gender influence the response of the criminal justice system and other parts of the community to offenders and to crime victims? What part does gender play in the etiology of illegal activities committed by both males and females? Understanding Gender, Crime, and Justice takes a contemporary look at such questions and considers areas that are often neglected in other books on gender, crime, and justice.
In the last three decades, there has been an explosion of theory and related research relevant to gender, crime, and justice. Author Merry Morash, a well-known feminist scholar in the field of criminal justice, acquaints readers with key breakthroughs in criminological conceptualization and theories to explain the interplay between gender and both crime and justice. Understanding Gender, Crime, and Justice pays special attention to race, ethnicity, and immigrant groups, and provides a unique comparative perspective.
Key Features
Includes first-person accounts from crime victims, workers in the justice system, male lawbreakers, and women engaged in prostitution to give insight into a diversity of experiences and standpoints
Parallels the effects of gender and sexual orientation in laws, in patterns and causes of victimization, and in the responses of the justice system to both victims and offenders
Integrates international examples to place U.S. experiences in a comparative perspective and to show gender inequities on a worldwide scale
Provides numerous photos-unique for a text of this type-to portray people of all sorts in various regions of the world
Includes Web site recommendations for further exploration of chapter topics
Understanding Gender, Crime, and Justice is an ideal textbook for undergraduate and graduate courses that focus on women and criminal justice. The book is also a valuable asset for gender courses in sociology and for women's studies programs.
In the last three decades, there has been an explosion of theory and related research relevant to gender, crime, and justice. Author Merry Morash, a well-known feminist scholar in the field of criminal justice, acquaints readers with key breakthroughs in criminological conceptualization and theories to explain the interplay between gender and both crime and justice. Understanding Gender, Crime, and Justice pays special attention to race, ethnicity, and immigrant groups, and provides a unique comparative perspective.
Key Features
Includes first-person accounts from crime victims, workers in the justice system, male lawbreakers, and women engaged in prostitution to give insight into a diversity of experiences and standpoints
Parallels the effects of gender and sexual orientation in laws, in patterns and causes of victimization, and in the responses of the justice system to both victims and offenders
Integrates international examples to place U.S. experiences in a comparative perspective and to show gender inequities on a worldwide scale
Provides numerous photos-unique for a text of this type-to portray people of all sorts in various regions of the world
Includes Web site recommendations for further exploration of chapter topics
Understanding Gender, Crime, and Justice is an ideal textbook for undergraduate and graduate courses that focus on women and criminal justice. The book is also a valuable asset for gender courses in sociology and for women's studies programs.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Thousand Oaks
United States
Target group
College/higher education
Dimensions
Height: 254 mm
Width: 178 mm
Weight
567 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-7619-2630-6 (9780761926306)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Merry Morash is Professor at the Michigan State University School of Criminal Justice, where she served as director from 1991 to 2001. She also is founder, Director and faculty instructor of the Michigan Victim Assistance Academy, which provides education for individuals who work with crime victims, and the Director of the Michigan Regional Community Policing Institute, and is Secretary of the Michigan DARE Advisory Board. Her primary research emphasis is on gender and crime, and current research is on domestic violence among Asian Americans and gender responsive programming for women offenders. She also has done extensive research on women in policing, and is currently engaged in research to follow up on women who participated in a study nearly a decade ago. She has recently served on the Domestic Violence Homicide Prevention Task Force, which was chaired by Michigan's Lt. Governor, and on the Advisory Board for the Michigan Judicial Institute bench book to assist judges in their work with crime victims. Dr. Morash is a coauthor of the textbooks, Juvenile Delinquency: Concepts and Control and Co-Editor of The Move to Community Policing: Making Change Happen, and has written and published extensively on women as offenders, police, and crime victims. Additional publications focus on assessment and implementation of criminal justice policy and juvenile delinquency programming and causation.
Content
Preface
1. Key Questions About Gender, Crime and Justice
Criteria used to select the theories that will be described
Postmodern themes
Brief overview
Key terms
Early theoretical work
Injustices in Prior Policies and Practices
Advances in Theory
Ways of Knowing about gender, crime and justice
Ways of Thinking about Gender, Crime, and Justice
Organization of the chapters
Key Terms
Review and Discussion
2. Gender and the Law
Introduction
Laws against gender-relate victimization
Laws related to reproduction and child protection
Laws against prostitution
Pornography and the law
International law
Law prohibiting consensual sexual activity between same sex adults
Limits of the law
Conclusion
Key Terms
Review and Discussion
Websites to Explore
3. Gender-Related Victimization
Description of gender-related victimization
Fear and Everyday Violence
Naming forms of gender-related victimization
Denial of victimization
Explaining gender-related victimization
Immigration through marriage: The confluence of structural inequality, culture, and gender stereotypes
Victimized offenders
Effects of gender- and sexual orientation-related victimization
Conclusion
Key Terms
Review and Discussion
Websites to Explore
4. Social Movements and the Response to Victims of Gender-Related Crime
Activists and social movements
The Feminist Movement
Movement activities aimed at diverse populations
International priorities
Backlash
Conclusion
Key Terms
Review and Discussion
Websites to explore
5. The Influence of Context and Individual Differences on Responses to Gender - Related Victimization
Community characteristics and response to victims
Organizational context and response to victims
Individual-level influences on responses to victims
Recasting victims as offenders
Transforming the victim through court talk
The media
Victims exercising agency
Constraints on agency
Decisions about victims of gender-related crimes
Too much criminal justice system?
Conclusion
Key Terms
Review and Discussion
Websites to explore
6. Explanations of Illegal Behavior
Gender differences in amount and type of illegal behavior
Economic marginalization
Public policy and involvement in crime
Questions answered by macro-level explanations
The life course and pathways perspectives
Gender identity and crime
Biological explanations for females' and males' illegal behavior
Offenders exercising agency in choosing to break the law
Conclusion
Key Terms
Review and Discussion
Websites to explore
7. Gender and Response to Lawbreakers
Introduction
Macro-level influences on responses to lawbreakers
Organizational context and response to people who break the law
Correctional and punitive responses
Individual Level Explanations of Responses to Offenders
Offenders' exercising agency: personal resources and decisions
Conclusion
Key Terms
Review and Discussion
Websites to explore
8. Advances and Challenges in Understanding Gender, Crime, and Justice
Overview of advances
Global perspective and globalization
The relevance of context
Intersections
Agency and empowerment
Complex theories
Transgressing academic fields and theories within fields
Gender and sexual orientation
Research approaches
Final comments on justice
Public policy, legislation, and change
Conclusion
Key Terms
Review and Discussion
Websites to Explore
Definitions
References
1. Key Questions About Gender, Crime and Justice
Criteria used to select the theories that will be described
Postmodern themes
Brief overview
Key terms
Early theoretical work
Injustices in Prior Policies and Practices
Advances in Theory
Ways of Knowing about gender, crime and justice
Ways of Thinking about Gender, Crime, and Justice
Organization of the chapters
Key Terms
Review and Discussion
2. Gender and the Law
Introduction
Laws against gender-relate victimization
Laws related to reproduction and child protection
Laws against prostitution
Pornography and the law
International law
Law prohibiting consensual sexual activity between same sex adults
Limits of the law
Conclusion
Key Terms
Review and Discussion
Websites to Explore
3. Gender-Related Victimization
Description of gender-related victimization
Fear and Everyday Violence
Naming forms of gender-related victimization
Denial of victimization
Explaining gender-related victimization
Immigration through marriage: The confluence of structural inequality, culture, and gender stereotypes
Victimized offenders
Effects of gender- and sexual orientation-related victimization
Conclusion
Key Terms
Review and Discussion
Websites to Explore
4. Social Movements and the Response to Victims of Gender-Related Crime
Activists and social movements
The Feminist Movement
Movement activities aimed at diverse populations
International priorities
Backlash
Conclusion
Key Terms
Review and Discussion
Websites to explore
5. The Influence of Context and Individual Differences on Responses to Gender - Related Victimization
Community characteristics and response to victims
Organizational context and response to victims
Individual-level influences on responses to victims
Recasting victims as offenders
Transforming the victim through court talk
The media
Victims exercising agency
Constraints on agency
Decisions about victims of gender-related crimes
Too much criminal justice system?
Conclusion
Key Terms
Review and Discussion
Websites to explore
6. Explanations of Illegal Behavior
Gender differences in amount and type of illegal behavior
Economic marginalization
Public policy and involvement in crime
Questions answered by macro-level explanations
The life course and pathways perspectives
Gender identity and crime
Biological explanations for females' and males' illegal behavior
Offenders exercising agency in choosing to break the law
Conclusion
Key Terms
Review and Discussion
Websites to explore
7. Gender and Response to Lawbreakers
Introduction
Macro-level influences on responses to lawbreakers
Organizational context and response to people who break the law
Correctional and punitive responses
Individual Level Explanations of Responses to Offenders
Offenders' exercising agency: personal resources and decisions
Conclusion
Key Terms
Review and Discussion
Websites to explore
8. Advances and Challenges in Understanding Gender, Crime, and Justice
Overview of advances
Global perspective and globalization
The relevance of context
Intersections
Agency and empowerment
Complex theories
Transgressing academic fields and theories within fields
Gender and sexual orientation
Research approaches
Final comments on justice
Public policy, legislation, and change
Conclusion
Key Terms
Review and Discussion
Websites to Explore
Definitions
References