Women, Crime and Criminal Justice

Studies of crime in criminology have traditionally been concerned with the activities and interests of men, while women have either not been considered at all or have been discussed only in stereotypical ways. Women, Crime and Criminal Justice demonstrates the limitations of such an approach. This comprehensive and incisive text examines all aspects of women in crime, reappraising conventional accounts of women's criminality and the validity of mainstream criminological theories for women. The author argues that stereotypical images of women have been used to explain both women's lack of criminal behaviour and the nature and extent of their criminality. They are also employed to account for both responses to female offenders and female victims in the criminal justice system and the kind of work thought appropriate for women there. Allison Morris critically examines the way in which these attitudes and conceptions of women's social roles affect their position within the criminal justice system, and highlights the special problems women experience there. Focusing on women as defendants and prisoners, as victims and criminal justice professionals, Dr Morris shows that an understanding of women's crime is of fundamental significance of criminology. This book will be an important addition to the literature on crime, as both a correction of and a complement to the criminology of men.