Gender, crime and social control
SOCI8013
Unavailable this year
Lecture venue
Lecture time
Offer semester
Men have been historically the focus of study or the ‘default’ for criminological inquiry. It has only been in the last several decades that women have gained the attention of criminological scholars. This course will examine gender through the experiences and treatment of women in the media, the law, and the criminal justice system. We will explore the construction and treatment of gendered bodies as well as gendered forms of work, institutions and social processes. We will also analyze the gendered dimensions of central criminological processes, such as criminalization, victimization, policing and the criminal justice system.
Identify the key concepts and issues in the relationship between gender and crime.
Describe, explain and differentiate the major criminological theories related to gender and crime.
Assess the strengths and weaknesses of criminological theories in explaining gender.
Assess the differential treatment of men and women in the criminal justice system.
Tasks
Weighting
Class Participation
15%
Group Assessment
20%
Essay
40%
In-class Test
25%
Each week, there will typically be two required readings that students must read in preparation (e.g. two journal articles). The required readings for this course are principally drawn from a range of journal articles and book chapters listed below. PDFs of all required readings will be available online for students, students are not required to purchase any reading materials for this course.
Crenshaw, K. (1991). Mapping the margins: Intersectionality, identity, politics, and violence against women of color. Stanford Law Review, 43(6), 1241–1299.
Potter, H. (2013). Intersectional criminology: Interrogating identity and power in criminological research and theory. Critical Criminology, 21(3), 305-318.
Belknap, J. (2007). Chapter 2: Critiquing criminological theories. In The invisible woman: Gender, crime and justice. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
Daly, K. (1997). Different ways of conceptualizing sex/gender in feminist theory and their implications for criminology. Theoretical Criminology, 1(1), 25-51.
Cheng, S. (2011). The paradox of vernacularization: Women’s human rights and the gendering of nationhood. Anthropological Quarterly, 84(2), 475-505.
Lee, M. (2014). Gendered discipline and protective custody of trafficking victims in Asia. Punishment & Society, 16(2), 206-222.
Creek, S. J., & Dunn, J. L. (2011). Rethinking gender and violence: Agency, heterogeneity, and intersectionality. Sociology Compass, 5(5), 311-322.
Sokoloff, N.J. & Dupont, I. (2005). Domestic violence at the intersections of race, class, and gender: Challenges and contributions to understanding violence against marginalized women in diverse communities. Violence Against Women, 11(1), 38-64.
Hoang, K. K. (2014). Flirting with capital: Negotiating perceptions of pan-Asian ascendency and Western decline in global sex work. Social Problems, 61(4), 507-529.
Kong, T. S. K. (2006). What it feels like for a whore: The body politics of women performing erotic labour in Hong Kong. Gender, Work & Organization, 13(5), 409-434.
Bosworth, M. & Slade, G. (2014). In search of recognition: Gender and staff-detainee relations in a British immigration removal centre. Punishment & Society, 16(2), 169-186.
Gray, P. (2006). Women’s experiences of incarceration in Hong Kong: Doing time, doing choice, doing class-gender-culture. International Journal of the Sociology of Law, 34, 89-104.
Pollack, S. (2007). “I’m just not good in relationships”: Victimization discourses and the gendered regulation of criminalized women. Feminist Criminology, 2(2), 158-174.
Kaufman, E. (2014). Gender at the border: Nationalism and the new logic of punishment. Punishment & Society, 16(2), 135-151.
Pickering, S., & Ham, J. (2014). Hot pants at the border: Sorting sex work from trafficking. British Journal of Criminology, 54(1), 2-19.
Piper, N. (2003). Feminization of labor migration as violence against women: International, regional, and local nongovernmental organization responses in Asia. Violence Against Women, 9(6), 723-745.
Gengler, A.M. (2011). Mothering under others’ gaze: Policing motherhood in a battered women’s shelter. International Journal of Sociology of the Family, 37(1), 131-152.
Park, L.S-H. (2011). Criminalizing immigrant mothers: Public charge, health care, and welfare reform. International Journal of Sociology of the Family, 37(1), 27-47.
Anonymous. (2008). Stolen sisters: A human rights response to discrimination and violence against indigenous women in Canada. Canadian Woman Studies, 26(3/4), 105-121.
Lee-Koo, K. (2011). Gender-based violence against civilian women in postinvasion Iraq: (Re)politicizing George W. Bush’s silent legacy. Violence Against Women, 17(12), 1619-1634.
Carrington, K., McIntosh, A. & Scott, J. (2010). Globalization, frontier masculinities and violence. British Journal of Criminology, 50, 393-413.
Connell, R.W. & Messerschmidt, J.W. (2005). Hegemonic masculinity: Rethinking the concept. Gender & Society, 19(6), 829-859.
Huey, L. & Berndt, E. (2008). ‘You’ve gotta learn how to play the game’: Homeless women’s use of gender performance as a tool for preventing victimization. The Sociological Review, 56(2), 177-194.
