Gender, Race, and Criminology: An Assessment

• In Event: Theoretical Criminology Panel: Is Criminology Still Male-Dominated?

Abstract

Classic criminological theorizing about delinquency and crime was actually theorizing about male delinquency and crime, although the myopic theoretical and research focus on boys and men was largely seen as unproblematic or even easily defensible. The great strengths of this theoretical legacy were a focus on the role played by inequality, poverty, and subculture in the generation of crime and delinquency. That said, the criminogenic aspects of other forms of oppression and inequality were largely ignored or trivialized (particularly in the case of gender and race). The founders of criminology almost completely overlooked women’s crime, and they ignored, minimized, and trivialized female victimization. In addition, in their eagerness to dismiss the role of ethnicity in crime causation, they conflated ethnicity and race, and ignored the historical legacy of slavery. At this point, it would be productive to review if the field of criminology, writ large, is doing a better job of exploring how class, race and gender are involved in the causes of crime as well as the degree to which the criminal justice system is implicated in the enforcement of male dominance and racial privilege.

Author

• Meda Chesney-Lind, University of Hawaii