Feminist Criminology: Contributions, Challenges, and Future Trends

• In Event: Celebrating Ten Years of Feminist Criminology: Looking Back and Looking Ahead at Feminist Criminological Scholarship (Organized by Division of Women on Crime)

Abstract

This presentation considers the vital importance of the field of feminist criminology to mainstream criminology. It will review core concepts of feminist work as well as emerging themes in the field. Relying on work that has appeared in the field’s key journal, Feminist Criminology, the salience of ideas such as patriarchy, intersectionality, masculinity, gendered social control, and violence against women are considered. We reflect on both the centrality of these notions in feminist criminology and their relative absence from the dominant discourse in the most highly cited journals in the field. Forces within the field obstructing or stifling feminist work are also reviewed. This presentation ends with a discussion of evolving trends and potential promise for our field.

Authors

• Meda Chesney-Lind, University of Hawaii

• Nicholas J. Chagnon, University of Hawaii Manoa