Female Crime: The Construction of Women in Criminology

"Female Crime" surveys the major schools of criminology in order to explore the images of the female offender which underpin contemporary crime theories. It reveals the ways in which male-centred norms dominate much current analysis, and how crude stereotypes of women are a common attribute of the armoury of criminological research. Although feminists are directing increasing attention to criminology, this is the first attempt to deploy feminist analyses developed within other disciplines to examine critically the range of modern criminological theories on women. Its findings demonstrate the importance of a programme to create a new feminist criminology which recognises the female offender as a reasoning, purposeful subject.