The Gendered Symbolic Violence of Criminological Theory and its Impact on the Woman Carceral Citizen Student.

• In Event: Convict Criminology Panel #7: Feminist Perspectives in Convict Criminology

Abstract

Navigating the truth claims of a malestream pathologizing criminology as a directly impacted woman in higher education can be alienating. The symbolically violent criminal legal theories that implicitly portray carceral citizens as inferior and the erasure of diverse perspectives that reflect women’s experiences can be compoundingly harmful to vulnerable women in educational settings. This is a working case narrative paper for submission to the forthcoming book “Intersectional Convict Criminology” and is an expression of solidarity with formerly incarcerated women students betrayed by criminal legal theory as well as a call to faculty to adopt intersectional and feminist perspectives in their curriculum.

Author

• Denise Ruth Woodall, University of North Georgia