Fat Criminology: Challenges in Conceptualizing and Measuring Body Size

• In Event: Lightning Talk: New Directions in Health Criminology

Abstract

Criminology has largely overlooked body size as a factor in criminalization, victimization, and punishment within the criminal legal system (CLS). Fat Criminology seeks to address this gap by examining how stigmatization and bias against body size—particularly fat bodies—shape outcomes for those navigating or working within the CLS. However, studying body size in criminology presents both methodological and conceptual challenges. Many studies rely on crude metrics like Body Mass Index (BMI) or fail to account for body size altogether. Beyond measurement challenges, conceptualizing fatness itself raises critical questions: Is body size a static characteristic, a socially constructed identity, or a shifting category shaped by medical, cultural, and legal definitions? This lightning talk explores how these measurement and conceptual challenges shape Fat Criminology research and underscores the need for more precise and inclusive approaches to defining and measuring body size in criminology and criminal justice studies.

Author

• Kelsey L. Kramer, Bates College