Criminological futures and gendered violence(s): Lessons from the global pandemic for criminology

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to foreground the gendered crime consequences of the global pandemic and to raise questions emanating from them for the future(s) of criminology. The paper reviews some of the criminological response to the pandemic offered during 2020. The global pandemic was constituted by some as providing the opportunity for a natural experiment in which criminological theories and concepts could be tested in real time and by others as an opportunity to further raise the profile of crimes more hidden from view, particularly domestic abuse. For the former, domestic abuse is constituted as an exception to what might be learned from this experimental moment. For the latter, gendered violence(s) are central to making sense of this moment as ongoing, mundane and ordinary features of (women’s) everyday lives. This paper makes the case that the evidence relating to the gendered consequences of Covid-19, renders it no longer possible for the discipline to regard feminist informed work (largely found within the latter view above) as the stranger, outside of, or an exception to, the discipline’s central concerns. It is suggested that the future(s) of criminology lie in rendering that stranger’s voice, focusing as it does on the continuities of men’s gendered violence(s) in all spheres of life, as the discipline’s central problematic.

How the COVID-19 pandemic hit crime in Barcelona: Analysis of variation in crime trends

“…The socioeconomic and health effects of the COVID-19 pandemic may increase long-term offending and victimization in the most vulnerable due to existing disparities related to the rise of inequality, individual and community poverty, low income and unemployment levels, economic stress, and weakened health systems (Pratt & Cullen, 2005; Richmond-Rakerd et al, 2020; Sayed & Peng, 2021). Furthermore, mainstream research on crime and violence needs to focus on structural variables (e.g., culture, race, gender, class, or minority identities) to better examine, deconstruct, and understand these phenomena, their implications, and the related nuances (Walklate, 2021).…”

“…The consequences of the pandemic provide an opportunity to reflect, transform, test, and advance criminological knowledge. Indeed, it can be seen as an externality, offering a natural social experiment, or also as an internality in terms of a chance to make visible the critical and alternative approaches beyond the dominant basis, assumptions, and epistemologies (Walklate, 2021). Criminology literature suggests various pathways whereby social and movement restrictions and policies related to shock events or emergencies can lead to a decrease in certain crimes and an increase in others, resulting in a temporary change to the crime landscape in urban areas.…”

Tick, Tock, Boom!

“…These are significant critical points, further reinforced by the 'shadow pandemic' of violence against women and girls that accompanied the global spread of Covid-19. Addressing this issue more directly, Walklate (2021) has recently argued that when confronted with the gendered nature of crime during the pandemic criminology can no longer regard feminism as a 'stranger' nor ignore the significance of gender as a structuring variable in crime.…”

A toxic mix: the impact of COVID-19 lockdown measures on the post-separation experiences of domestic abuse survivors

“…Varied official definitions of domestic abuse, pre-existing trends in data, heightened publicity during the crisis, and well documented challenges in reporting even in non-pandemic conditions, however, mean that drawing conclusions from this data is problematic. Indeed, a wealth of feminist scholarship has consistently pointed to the shortcomings of administrative data sources on domestic abuse (Walklate, 2021).…”