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Understanding Gender, Crime, and Justice
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Understanding Gender, Crime, and Justice



September 2005 | 328 pages | SAGE Publications, Inc
Why are there pronounced gender differences in rates of criminal victimization? Does gender influence the response of the criminal justice system and other parts of the community to offenders and to crime victims? What part does gender play in the etiology of illegal activities committed by both males and females? Understanding Gender, Crime, and Justice takes a contemporary look at such questions and considers areas that are often neglected in other books on gender, crime, and justice.

In the last three decades, there has been an explosion of theory and related research relevant to gender, crime, and justice. Author Merry Morash, a well-known feminist scholar in the field of criminal justice, acquaints readers with key breakthroughs in criminological conceptualization and theories to explain the interplay between gender and both crime and justice. Understanding Gender, Crime, and Justice pays especial attention to race, ethnicity, and immigrant groups, and provides a unique comparative perspective.

Key Features

Includes first-person accounts from crime victims, workers in the justice system, male lawbreakers, and women engaged in prostitution to give insight into a diversity of experiences and standpoints

Parallels the effects of gender and sexual orientation in laws, in patterns and causes of victimization, and in the responses of the justice system to both victims and offenders

Integrates international examples to place U.S. experiences in a comparative perspective and to show gender inequities on a worldwide scale

Provides numerous photos—unique for a text of this type—to portray people of all sorts in various regions of the world

Includes Web site recommendations for further exploration of chapter topics

Understanding Gender, Crime, and Justice is an ideal textbook for undergraduate and graduate courses that focus on women and criminal justice. The book is also a valuable asset for gender courses in sociology and for women's studies programs.

Preface

 
 
1. Key Questions About Gender, Crime and Justice
Criteria used to select the theories that will be described

 
Postmodern themes

 
Brief overview

 
Key terms

 
Early theoretical work

 
Injustices in Prior Policies and Practices

 
Advances in Theory

 
Ways of Knowing about gender, crime and justice

 
Ways of Thinking about Gender, Crime, and Justice

 
Organization of the chapters

 
Key Terms

 
Review and Discussion

 
 
2. Gender and the Law
Introduction

 
Laws against gender-relate victimization

 
Laws related to reproduction and child protection

 
Laws against prostitution

 
Pornography and the law

 
International law

 
Law prohibiting consensual sexual activity between same sex adults

 
Limits of the law

 
Conclusion

 
Key Terms

 
Review and Discussion

 
Websites to Explore

 
 
3. Gender-Related Victimization
Description of gender-related victimization

 
Fear and Everyday Violence

 
Naming forms of gender-related victimization

 
Denial of victimization

 
Explaining gender-related victimization

 
Immigration through marriage: The confluence of structural inequality, culture, and gender stereotypes

 
Victimized offenders

 
Effects of gender- and sexual orientation-related victimization

 
Conclusion

 
Key Terms

 
Review and Discussion

 
Websites to Explore

 
 
4. Social Movements and the Response to Victims of Gender-Related Crime
Activists and social movements

 
The Feminist Movement

 
Movement activities aimed at diverse populations

 
International priorities

 
Backlash

 
Conclusion

 
Key Terms

 
Review and Discussion

 
Websites to explore

 
 
5. The Influence of Context and Individual Differences on Responses to Gender - Related Victimization
Community characteristics and response to victims

 
Organizational context and response to victims

 
Individual-level influences on responses to victims

 
Recasting victims as offenders

 
Transforming the victim through court talk

 
The media

 
Victims exercising agency

 
Constraints on agency

 
Decisions about victims of gender-related crimes

 
Too much criminal justice system?

 
Conclusion

 
Key Terms

 
Review and Discussion

 
Websites to explore

 
 
6. Explanations of Illegal Behavior
Gender differences in amount and type of illegal behavior

 
Economic marginalization

 
Public policy and involvement in crime

 
Questions answered by macro-level explanations

 
The life course and pathways perspectives

 
Gender identity and crime

 
Biological explanations for females' and males' illegal behavior

 
Offenders exercising agency in choosing to break the law

 
Conclusion

 
Key Terms

 
Review and Discussion

 
Websites to explore

 
 
7. Gender and Response to Lawbreakers
Introduction

 
Macro-level influences on responses to lawbreakers

 
Organizational context and response to people who break the law

 
Correctional and punitive responses

 
Individual Level Explanations of Responses to Offenders

 
Offenders' exercising agency: personal resources and decisions

 
Conclusion

 
Key Terms

 
Review and Discussion

 
Websites to explore

 
 
8. Advances and Challenges in Understanding Gender, Crime, and Justice
Overview of advances

 
Global perspective and globalization

 
The relevance of context

 
Intersections

 
Agency and empowerment

 
Complex theories

 
Transgressing academic fields and theories within fields

 
Gender and sexual orientation

 
Research approaches

 
Final comments on justice

 
Public policy, legislation, and change

 
Conclusion

 
Key Terms

 
Review and Discussion

 
Websites to Explore

 
 
Definitions
 
References

For instructors

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ISBN: 9780761926306
£103.00

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