Gender, crime, and criminal justice

A decade ago, the standard opening paragraph of a review chapter such as this would deplore the paucity of criminologica l research on females and the sexism inherent in theoretical accounts of female crime (and conformity). Owing primarily to the work of feminist criminologists, the field has happily moved beyond such obvious deficiencies. In this chapter, we review the criminological and criminal justice literature that examines the gendered organization of crime and social control. To do so, we briefly discuss the origins of the feminist critique in criminology and review patterns of criminal offending and justice interventions by gender. Specific issues that have arisen within feminist crimi­ nology (e.g., the implications of equal treatment for male and female offenders) are used to highlight more recent theoretical and empirical developments in the field. Relative to other social science disciplines, criminology was a latecomer to feminist concerns. Second wave feminism was well-established when select criminologists noted the absence of females from major theories of criminal offending and/or the sexist treat­ ment of females within theories in which they were not ignored (Harris, 1977; Heidensohn, 1968; Klein, 1973; Leonard, 1982; Rasche, 1974). The work of two female criminolo­ gists—Rita Simon (1975) and Freda Adler (1975)—sparked mainstream criminology's