Feminist Criminology: Gain, Loss and Backlash

In: Sociology compass, Band 2, Heft 1, S. 48-61

Abstract

AbstractSurviving the inevitable process of innovation, critique and response that accompanies conceptual invention, feminist criminology is now a rich and diverse field of scholarship and political activism. This article follows the main threads of feminist criminological thought (empirical, standpoint and post‐modern), outlining the tensions and connections between each. I then consider the political ground gained and lost by feminist criminologists, paying careful attention to the ways in which feminist ideas have been co‐opted by governing authorities and also considering the current climate of backlash against feminist ideas in both criminal justice policy and the academy.