This Article is written by Tamanna Pasi of School Of Law, Mody University, Intern under Legal Vidhiya
INTRODUCTION
Does the phrase “gender justice” ever interest you? Since ancient times, people have protested for equal rights all around the world. Equal rights apply to males and women, blacks, and whites, the wealthy and the poor. The issue that is frequently considered as posing a serious threat to society is female criminality. Both criminal activity and its perpetrators have gotten an enormous amount of attention in today’s culture. Criminal activity is increasing with time. Crime has always been considered an overwhelmingly male-dominated activity in India. Recently, this idea of male-centric behaviour has been debunked. Men and individuals commit crimes as a result of tensions, rage, jealousy, antagonism, and hatred. They are involved in many horrific crimes. This change is mostly the outcome of changing social standards and norms, which make people and communities more complicated.
Due to its negative repercussions on the family, the raising of children, and society at large, women’s crime is a serious societal issue that has the potential to turn into a huge tragedy. Women’s criminal behaviour has long been a neglected subject of study. The woman has historically been the cornerstone of the family and society. Since the dawn of civilization, women have been revered as the keepers of morality, family peace, and cultural standards and traditions.
In every religion, women have been elevated to a position of respect. Woman who has long been seen as the foundation of every family and spiritual faith without the aid of whom the process of conveying new life into humanity cannot be completed, had gone astray and entered the crime scene. Women conduct a variety of crimes, including dacoit, robbery, theft, abduction, kidnapping, pickpocketing, chains or watch snatching, fraud, forgery, and drug trafficking. Women who perpetrate these crimes are more likely to abuse the legal provisions meant to shield them.
MEANING AND SCOPE
The term “Feminist Criminology” refers to a broad and deep theoretical framework as well as the techniques that form the gender experiences at the core of the study of criminology and criminal activity. Additionally, a wide range of topics are covered, including female offenders, female victims, how female offenders respond, and the unique needs of female convicts.
Feminist criminology confronts the flaws in the legal system that prevent it from taking into account the significant differences between the ways that men and women commit crimes, the types of crimes they commit, the victims they inflict upon, and the punishments they receive. The study’s foundations are male crime and how the legal system handles male criminals. Researchers and students of criminology claim that historically, it has been thought that when investigating a general crime, it ought to focus on male crime and that an offence perpetrated by a woman would be somewhat of an exception. Here’s how the branch of feminist criminology emerged and gained significance.
NEED FOR THE DEVELOPMENT IN THE FIELD
Studies in criminology and related fields have mostly disregarded women. The creation, building, and transmission of criminological knowledge have all been dominated by males. Saying that women are not the sole individuals to be overlooked is hardly a gratifying or logically sound response, and the lack of inclusion of females in the analysis raises several important issues regarding the suitability of the analyses that need to be addressed.
Additionally, if criminologists discuss women as offenders, they do it in a highly stereotyped manner and believe that women offenders are odd. To put it another way, they have typically been portrayed according to their biological make-up and psychological condition. In order to recreate the frameworks for criminologies that are now in place, we must pay particular attention to the widespread female enterprise.
BACKGROUND OF FEMINIST CRIMINOLOGY
Although female criminality is not new, sociologists just started to pay attention to it in the late 1950s. The names Swarpanakha from the Ramayana, who pushed the country to the verge of war because her passion was not satiated by Ram and Laxman, and Putna from the Mahabharata, who used to give children poison by feeding them, are still in common usage today[1]. Women’s criminal behaviour has only recently attracted significant attention due to the rise in their involvement in criminal activity.
For a very long time, research on women’s crime has been ignored. Criminology has historically been a male-dominated field, with male researchers focusing mostly on male offenders. Men vastly outnumber women among those who report and interpret these occurrences for us in the media, we are told.
Women inmates have received less care, maybe as a result of their low population, non-dominant stance, and the seeming rarity of excessive harshness by their keepers. Women have recently started taking part in a variety of social activities, including academic, scientific, cultural, and other productive as well as non-productive pursuits. One of the possible contributing elements to the rise in women’s crime rates is the increasing engagement of women in these particular sectors.
THEORIES RELATING TO FEMINIST CRIMINOLOGY
- Liberal Feminist Theory
The central claim of liberal feminism is that women experience discrimination and unfair treatment based on their gender. And the motive behind this may be to prevent women from having access to possibilities that are equivalent to those offered to men in all spheres of life, including politics, careers, and personal opportunities.
The following issue that has to be discussed is: “What can be done to address this issue of gender inequality?” The solution, that is the “rapid incorporation” of females into a male-dominated environment, is generally unarguable and perfectly logical. Giving women equal opportunity and assisting them in assuming positions of influence over national policy entails doing this.
The Liberal Feminist Theory also bases itself on the idea that as women get greater freedom, we may see them participating in crimes similar to those perpetrated by males. However, it is now lacking some first-hand evidence. It is clear that women are only involved in minor offences at this point, such as shoplifting and minor fraud, and this is due to poverty on an ever-increasing scale.
Additionally, the frequency of these offences is far lower than the frequency of crimes perpetrated by men. People who seek to question the dominant patriarchal worldview of gender roles are viewed as “unruly” women who need to be disciplined.
- Radical Feminist Theory
For the first time, this theory criticised the claims made by “Liberal Feminist Theory” by characterising it as overly simple. Additionally, it has shaped feminists’ viewpoints on matters including the mistreatment of women. According to these feminists, one of the main factors contributing to gender inequality, poor social relations, and crime is male authority and the advantages that have been accorded to them.
Perhaps the most significant social structure that can be identified in society is patriarchy, which is manifested in how males dominate women’s sexuality and the workforce. All other ties (like class, for example), which derive from male-female relations in society, are subordinate to this main relationship.
Radical feminism claims that the following factors are the key contributors to gender disparity and male dominance:
- The unfulfilled desire of men to dominate a woman’s sexuality.
- Patriarchy.
- The unfair depiction of women and the privilege of males in positions of power.
It mostly focuses on how women are mistreated and how they survive male aggression. Because they want to have power over them and their potential, males often victimise women physically, sexually, and even psychologically.
The primary goal of feminism, regardless of its philosophy or ideology, is to attract women into society and social relationships rather than to exclude males. All forms of gender discrimination will eventually be successfully eliminated as a result of this.
- Marxist Feminist Theory
According to proponents of the ‘Marxist’ feminist theory, the economic structure of society is the primary factor that determines how people interact with one another. It supports the liberal feminist idea, which contends that women don’t have enough opportunities to engage in society since they live in a world dominated by males. The fundamental determinant of gender disparity and division in society is the form of an economy.
The accumulation of exploitative production methods in class societies is what is causing gender inequalities and sexual violence to worsen.
CONSEQUENCES OF THE FEMINIST CRIMINOLOGY
- Neglecting female offenders: The earlier criminologies failed to take into account the possibility of both male and female offenders. There has long been a presumption that if we discuss “offenders,” they will always be men. Additionally, the discussion of female criminals enhanced any individual or biological issue. They were described using biological principles.
- Another important effect of feminist literature is to draw attention to how women are treated in the nation’s criminal justice system. By addressing the historical idea that women benefited from chivalry within a society dominated by men and so had more lenient punishments, it has helped to change the outmoded and nebulous premise of “common sense.”
- The rise of feminist ideology has brought attention to previously unnoticed issues, such as domestic abuse and female sexual assault. Female literature has aided in defending women and girls against male aggression and presented issues of whether the victims or survivors may be assisted.
- Focus has been placed on how strongly gendered criminal activity is, which has led to concerns like, “Why do female offenders commit so few offences while male offenders commit so many?” These comparatively low crime rates have been linked to femininity, with men being seen as the most probable offenders.
WHETHER IT IS RIGHTEOUS TO GIVE A FEMINIST PERSPECTIVE TO CRIME?
Every hypothesis has flaws and may be criticised in some way. Feminist criminology is in no way different. It’s crucial for us to understand some of the things that feminist ideas don’t include. Which are:
- Women commit crimes that are ‘underclass’ crimes and indicate ‘class conflict’.
- Most women who are incarcerated struggle with poverty.
It is frequently asserted that feminist criminology is gender-centric and that separatists have a hidden agenda as a result. Classifying crime based on gender leads to creating a gap between the two sexes. This discrimination is in no way appropriate because for a crime to be committed, it is the two elements, i.e., the actus reus and mens rea that must be proven and the guilty mind cannot be differentiated because of gender.
It is significant to point out here that if a woman can enjoy the privileges given to her by law, she must also be held equally liable for any wrongful act done by her.
THE FACETS UNEXPLORED
A highly effective method to understanding women’s pathways to crime might be to build concepts about women’s social and structural roles in society as well as women’s lifestyles. Some feminist theories grant gender more privileges than race when discussing crime and justice. The difficulty is in effectively addressing this and recognising how it also distorts our perception of the core problems. It is frequently claimed that using a “gendered lens” can enable us to understand the characteristics of crime-related issues more clearly. But one thing that frequently goes unnoticed is that gender frequently distorts the clarity that has been said to be made brighter by it.
Do we truly require to pursue issues like those under the umbrella of “feminism,” is another argument worth making. Is it not possible to create a new humanist criminology that is more gender-sensitive, anti-discriminatory, and reflexive? It is debatable in and of itself.
CONCLUSION
Feminist criminology has changed and developed significantly throughout time. However, despite the fact that feminist scholarship has been published, it can be seen and inferred that it still suffers from numerous forms of marginalisation. Even mainstream publications only publish a small amount of feminist study, and textbooks are no different—they pay very little consideration to the tenets of feminist criminology and their applicability. Therefore, it is the need of the hour to bring into consideration the facet of feminist criminology in order to avoid disparity and injustice.
[1] https://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/54471/6/06_chapter%201.pdf .
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